Spooky Times For The Offspring

If you plan on attending any Halloween parties in the next week, watch out for a killer arm. Dexter Holland, singer and guitarist for California punk band The Offspring, got scalped by an arm recently, albeit, on the set of Idle Hands, a comedic horror film, due out next spring.

Directed by Rodman Flender (Party Of Five, The Unborn, Leprechaun II), the movie stars Devon Sawa (Wild America), Seth Green (Austin Powers, Can't Hardly Wait) and Vivica Fox (Soul Food, Batman & Robin, Independence Day). The Offspring has a small but hair-raising (literally) role.

Holland, guitarist Noodles, bassist Greg K. and drummer Ron Welty put their acting skills to test when they appeared as the band hired to play a high school Halloween dance.

"It was a lot of fun," says Noodles of the three-day shoot in Hollywood at Dorsey High. "There's this arm running killing people. We're doing 'Beheaded' and a kid jumps up and stops the whole show, and Dexter says, 'Alright, kid, you've had your say, now it's time to...' and then this hand comes down and rips his scalp off. He screams. He does a really good job actually. But none of us have gone out and gotten agents," he laughs.

Holland received the full horror make-up treatment. "He had chicken parts on his head," says Noodles.

Isn't he used to that? "No, I think that's Ozzy," Noodles quips. "Ozzy's used to that."

Two songs by The Offspring will be heard in the movie. With producer/engineer Jerry Finn, the band recut "Beheaded", from its self-titled debut, and recorded a version of The Ramones "I Wanna Be Sedated".

"They wanted us to do (Van Halen's) 'Running With The Devil' but we couldn't make it work as an Offspring song," says Noodles.

"There was a lot of discussion. We wanted to do more obscure stuff and they wanted us to do something well known, so we compromised and ended up with 'I Wanna Be Sedated.' We suggested doing 'Beheaded'. I don't think they cared what the other song was. They just wanted one song that was recognizable."

The Offspring's forthcoming album, Americana, produced by Dave Jerden, who worked on the band's multi-platinum Ixnay On The Hombre, will hit stores Nov. 17. The first single, the awesome "Pretty Fly For A White Guy", is already rising up the charts.

October 26, 1998