On Sunday, The Offspring performed for the first time since March 2020 live in front of an audience. The band played the show as part of the iHeartMedia Los Angeles’s ALT 98.7 FM and the Los Angeles Chargers FanFest, according to Blabbermouth. It also marks the band’s first performance without their drummer Pete Parada.
Famous session musician Josh Freese replaced Parada. The drummer is well known throughout the punk and rock scene as he has previously played with other giant bands like Nine Inch Nails, Devo, Guns N Roses, A Perfect Circle, The Vandals and more. He also played with The Offspring before, on their albums, like their 2003 record Splinter, the 2008 Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace and Days Go By in 2012.
Freese was flown in by The Offspring singer Bryan “Dexter” Holland himself. The frontman has a pilot license and his own private jet. Holland is widely known for being talented in multiple fields besides music. In 2017 Holland finished his Ph.D. In molecular biology. He also released his own brand of hot sauce in 2004.
Now-former The Offspring drummer Parada shared the news about his departure from the band a few weeks ago via his social media. In his statement, the drummer claimed that the band had parted ways with him after he would not get vaccinated due to health concerns. The drummer said he suffers from a rare disease and his physician advised him not to get vaccinated.
Parada also claims the band had fired him as he was “unable to comply with what is increasingly becoming an industry mandate.” He goes on, “it has recently been decided that I am unsafe to be around, in the studio, and on tour.”
In one tweet, the drummer shared his hope that people “can learn to make room for all the perspectives and fears that are happening currently. Let’s avoid the unfortunate tendency to dominate, dehumanize and shout down at each other.”
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