The Offspring

The Offspring was founded by Dexter Holland and Gregory Kriesel (a.k.a. Greg K). Dexter tells the story in an interview with Bravo magazine: "Sometime in the fall of 1984 Greg and I really wanted to get to a punk show, but we couldn't get tickets. We were very disappointed and went to Greg's cousin's house, 'cause Greg's cousin had a band. We went down to the garage, set the amps on max, and started screwing around with the guitars. We 'played' for two hours, and felt much better afterward. The 'Manic Subsidal' was born. We didn't even know any guitar chords, we learned gradually."

In an interview with Flux magazine from 1994, Dexter explains that The Offspring was initially a hobby, "Originally, this band was a side project, something that was fun to do - but it's turned into more than that," he recalls. "If we had wanted to make it, we would have done something more mainstream in the first place. We did this because we were friends and we would be at each other's houses on the weekend, drinking beer or something - it was just a fun thing to do."

After 10 years as a punk band, none of The Offspring expected the mainstream success their third album, Smash, would bring. As guitarist Noodles (real name Kevin Wasserman) recalled to VH1, "No way did we expect to ever sell a butt load of records. When we were making Smash, we were a punk band signed to a punk label [Epitaph]. We were judging against other bands that were signed to the same label, bands like NOFX and Pennywise. When Smash took off, it was almost frightening. That doesn't happen to bands like us, four guys who are just music fans and like to drink beer at the bass player's mom's house." Frontman Dexter expressed his reaction in an interview with Splinter magazine, "We were a band for 10 years before Smash came out. We played all the little places – it was the furthest thing from our minds. We were opening for NOFX – that was as big as it got, so the success was a nice added bonus."