SOCIAL DISTORTION Releases New Single 'Partners In Crime' From Upcoming 'Born To Kill' Album

Punk rock legends SOCIAL DISTORTION have unleashed "Partners In Crime", the second advance taste of their long-awaited eighth album, "Born To Kill". An unabashed and anthemic celebration of a lifetime dedicated to rock 'n' roll, "Partners In Crime" can be heard alongside the album's previously unveiled title track.

"'Partners In Crime' is about finding your voice, especially if you weren't allowed or if it didn't matter," says SOCIAL DISTORTION founder Mike Ness. "And finding comfort in others who share the same sentiment, angst and rage. Strength in unity."

Set for release May 8 via Epitaph, "Born To Kill" is more than the conclusion to a 15-year wait between SOCIAL DISTORTION albums, it's a revelation: 11 songs of pure, unadulterated rock 'n' roll fury, joy and catharsis, all imbued with the signature blend of defiance and world-weariness that has made founder Mike Ness a poet and sage to the dispossessed for more than 40 years.

The first SOCIAL DISTORTION album since Ness's recovery from a bout with cancer, "Born To Kill" brims with aggressive optimism. The album wastes no time letting the listener know where its heart is, with its title track and mission statement dropping nods to Lou Reed ("rock 'n' roll animal gonna come your way!") and Iggy Pop and THE STOOGES ("The agenda is, yeah, to search and destroy") and an homage to David Bowie ("it's a rock 'n' roll suicide") following a few songs later on "Partners In Crime". This is a man, a band, and a record that wear their influences proudly while creating timeless anthems and ballads that both chart SOCIAL DISTORTION's path forward and celebrate its storied past: "Tonight" and "The Way Things Were" are emotionally charged reminiscences in the vein of classics like "Story Of My Life" from the band's eponymous 1990 breakthrough and "I Was Wrong" from 1996's "White Light, White Heat, White Trash", the latter containing a potent distillation of the SOCIAL D ethos: "I wrote a song with a stolen riff / If you ain't got a song you ain't got shit."

The track listing for "Born To Kill" is:

01. Born To Kill
02. No Way Out
03. The Way Things Were
04. Tonight
05. Partners In Crime
06. Crazy Dreamer
07. Wicked Game
08. Walk Away (Don't Look Back)
09. Never Goin' Back Again
10. Don't Keep Me Hanging On
11. Over You

Co-produced by Ness and Dave Sardy, and featuring guest appearances from Benmont Tench of TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS and Lucinda Williams and collaborative cover art by Ness and Shepard Fairey, "Born To Kill" is the latest installment in a remarkable catalog that spans nearly three generations, including "Mommy's Little Monster" (1983),"Prison Bound" (1988),the RIAA-gold-certified "Social Distortion" (1990) and "Somewhere Between Heaven And Hell" (1992),"White Light, White Heat, White Trash" (1996),"Sex, Love And Rock 'N' Roll" (2004),and "Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes" (2011).

SOCIAL DISTORTION will support "Born To Kill" with an extensive North American tour. The trek will kick off August 25 in Phoenix and play a total of 25 shows in 22 cities before concluding October 3 in San Diego.

Last December, Ness, who revealed a diagnosis of tonsil cancer in June 2023, offered an update on his recovery, telling Kevin Ryder at the annual KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas 2025: "I was afraid I was gonna not gonna live. I've been through some hard things in my life in some dangerous situations, as you can imagine, but nothing like that."

Asked if he had to learn to talk and sing again, Mike said: "I had to learn to eat, swallow — everything. I mean, they went in there — they sent a robot. I call him Ike, the robot. He went down and cut out my tonsil and the tumor. And then the second part of the surgery was, they slit my neck and cut the lymph nodes out. So I could not eat food. I mean, I came out of surgery with a drain and a feeding tube."

After Ryder noted that he is "glad" that Ness could sing again after his cancer battle, Mike said: "My voice is stronger than it's ever been. I think I'm singing like there's no tomorrow. So every show is great because I'm singing like there's no tomorrow."

Ness started SOCIAL DISTORTION as a teenager in 1979. Over the course of the next decade, Ness battled drug and alcohol addiction, spending stints in jail and rehab.

Formed as rebellious teenage punks in the working-class suburb of Fullerton, California, SOCIAL DISTORTION survived their tumultuous youth to pioneer an undeniably honest and fiery brand of rock 'n' roll that would incorporate outlaw country, classic seventies punk and primal blues. Seven studio albums and countless electrifying live shows have earned the band a dedicated worldwide fanbase and catalog of timeless anthems, including "Story Of My Life", "Ball And Chain", "Prison Bound" and more. The band's last release, 2011's "Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes", entered the Billboard 200 at No. 4, and in 2019 SOCIAL DISTORTION celebrated 40 years as a band.

Photo credit: Jonathan Weiner