THE OFFSPRING Guitarist Looks Back On Massive Success Of 'Smash': 'That Was A Real Crazy Time For Us'

March 8, 2021

THE OFFSPRING guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman spoke to Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station about the massive success of the band's 1994 breakthrough album "Smash". "Smash" was THE OFFSPRING's third LP and is often credited, along with GREEN DAY's "Dookie", with the commercial resurgence and success of punk rock in the mid-'90s.

"That was a real crazy time for us, because we went from being a band for 10 years where we played underground clubs and traveled across country in a van, and nobody knew who were, to, all of a sudden, traveling all around the world and doing it full time," Noodles said (see video below). "When 'Smash' came out, we were on the road for a year and a half non-stop pretty much. So it was different. Then we went back in the studio and made 'Ixnay [On The Hombre]', and everyone was expecting our sophomore slump even though it was really our fourth record. We tried not to react one way or the other — we tried not to prove our punk bona fides or pop/rock bona fides either: 'Let's just do what we do.' And I think we did pretty well with that. And then [we] continued to tour. And then came 'Americana', which was huge too. And after that, it's just been so fun."

"Smash" has sold more than six million copies in the U.S. alone and 11 million worldwide. It remains the best-selling independent label album of all time.

The disc's first single, "Come Out And Play", hit No. 1 on the Modern Rock chart in 1994 and was followed by two more Top 10 hits in "Self-Esteem" and "Gotta Get Away".

A 20th-anniversary remastered edition of the album was released tin 2014 by Epitaph on both CD and 180-gram vinyl, as well as in a special "collector's box."

THE OFFSPRING's tenth studio album, "Let The Bad Times Roll", will arrive on April 16 via Concord Records. The follow-up to 2012's "Days Go By" was produced by Bob Rock, who also worked on the band's last two LPs.

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