Formation and early recordings (1980–1983) Bad Religion was formed in
Los Angeles, California, in 1980 by high school students
Greg Graffin,
Jay Bentley,
Jay Ziskrout, and
Brett Gurewitz. or
Santa Ana, California, warehouse
opening for
Social Distortion. In 1981, the band released their initial
eponymous six-song EP as a 7" record on the newly formed label,
Epitaph Records, which was and continues to be managed and owned by Gurewitz. Also in 1981, the band began recording their first full-length album,
How Could Hell Be Any Worse? During the recording of this album,
drummer Jay Ziskrout quit the band and was replaced by Pete Finestone. Released in 1982,
How Could Hell Be Any Worse? was also distributed by the band under the Epitaph label and sold roughly 12,000 copies.
Into the Unknown, Back to the Known and hiatus (1983–1985) In 1983, the band released
Into the Unknown, a keyboard-driven
progressive hard rock album with a slightly slower pace. Almost all of the albums the band produced were sold out of the warehouse they were housed in without the band's knowledge, after which this album went out of print. This incident, as well as band members' increasingly divergent personal lives, led to the band's temporary dissolution shortly after the album's release. During the
Suffer tour in 1988, Bad Religion began writing new material. In early 1989, while the band was on break from touring, they commenced work on their next album, and entered the
Westbeach Recorders studio in June of that year to record it. The resulting album,
No Control, was released in November 1989, and was Bad Religion's best-selling album at the time, eventually selling more than 80,000 copies. Bad Religion's hardcore punk style continued with their next album,
Against the Grain, which was released in 1990. While the album still did not break the band into mainstream audiences, it was the first 100,000 seller, and showed how quickly they were growing. "
21st Century (Digital Boy)", one of the tracks off the album, is generally regarded as the band's most well-known song, and has been played at almost every live show. Drummer Pete Finestone left Bad Religion again in April 1991 to focus on his other band, the Fishermen, which had signed with a major label, and
Bobby Schayer joined the band as his replacement. In May 1991, Bad Religion entered the Westbeach Recorders studio to begin recording material for their sixth studio album,
Generator, which was not released until March 1992. The album was recorded almost live in the studio, because, at the time, Gurewitz had moved Westbeach to larger premises, and for the first time, the entire band could play in the studio at the same time. He stated that it was "time to change" and the band "did it in a different studio, but as far as the songwriting, it was a deliberate effort to try something different."
Recipe for Hate was followed up by Bad Religion's eighth studio album
Stranger Than Fiction. The album met high critical reception upon its release in September 1994, and was their most successful album at the time, scoring such hits as "
Stranger Than Fiction", "
Infected", and a re-recording of "
21st Century (Digital Boy)", which was originally released on
Against the Grain. The band also recorded the song "Leaders and Followers" (which later appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese version of
Stranger Than Fiction) for the soundtrack for the
Kevin Smith film,
Clerks. The album was Bad Religion's first to enter the
Billboard 200; the release peaked at number 87, and was awarded
gold certification on March 4, 1998, for sales of over half a million copies. With the success of that album, Bad Religion became a key member of the 1990s
commercial punk rock explosion, alongside Green Day and fellow Epitaph bands such as
the Offspring,
Rancid, and
NOFX. As tensions increased, Graffin would sing alternate lyrics during concerts, such as, "I want to know where Brett gets his crack" or "I want to know why Gurewitz cracked", on the song "
Stranger Than Fiction". These barbs referred to Gurewitz's struggles with crack, heroin, and other addictions which plagued him for years. Brett discussed his drug use in an interview on the band's
Suffer Tour documentary,
Along the Way, and claimed that he was clean and sober. In response, Gurewitz recorded a song with his new band,
the Daredevils, titled "
Hate You". Gurewitz was replaced as guitarist by
Brian Baker, a former member of the bands
Minor Threat,
Dag Nasty, and
Junkyard; Baker declined a spot with
R.E.M. to join Bad Religion. With Gurewitz gone, Graffin became Bad Religion's primary songwriter (songwriting duties were originally split between the two).
Post-Gurewitz period, departure of Bobby Schayer (1996–2000) Bad Religion continued touring and recording without Brett Gurewitz, releasing three more albums for Atlantic, starting with
The Gray Race (1996), produced by former Cars frontman
Ric Ocasek. Despite never garnering the amount of attention that
Stranger Than Fiction received, it scored Bad Religion a minor U.S. radio hit with the song, "A Walk", as well as the European release of "Punk Rock Song". (left) with Bad Religion live in the Netherlands, 1995 In 1998, Bad Religion released their tenth full-length album,
No Substance, produced by
Alex Perialas, Ronnie Kimball, and the band themselves. Although the album was anticipated by music critics and fans alike as a result of the band's previous worldwide successes with
Stranger Than Fiction and
The Gray Race, it was given mixed reviews by both critics and fans. Following the release of
No Substance, the band embarked on a year-long tour. In 1999, Gurewitz reunited with Graffin to co-write a song together called, "Believe It", which would appear on their next album,
The New America (2000). For this new album,
Todd Rundgren, an early musical inspiration for Graffin, was brought in to produce. "Todd was kind of an underground sensation back in 1974. Here's a guy who was making pop music but in a way that you wouldn't hear on the radio. So much of my early musical identity was wrapped up in the way he conducted himself." In the summer of 2000, they set out on a successful 3-month U.S. arena tour opening for
Blink-182. Interest in recording the record waned due to Rundgren's poor attitude. Jay Bentley reflects on this by saying, "I didn't feel we were going anywhere and so did Greg. Todd didn't like Greg and that made Greg so mad! He met his idol, and he was a jerk! I don't think Todd gave a shit about anything." However, Graffin later writes in his book, "Anarchy Evolution", that, although Rundgren was difficult to work with, he and Graffin remain friends to this day. Meanwhile,
Bobby Schayer left the band following a serious shoulder injury and was replaced by
Brooks Wackerman (
Suicidal Tendencies).
Return to Epitaph and reunion with Gurewitz (2001–2004) In 2001, Bad Religion departed from Atlantic Records. They returned to Epitaph, and Brett Gurewitz rejoined the band. The expanded six-piece line-up then recorded and released
The Process of Belief (2002). Graffin stated, "There was a little bit of disappointment on my part when he left the band, but we never had any serious acrimony between the two of us. I can't say the same for the rest of the band. But he and I, being the songwriters from way back, we really wanted to try again." Their next album,
The Empire Strikes First, was released in June 2004. Like
The Process of Belief, it was widely regarded by fans as a return to the faster punk-style songwriting that some felt was less prominent in the band's music during their time on Atlantic. In April 2004, the band also re-released digitally-remastered versions of all of their first six studio albums on Epitaph Records (except
Into the Unknown). The
How Could Hell Be Any Worse? reissue, though reclaiming the original title of the band's debut LP, contained all of the same material as the previously issued
80–85 compilation, including their first EP, the
Public Service EP (with different versions of the songs Bad Religion, Slaves, and Drastic Actions than the self-titled EP) and the "Back to the Known" EP. To coincide with the reissues, they also released their long out-of-print live VHS,
Along the Way, on DVD for the first time.
Recipe for Hate, though, could not be re-issued, even though it was originally released on Epitaph, due to the fact that it had already been re-issued through Atlantic, and so problems with rights ownership made a reissue unlikely.
New Maps of Hell (2005–2008) On March 7, 2006, a live DVD,
Live at the Palladium, was released. This DVD featured a live show performed in late 2004 at the Hollywood Palladium as well as extensive interviews, several music videos, and a photo gallery. During one of the interview segments, guitarist
Brett Gurewitz said the band's next album would be a double-length release, but this turned out to not be the case. Hetson formed a
supergroup band called
Black President, consisting of Charlie Paulson (from
Goldfinger), Jason Christopher, Wade Youman (both from
Unwritten Law), and
Christian Martucci (from
Dee Dee Ramone). In early March 2008, Bad Religion played several night residences at
House of Blues venues in
Southern California as well as
Las Vegas. They performed four European festival appearances in May and June. On July 8, 2008, Bad Religion released their first-ever deluxe edition CD, a reissue of the then-current album,
New Maps of Hell. The deluxe version included the original 16-song CD along with seven new acoustic tracks recorded by Graffin (vocals/guitars) and Gurewitz (guitars/back vocals). Three of the acoustic songs were new, written specifically for this release, while the other four tracks were acoustic versions of existing Bad Religion songs. The release also included a DVD with an hour-long live performance, music videos, and behind-the-scenes footage.
30 Years Live and The Dissent of Man (2009–2010) In June 2008,
Jay Bentley said in an interview at the
Pinkpop Festival in
Landgraaf, Netherlands, that Gurewitz had already begun writing new material for the next Bad Religion album. He stated that the band was planning to return to the studio to start work on the follow-up to
New Maps of Hell, planned for a June 2009 release, after Graffin teaches UCLA. However, according to a December 2008 report on the fan site, "The Bad Religion Page", Bentley revealed that due to Bad Religion's upcoming touring commitments for 2009, the band would not have a chance to record their new album until around the end of the year, for an expected 2010 release date. In August 2009, guitarist Brett Gurewitz sent an email to a fan site mentioning he was writing new material for the next Bad Religion album. In December 2009, Bentley revealed to the fan site that the band was expected to go into the studio on April 26, 2010, to start recording their new album. He stated that a few songs for the album had been written and, "It feels like the songwriting is picking up momentum. Baker said he was going to drive up to Graffin's, and Brooks and I are going to do some demos with Brett, so we have a pretty good jump." According to Brett's
Twitter, Bad Religion is aiming for a fall release of the new album. In January 2010, Bentley revealed that Bad Religion would record their new album at a studio in
Pasadena, California, with
Joe Barresi, who engineered 2004's
The Empire Strikes First and produced its 2007 follow-up,
New Maps of Hell. Despite the statement made by Bentley about entering the studio in April, he noted that the recording date was now May 1. In March and April 2010, to commemorate their 30th anniversary, Bad Religion toured Southern California's and Nevada's House of Blues locations, playing 30 Shows in 30 Nights with a 30-song set each night. At the House of Blues concert in
Anaheim, California, on March 17, 2010, the band debuted a new song called "Resist-Stance" from their upcoming album. To coincide with the tour, Bad Religion announced a live album, entitled
30 Years Live, which was released as a free download for those who had signed up to the mailing list at Bad Religion's website. It consists of songs recorded during their House of Blues tour. It also included some new songs from their 15th studio album, before the new album was released.
30 Years Live was mixed by
Mike Fraser and was released on May 18, 2010. On May 1, 2010, Brett posted an update on his Twitter saying, "Threw me a going away [to the studio] party and all my friends hung with me tonight – thx everybody, I love you guys." This adds fuel to the possibility of the band's new album being recorded the first week of May. On May 12, 2010 (which happened to be Brett's 48th birthday), bassist Jay Bentley posted an update on their Facebook page regarding the recording process of the album: "First week of recording at Joe's house of compression and Brooks gets the medal for superasskicking. Brian has finished 14 basics ... a couple more to go. I started getting some good bass sounds late, late last night, the liver wins the shootout again. Brett is playing late night tracks on his birthday, some way to celebrate! happy birthday bg! quote of the day; BG "what percentage of the sound is coming from the snakeskin?". haha ... working of album titles and ideas today. It's all coming together. Joe says the corn flavored kit kats are gross, but the wasabi ones are quite delicious ... get back to work. Work work work. Will send photo's soon." In June 2010, the fan site reported that the new album would be released on September 28, 2010. Jay (who goes by jabberwock on the Bad Religion Page) mentioned on the site's message board that Bad Religion had finished recording their new album and was mixing it. In an interview at the Azkena Rock Festival on June 26, 2010, the band members announced that the new album would be called
The Dissent of Man.
The Dissent of Man was released on September 28, 2010. The album debuted at No. 35 on the Billboard 200 chart and at No. 6 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart. On August 30, 2010, the album version of the song, "The Resist Stance", was released on Bad Religion's MySpace page. The song was also made available for streaming on the page a week before the album's release. The band had been touring throughout 2011 to support the album. On October 18, 2010, Bad Religion released a vinyl box set of all their albums that is limited to 3000 copies, including their 1983 album,
Into the Unknown, which had been out of print for over 25 years.
True North (2011–2013) In an April 2011 interview with
The Washington Examiner, guitarist
Brian Baker was asked if Bad Religion was going to make another album after
The Dissent of Man. His response was, "It's all very punk [attitude] just like it's always been. We will record when we have enough songs. For us, it just kind of happens." During the Boston show on April 29, 2011, frontman
Greg Graffin said, "After this year you probably won't be seeing much more of us. We're going to try one more album and then all join the navy, do honest work", hinting at a possible split or hiatus. Bassist
Jay Bentley mentioned an early 2012 timeframe for going back into the studio in an interview at
Live 105's BFD festival, which took place the day after the Weenie Roast. In February 2012, it was reported that Brett had written two songs for the album. On June 25, 2011, Bad Religion performed a live set for "
Guitar Center Sessions" on
DirecTV. The episode included an interview with program host,
Nic Harcourt. According to a May 2012 interview with
Pennywise guitarist
Fletcher Dragge, Brett is writing a "fast" Bad Religion album. He also said that Pennywise's then-new album,
All or Nothing, inspired Brett to write a sequel to the band's 1989 album,
No Control. On June 4, 2012,
Jay Bentley told the Bad Religion fan site, "The Bad Religion Page", that they were expected to begin recording their new album in July and August. He also stated that Brett and
Joe Barresi are going to produce it. On July 23, the band uploaded a picture to Bad Religion's
Facebook page of all the members (except
Greg Hetson, who was taking the picture) in the studio with the caption, "here we go again", indicating that work on their sixteenth studio album had begun. On August 22,
Brett Gurewitz tweeted that they were mixing the album, and, a month later, he tweeted that the band was finishing it.
Greg Graffin later stated that the album was supposed to be out by Christmas. "Fuck You" was the album's lead single and released on
iTunes on November 6, which happened to be Greg Graffin's 48th birthday. On November 5, 2012 (Bad Religion Day), it was announced that Bad Religion's sixteenth studio album,
True North, would be released on January 22, 2013. On that same day, they premiered the new single "Fuck You".
True North has received mostly positive reviews and managed to reach number 18 on the
Billboard 200 albums chart, marking Bad Religion's first ever top-20 album and highest ever peak on that chart in their entire 34-year career.
Departures of Hetson and Wackerman, and Christmas Songs (2013–2017) Bad Religion played a few shows as a four-piece (without
Greg Hetson and
Brett Gurewitz) in mid April - May 2013—starting with their appearance at "That Damn Show" in Mesa, AZ, on April 20, including some high profile shows such as
Groezrock in Belgium—leading fans to speculate over Greg Hetson's continued involvement in the band. On May 7, 2013,
Jay Bentley issued a statement to the fan site, which read, "Greg Hetson is dealing with some personal issues, if he wishes to make a statement we will support that, if he chooses not to we will support that.
Mike Dimkich is indeed helping us out right now, and we are genuinely appreciative. Right now we are just looking forward and getting ready to play our shows." The reason Hetson had not been touring with Bad Religion was likely due to the divorce of his second wife Alia. On January 11, 2014, Bentley confirmed on "thebrpage.net" that Dimkich is a permanent member of the band. A few days later,
Download Festival's official website uploaded a photograph of the new lineup (without Brett Gurewitz). Later, in 2022, Hetson appeared on the podcast Fat Mike's Fat Mic stating he was let go due to his admitted addiction to painkillers and the behavior he exhibited due to this addiction. On September 10, 2013, it was announced that Bad Religion would be releasing their first
Christmas album, titled
Christmas Songs, on October 29, 2013. It was their first album to not feature
Greg Hetson since 1983's
Into the Unknown. In a November 2013 interview, guitarist
Brett Gurewitz stated that Bad Religion would start writing their seventeenth studio album in 2014, and guitarist
Brian Baker said that he hoped Bad Religion would start recording the album in the fall of 2015. However, in a September 2015 interview, frontman
Greg Graffin stated that he had been working on his first solo album since 2006's
Cold as the Clay, and that the band would begin writing their new album after the release of his third solo album,
Millport, so a new Bad Religion album would not be released until around late 2016. Baker said, however, that the new album would not be released until 2017. Asked in a March 2017 interview about the follow-up to
True North, Graffin said, "It's one of the great challenges as artist is to maintain the tradition of his or her prior work. That's hard to do. It normally takes (Bad Religion) two years to put out an album. Why has it taken us four years to release an album after
True North? Well,
True North was such a great album — and we owe it to our fans to take it seriously as a great album — that to do another one is going to take a lot more work."
Millport was eventually released on March 10, 2017. From July to September 2014, Bad Religion embarked on the Summer Nationals Tour with
Pennywise; their former labelmates the Offspring,
the Vandals,
Stiff Little Fingers, and
Naked Raygun supported them on selected dates. On October 27, 2015, drummer
Brooks Wackerman officially left the band in order to pursue other projects, joining
Avenged Sevenfold a week later. He was replaced by
Jamie Miller (
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead,
Souls at Zero and
Snot).
Age of Unreason and follow-up album (2018–present) On February 14, 2018, vocalist
Greg Graffin posted on Twitter a picture of himself with guitarist
Brett Gurewitz in the studio, tweeting, "New songs in the pipeline", indicating that they were working on Bad Religion's seventeenth studio album. Speculations about the album resurfaced in April of that year when Gurewitz and guitarist
Brian Baker posted pictures from the studio on their respective Instagram accounts. On June 20, 2018, the band released the song, "The Kids Are Alt-Right", their first single in five years. Despite earlier reports that they had been in the studio since February, up to mid 2018, and the fact that they had already released a new song, Gurewitz told
Los Angeles Times in July 2018 that, "We're writing for a new album, recording this fall or late summer. No release date announced yet, but we should have an album's worth of 'Fuck
Trump' songs pretty soon. It's exactly what we need." On February 26, 2019, Bad Religion announced
Age of Unreason as the title of their seventeenth studio album, which was released on May 3, and the album's lead single, "Chaos from Within", was premiered. On August 18, 2020,
Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion, an autobiography covering the band's 40-year career, was released by
Hachette Books. About four months after the release of
Age of Unreason, guitarist
Brian Baker was asked if Bad Religion was already working on a follow-up album. His response was: "No, I'm not really thinking about a new album right now because this one is still developing and there is a lot of world yet to play. 2020 is going to be a busy year for us, it's our 40th Anniversary year. We have a book coming out at the end of the year – it'll be our first authorized, somewhat participatory, biography of Bad Religion. So there is a lot more to do with this record. The good thing about Bad Religion is that you don't really have to have a new product out to go work. The catalogue we have is so extensive and we are so fortunate to have the fan base that we have. So we don't really worry about a new album cycle, those thing just sort of come when they come. The next one might take four or five years, it might take two, I don't know. It's just about whether songs have come together in a way that is respectful of the Bad Religion standard. But in the meantime, we have Brazil to rock." When asked in August 2019 about the future of the band, Bentley stated, "Everything I know about everything came from being in this band and came from some conversations driving in the van for hours on end. We're just these guys who don't want to stop asking why. We are what we are as Bad Religion. We're the thinking man's punk band, and that's kept us out of the mainstream. We're writing smart songs, and that makes us dumb." In an August 2020 interview with
Entertainment Weekly, Graffin said, "We've been working on some music, just as we're socially distant from each other; each of us has home recording studios. I always write music acoustically." In November 2022, Baker confirmed that Gurewitz was "starting to dust off his writing boots" and expressed hope that the band's next album will be recorded in 2023. On April 29, 2020, Bad Religion announced on their social media accounts that they had to cancel all of their tour dates for that year due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, including a co-headlining US tour with
Alkaline Trio, therefore marking 2020 as the first year the band did not perform at least one show since their inception in 1980. They subsequently also rescheduled their South American and European tour dates with
Suicidal Tendencies,
Millencolin, and
Pulley to 2022 (originally scheduled for May and June 2021), once again due to the COVID pandemic. They also rescheduled their North American tour with Alkaline Trio, which was slated to take place in the fall of 2021. In October 2020, Bad Religion released a new song, "What Are We Standing For", on streaming platforms, which was an outtake from the
Age of Unreason sessions. On January 20, 2021, Bad Religion released a previously unreleased song called "Emancipation of the Mind", which was recorded during the
Age of Unreason sessions. The release of the song coincided with the
inauguration of Joe Biden, and it had more hopeful themes compared to other songs that they've written while also being a rejection of
Trumpism. As of February, 2025, Bad Religion is in the studio to record a follow up album to
Age of Unreason. ==Style and influences==