The Offspring - An MTV Online Feature

Sure, things are good for the Offspring now, but two years ago, life wasn't quite as rosy. The band was trying to follow up the breakthrough success of 1994's "Smash," but 1997's "Ixnay on the Hombre" generated little in the way of heat, and faded quickly.

Yeah, life is pretty good for the Offspring these days. So, when we caught up with the band recently, spirits were soaring and smiles abounded. Frontman Dexter Holland and guitarist Noodles chatted about the themes in "Americana," the origins of their hits, and life on the road. Oh yeah... they also explained why men on BMX bikes were jumping cars behind them.

MTV: How did you get involved with the BMX event here today?

DEXTER HOLLAND: Well, we kinda know 'em - they're friends of friends, and they did some stunts for us, for a home video that we did, kind of thing, and they wanted a world record bike jump, and we thought it sounded like a good idea, so we just kind of hooked it up.

MTV: Tell us why you decided to call your record "Americana".

NOODLES: Actually, when we were recording this record, we were really kind of struggling with the title, and we had most of the songs recorded, and we took a look at 'em and what they said lyrically and realized we were kinda painting a picture of American culture that was not... as pretty as most people would like to think, and certainly not as pretty as most people think of when they think of Americana. Americana usually refers to very quaint, kind of glossy images, and what we were doing on this record was pretty opposite of that.

MTV: What was the inspiration behind "Get a Job"?

DEXTER: Um, we knew someone who needed to get a job, so we said, why don't you get a job?

MTV: And he listened?

DEXTER: Nah!

NOODLES: Everybody knows somebody who's involved in a relationship that's, you know, one person's kind of sucking the energy out of it, whether it's financial or otherwise, but still people don't leave, you know? So we thought it would be kind of funny to put it in concrete terms, of one guy kind of living off the other person.

MTV: What's "Pretty Fly" about?

DEXTER: Well, you look around, and it's really not... the plot is about people trying to be something they're not, no matter what it is - if this guy's trying to do hip-hop, or gangster or whatever it is. We thought it'd be kind of funny to write a song about it. It's not really a mean kind of song. It's kind of tounge in cheek.

NOODLES: When people jump into a scene, and they find that it attracts them, but they don't really know anything about it, they kind of jump in head first and try to put on the costume of the scene and it just kind of looks foolish. I think everybody knows somebody that's done that... everybody might even recognize a little bit of that in themselves, if, you know, they look real close.

MTV: How are you coping with life on the road?

DEXTER: Well, a lot of loud noise helps us out, keeps us sane, and you know when you're on tour, people think it's a lot of fun, and it is, for like one hour of the day, and the other 23 hours are, you know, really pretty boring... [turns to Noodles] I don't know - what do you do?

NOODLES: Touring runs the gamut from... first of all it's a lot of waiting, and also kind of having everything brought to you on a plate in the morning and then later in the afternoon just trying to find a comfortable warm place to take a crap.

MTV: How has it been having The Fly Guy perform with you?

DEXTER: He's been on this tour, yeah, he'e been doing pretty good, we tell him from night to night "if you do a really good job you can go on the next night" - it keeps him honest, you know? It's kind of fun - the kids seem to like having him out.

NOODLES: He gets better and better every night - pretty soon he's gonna learn how to do some of these moves - he's gonna get actually good at them, and then it won't be funny anymore! The fans love him - when he comes out, you hear this roar, really loud... it's a lot of fun for us to watch because I mean like half the time we're laughing, you know harder than the people in the audience. And he's a good guy - he's fun.

MTV: Do you have plans for any other special guests?

NOODLES: Just about everybody who works for us, comes on stage every night...

DEXTER: Well, we're in Vegas, so Andrew Dice Clay might come out...

NOODLES: Perry Como!

DEXTER: I think he's dead.

NOODLES: Is he dead?

DEXTER: We'll bring him back.

NOODLES: He'd come for us!

NOODLES: Elvis is dead, and I've seen him like five times today. How come no one says they see Perry Como at Burger King?

DEXTER: I see him sometimes.

From MTV - April 1999