The Offspring are one of my favourite bands of all time. Smash was the first CD I bought with my pocket money, back in the early 90s.

At least, they were one of my favourite bands of all time.

The COVID™ era changed all of that. They bought into all of the nonsense. In fact, not only did they buy into it, they actively promoted it.

Now they are establishment hacks and it’s really disappointing.

They fired their drummer

By now, everybody knows that they unceremoniously fired their drummer, Pete Parada, for refusing the jab.

As a reminder, The Offspring is an American rock band that formed in 1984 in California, consisting of frontman Dexter Holland, lead guitarist Kevin ‘Noodles’ Wasserman and bassist Todd Morse.

I say ‘rock band’ because, despite their origins, there is no longer anything ‘punk’ about them.

Come to think of it, there is no longer anything ‘rock’ about them either.

They gained mainstream success in the 90s with their album Smash, which included greats like Come Out and Play (Keep ‘Em Separated) and Self Esteem. It became the best-selling independent album of all time and helped popularise punk rock in the mainstream music scene.

In my opinion, it’s one of the greatest albums of all time and it travelled with me throughout my high school and varsity years.

Here’s Pete drumming in front of a crowd in Arizona:

Firing him was an unbelievably stupid decision by the band.

What happened?

The Offspring, like many other (former) punk rock bands, no longer stick it to the man. Rather, they stick it in their arm (to paraphrase a great cartoon by Bob Moran).

They’ve become American idiots who have opted to rage for the machine.

What happened to them?

I don’t know, but the trend appeared across the entire music industry. Most ‘rebellious’ acts sold their souls to the pharmaceutical industry.

The Defiant

Pete has since formed a new band, The Defiant, consisting of some superb musicians from other bands you might know. See if you can guess who they are.

Here’s a debut single called Everybody Loves Me.

Podcast

Pete chatted about his Offspring career, getting sacked, COVID madness, the spineless music industry and more.

This was a difficult conversation for me after losing so much respect for a band that I once loved. Watching them sell their soul was like being stabbed in the back.

The irony is that Pete’s choice not to get jabbed was more punk rock than the band’s decision to blindly ‘trust the experts’.

Punk rock is not an instrument. Punk rock is an attitude.

Joey Ramone