Keep them separate! 30 Years of the Offspring's 'Smash'

The Offspring's “Come Out and Play” (you know, the “gotta keep em apart” song) was all over MTV in 1994 — with a video that cost a grand total of $5,000. The '90s were full of unlikely breakthrough acts, but the Offspring were one of the few bands of the era to reach the mainstream without even leaving their indie label, Epitaph.

In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Offspring frontman Dexter Holland looks back on his band's hit 1994 album. Breaking, which turns 30 this year. I am going here for your podcast provider of choice, listen Apple Podcasts the Spotify, or just press play below. Here are some highlights from the interview.

Holland wrote most of the songs Breaking in a 1979 Toyota Pickup. Holland was commuting daily at the time for his PhD in biochemistry. program at the University of Southern California, which was discontinued after the band's success — and ended up ending years later. “I had a really old, really beat-up car, and the radio didn't even work,” Holland says. “And so I had an hour to kill twice a day. And I was just thinking about the songs, playing them in my head. You'd just make up tracks in your head and hum them into the tape recorder and figure out how to play it on the guitar later.”

Holland was convinced that the songwriting in most punk rock was simply not good enough. “We loved the energy and the rebelliousness and the attitude and all that,” she says. “But I didn't feel like there were a lot of great songs. Like, there wasn't a lot of catchy stuff. And of course there are exceptions, classic albums like the Sex Pistols and the Clash and others. But I really wanted to try to write good songs.”

The spoken word “keep 'em apart” bit in “Come Out and Play” was recorded by a fan of the band. “It's a friend of ours named Jason McLean,” says Holland. “Jason used to come to the shows, and he was just this obnoxious fan who wanted us to play one of our old songs called 'Blackball.' But it wasn't in my mind to use him for the part at first. What I wanted to do is use a guy with a voice… But this guy, Jason, was yelling in my face every weekend at these shows. And I said, “Why don't you come down?” We'll just ask you to try it.” He was never in a band. He just likes punk music, no experience, no musicianship. And he went down and tried it once and it sounded really great. And he did it a second time and that was it. So that was the second take. Was amazing. It's just one of those things that fell together. It's really nice when that happens in life.”

Holland still can't believe that one of his favorite bands, Agent Orange, accused the Offspring of stealing the “Come and Play” riff from one of their guitar solos. “It's very much in that Dick Dale or Ventures-type zone, all of that,” says Holland. “Which is very California, and is probably where Agent Orange got it from. Because they're a band from California and they're into surfing and stuff. Every band that uses a blues scale doesn't rip each other off. And so it was. But I think all is well with them now. I still admire what they contributed to punk rock.”

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