THE OFFSPRING Fires Back At Former Bassist

September 5, 2019

THE OFFSPRING has fired back at bassist Gregory "Greg K." Kriesel after he sued the remaining bandmembers for allegedly pushing him out of the group without fair compensation.

Kriesel, who hasn't performed with THE OFFSPRING for several months, filed a federal lawsuit in June against two of his former bandmates — vocalist/guitarist Bryan "Dexter" Holland and guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman — alleging trademark infringement and breach of partnership agreement over the rights to THE OFFSPRING name.

In his lawsuit, Kriesel claims that Holland and Wasserman "devised a scheme, and entered into a conspiracy with each other" last October to "seize the business, business opportunities, and assets" of their 32-year-old partnership agreement "in disregard for and in derogation of the rights, privileges, and authority of Kriesel as an equal, general partner"; "divest Kriesel of his partnership interests and rights, without fair compensation; and "deny Kriesel's continued status as a general partner of the Partnership." Kriesel goes on to say that he was informed by Holland and Wasserman last November that he was "no longer entitled to participate in any activities of the band, including (but not limited to) studio recordings and concert tours."

In response, Holland and Wasserman have filed a cross-complaint, denying basically everything Kriesel has alleged and asking the court to appoint 'three disinterested appraisers to appraise the fair value" of Kriesel's shares of THE OFFSPRING.

According to Forbes, their cross-complain reads: "Setting aside the obvious legal arguments that there could be no such thing as an oral, permanent partnership, or a partnership which required two people to perform in perpetuity, or indeed that anybody could be compelled to perform music publicly with anybody else for a single performance no less for an endless string of performances, Kriesel's arguments have no basis in fact."

In the filing, Holland and Wasserman claim that they asked Kriesel to leave the band on November 1, 2018 and then "attempted to negotiate in good faith" with him to buy his Offspring, Inc. shares and give him his portion of the band's assets, consisting of their trademark and certain royalties. Kriesel eventually terminated the negotiations and sued.

During his absence from touring, Greg was initially replaced by NO DOUBT bassist Tony Kanal. Currently filling in for him is H2O guitarist Todd Morse.

Greg, Dexter and Noodles have appeared on all of THE OFFSPRING's albums so far.

It is not presently clear if Kriesel played bass on the band's upcoming tenth studio LP, which is expected in late 2019 or early 2020.

Thanks: Dying Scene

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).