Biography
Greg Graffin dismantles any assumption that punk amounts to unsophisticated noise aimed at adolescents by holding a master’s degree in geology from UCLA earned in 1987 and a doctorate in biology completed at Cornell three years afterward. That same intellect surfaces in his songwriting, where Bad Religion’s hard-charging sound frames Graffin’s incisive observations on political and social matters delivered at full volume. Outside the group he has issued solo recordings that shift attention to private subjects and adopt gentler arrangements less tethered to punk’s velocity. The 1997 release American Lesion drew on pop and jazz elements to trace the dissolution of a marriage, whereas Cold as the Clay in 2006 and Millport in 2017 steered him toward country and folk textures.
Born and raised first in southeastern Wisconsin and later Milwaukee, Graffin moved with his mother to Los Angeles following his parents’ divorce when he was eleven. An early listener of pop radio, he encountered a stark contrast among the marijuana-using surfers of the San Fernando Valley who favored Led Zeppelin. The emerging Los Angeles punk and hardcore community supplied an alternative, and exposure through Rodney Bingenheimer’s Rodney on the ROQ program introduced him to the Adolescents, Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, the Cars, and Elvis Costello.
In 1980 Graffin began singing and assembled Bad Religion with guitarist Brett Gurewitz and bassist Jay Bentley. Rather than pursue an existing label the band launched its own imprint, Epitaph, and put out the six-song Bad Religion EP in 1981 along with the full-length albums How Could Hell Be Any Worse? in 1982 and Into the Unknown in 1983. Lineup instability marked the middle of the decade, leaving Graffin as the sole remaining founder for a period while Gurewitz stepped away to address personal matters; former Circle Jerks guitarist Greg Hetson joined and stayed after Gurewitz returned.
Many longtime listeners regard the late-1980s and early-1990s recordings Suffer (1988), No Control (1989), and Against the Grain (1990) as the band’s strongest work. During that same stretch Graffin obtained his master’s degree and then his doctorate. Bad Religion experienced notable commercial traction in the mid- to late 1990s after the Offspring’s breakthrough on Epitaph and briefly recorded for Atlantic.
Alongside band commitments and academic work Graffin produced records for Bottom 12 (Songs for the Disgruntled Postman, 1996) and Unwritten Law (Oz Factor), issued the solo album American Lesion in 1997 under that alias, appeared on releases by NOFX and Joan Jett, and contributed an autobiographical piece to Details. His next solo project, Cold as the Clay, arrived in July 2006 on Anti- and featured members of the Weakerthans supporting its acoustic American folk approach. The 2017 roots-oriented album Millport included Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz plus the rhythm section from Social Distortion. In 2020 Graffin reissued American Lesion under his own name.
Born and raised first in southeastern Wisconsin and later Milwaukee, Graffin moved with his mother to Los Angeles following his parents’ divorce when he was eleven. An early listener of pop radio, he encountered a stark contrast among the marijuana-using surfers of the San Fernando Valley who favored Led Zeppelin. The emerging Los Angeles punk and hardcore community supplied an alternative, and exposure through Rodney Bingenheimer’s Rodney on the ROQ program introduced him to the Adolescents, Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, the Cars, and Elvis Costello.
In 1980 Graffin began singing and assembled Bad Religion with guitarist Brett Gurewitz and bassist Jay Bentley. Rather than pursue an existing label the band launched its own imprint, Epitaph, and put out the six-song Bad Religion EP in 1981 along with the full-length albums How Could Hell Be Any Worse? in 1982 and Into the Unknown in 1983. Lineup instability marked the middle of the decade, leaving Graffin as the sole remaining founder for a period while Gurewitz stepped away to address personal matters; former Circle Jerks guitarist Greg Hetson joined and stayed after Gurewitz returned.
Many longtime listeners regard the late-1980s and early-1990s recordings Suffer (1988), No Control (1989), and Against the Grain (1990) as the band’s strongest work. During that same stretch Graffin obtained his master’s degree and then his doctorate. Bad Religion experienced notable commercial traction in the mid- to late 1990s after the Offspring’s breakthrough on Epitaph and briefly recorded for Atlantic.
Alongside band commitments and academic work Graffin produced records for Bottom 12 (Songs for the Disgruntled Postman, 1996) and Unwritten Law (Oz Factor), issued the solo album American Lesion in 1997 under that alias, appeared on releases by NOFX and Joan Jett, and contributed an autobiographical piece to Details. His next solo project, Cold as the Clay, arrived in July 2006 on Anti- and featured members of the Weakerthans supporting its acoustic American folk approach. The 2017 roots-oriented album Millport included Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz plus the rhythm section from Social Distortion. In 2020 Graffin reissued American Lesion under his own name.
Albums
