Slim Pickens Does The Right Thing And Rides The Bomb To Hell

American punksters The Offspring close their ninth studio album, Days Go By with this black comedy cut. Vocalist Dexter Holland explained to Spinner that the idea of this song, "is the world's going to hell so let's have a drink and watch it burn."

The song title references the actor Slim Pickens and his role in Dr. Strangelove as the B-52 pilot Major T.J. "King" Kong. The movie's most famous scene has Pickens on top of a dropped H-bomb, waving his cowboy hat as he rides to his certain death. Said guitarist Noodles to Spinner: "The Slim Pickens reference adds a comedic tone to the song. That movie was hilarious, but it was very dark too. That's what this song is. It's a nihilistic thing, but at the same time we're making fun of the nihilists. It's not bad for 2 minutes and 50 seconds."

This follows "Dividing by Zero," and Days Go By's final two tracks intentionally sound like one song. Holland explained to Spinner: "Those were actually the last two we did for this record. We thought it would be cool to put two short songs together almost as if it were a short punk medley that adds up to one five minute song."