SUICIDAL TENDENCIES' MIKE MUIR: 'If' People 'Don't Struggle, They Don't Accomplish Anything'

In a new interview with Australia's Sense Music Media, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES frontman Mike Muir spoke about the advice he would give to young people who are struggling with decision-making and hope amid societal pressures, uncertainty and perfectionism affecting their life choices. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I remember years ago I was with my son and some of his friends, and they were talking about all how things were terrible and this and that [with] the police. And I said, 'Oh, yeah? How many times have you had your nose broken by the police?' Never. 'How many times have you been handcuffed and beat in an alley by the police?' Never. 'How many times you had your ribs broken by the police?' Never. You know what I mean? And, yeah, it happened to me all kinds of times.

"There's a certain thing, and it's not a generational thing," he continued. "The difference is, I think that with some of my kids' teachers, they basically are teaching that you have no control over the world. There's this contradiction of you can be anything without having to put any work in. And the world's not fair. My dad said the world's not fair. It's like [the lyrics] on [the latest SUICIDAL TENDENCIES single] 'Adrenaline Addict' — it's, like, 'One life to live. And this is what you're doing? Life isn't fair. No one said it would be.' No one owes you anything. No one owes you anything.

"People will say, 'Oh, you don't know people's struggles.' I go, 'I don't know their struggles, but I know if they don't struggle, they don't accomplish anything.' Kind of like there's a class and the little kids and they had the chickens and they're hatching the chickens. And one of the little birds, it still hadn't broken through. And they could just see it and it looked so weak and this and that, and so they all wanted to break the shell. Guess which one died — the one they broke the shell [for], because he needs that struggle to be able to have the strength. You know what I mean? That's life. And I think that sometimes… I'm not like saying that you go out in the snow naked and this and that. Life is gonna be — there's gonna be difficult things. You need to be prepared for whatever it is, as best as you can. Don't put the blinders on and say, 'But I didn't know. Well, I didn't know.' I wanna know.

"There's a difference between being angry and a difference between being happy. My dad always said, and a valid point, he goes, 'On a journey when you're doing something you really say you want to do, but don't believe you can do, every step — using symbolism — every step you take is painful, but when you get to the point where you are, then you're, like, 'This is amazing.' And so there's a lot of work to get to that point that something's amazing. And I think that's one of the things with people. They're not told, 'Dude, it's okay to feel like fucking shit sometimes.' It's not okay to accept feeling like shit all the time and thinking that's what your destiny is. It's okay for things not to go the way you want [them to].

"I took a psychology class, and they had this book — I think it was called 'The First 100' or something like that — and it was about lottery winners, the first hundred lottery winners. And seven of 'em were murdered, [some of them] were in jail, the vast majority had absolute terrible things happen to 'em, whether it was the family doesn't associate with them, blah, blah, all kinds of stuff. There's very few that said, 'I'm glad it [turned out the way it did].'

"There's] that saying, 'Be careful what you wish for.' And anything that comes easy, you don't appreciate," Mike added. "So I look at things and people say, 'This is fucked up.' I go, 'Yeah, it is. So what have you done about it?' 'I can't do anything.' And I go, 'That's why it's fucked up.'"

"Adrenaline Addict" came out in April. SUICIDAL TENDENCIES' first new song in seven years features Muir alongside longtime guitarist Dean Pleasants, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN guitarist Ben Weinman, bassist Tye Trujillo (son of METALLICA's Robert Trujillo) and former SLIPKNOT drummer Jay Weinberg. The track also includes guest vocals from singer Nisha Star.

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES supported METALLICA on the 2025 North American leg of the latter band's "M72" world tour.

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES' latest album, "Still Cyco Punk After All These Years", was released in 2018 via Suicidal Records. A reworking of Muir's 1996 solo outing "Lost My Brain! (Once Again)", "Still Cyco Punk" featured founding SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo.

In 2023, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES celebrated the 40th anniversary of their debut album on a number of shows in the fall, including in New York City; Silver Spring, Maryland; Worcester, Massachusetts; and Berkeley, California. SUICIDAL TENDENCIES also celebrated the 40th anniversary of the LP on a tour of Australia.