The Offspring are a Punk Rock Band that come from Orange County in Southern California.

Click on the Band members head or on the name beside the image for a little about that person

Dexter Holland - Vocals and Guitar

Greg K - Bass

Noodles - Guitar and Backing Vocals

Ron Welty - Drums

Bryan "Dexter" Holland was the third of four children born to a hospital administator father and a schoolteacher mother, he hoped to be a doctor. He was on the cross-country team. He also happened to be class valedictorian (thus his nickname, Dexter).

Holland's cross-country teammate Greg Kriesel was also a punk. His investment-banker father saw law school in his son's future. And for most of high school, Kriesel was a sports fan and self-proclaimed jock (he also played baseball). The first punk records he ever heard were the ones Holland played for him.

Holland and Krisel formed their first band, Manic Subsidal, later to become The Offspring, with two other cross-country teammates one night in 1984 after failing to get in a Social Distortion show. At the time, the two didn't even own instruments, much less know how to play them. Dexter and Greg both learned to play guitar together. It wasn't long before they were both playing actual songs. Kriesel's house was the site of the band's first gigs. Weekends were the only time the band could rehearse as they were all starting College.

Once Holland had written a handful of songs with self-explanitory titles like "Very Sarcastic" and "Sorority Bitch," the fledgling band headed for a cheap studio. the band recruited Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman, an older Pacifica grad who then worked as the school janitor. Pretty soon, Wasserman was not doing a hell of a lot except practicing at Greg's house on weekends and drinking excessively. Being the only member of the band over 21, Wasserman was particularly useful when it came to buying beer.

Ron Welty moved to Garden Grove for part of high school, and it was there that his older stepsister introduced him to Holland. Welt was only 16 when he begged Holland to let him substitute for Manic Subsidal's drummer who had started medical school and was missing lots of gigs.

In 1987, the Offsping paid to release their own 7-inch single. Unable to afford the additional quarter per copy it cost to paste the front sleves to the backs, the band bought a case of beer and glue sticks and held a party for its friends. "To this day the covers don't hold together too well," says Holland. It took the band two and a half years to get rid of the 1,000 copies it printed.

Two years and a pile of rejections later, the Offspring scored a contract with Nemesis, a small punk label distributed by Cargo. After tracking down producer Thom Wilson, who had crafted their favorite albums by T.S.O.L., the Vandals and the Dead Kennedys, the Offspring recorded another 7-inch single, called Baghdad, and an album debut titled The Offspring.

A year later, when the Offspring began circulating demos for what would become their next album to every punk label they could think of. In 1992 Epitaph released Ignition, 12 brief but energetic Offspring songs that summed up the previous decade of Orange County Punk. Other Epitaph bands include Rancid and NOFX.

In 1994 their breakthough single Come out and Play and top hit Self Esteem helped push thier third album, Smash to the best selling independent record of all time (9 million plus), and heavy MTV rotation. They rereleased their self titled The Offspring album in 1995 with thier own label, Nitro. Nitro has released albums for several other bands, including The Vandals and Guttermouth.

In 1996, the Offspring signed with Columbia records after disputes with Epitaph. Their next album, Ixnay on the Hombre, was released in February 1997.

In October of 1998, the band released their fifth album, Americana, which produced the hits Pretty Fly and Why Don't You Get a Job. The album peaked at number two on the Billboard charts. After much anticipation they also released their first home video, Americana. It includes both old and live footage, silly skits, and extreme sports. They also re-recorded Beheaded and a cover of the Ramones' punk classic, I Wanna Be Sedated, for the horror comedy film Idle Hands, which was released in the spring of 1999. The band also made an appearance in the movie as a band at a high school dance, where Dexter gets killed on stage by an evil hand. They have been on tour since the release of Americana including stops at Rockfest 99, Woodstock 99 and in January 99 in Ireland.