THE OFFSPRING guitarist Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman spoke to “The Blairing Out With Eric Blair Show” about the lyrical inspiration for the title track of the band’s tenth studio album, “Let The Bad Times Roll”, which came out in April. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “There’s two ways of looking at it. One is, God, there’s so much going on in this world. How do you combat it? Well, fuck it. Bring it. Let the bad times roll. That’s one way of looking at it. The other is it’s what our leaders are saying to us. ‘You think I’m bad now? You think I’m screwing with you now? Just wait. I’m gonna get worse.’ I think we saw that a lot over the last four years in this country. But I think we’re also seeing it around the world. You’re seeing a rise of really ethnocentric nationalism happening around the globe; it’s not just in this country. And when those movements come to power, bad things happen — wars happen; world wars happen. And I don’t think people are realizing just how dangerous some of those forces that are gaining power are.”
Noodles also explained the line “the truth is what we’re erasing” in “Let The Bad Times Roll”, saying: “You’ve got people going on TV and just lying — flat-out lying, making things up. The idea that [Donald] Trump didn’t lose this last [presidential] election. He lost this election. This was a fair and free election, but there’s people that do not believe that that’s what happened. The truth doesn’t matter to those people. They’re going to believe their leader regardless of whether he’s lying to them — which Trump is lying to you.” He then looked straight into the camera and repeated, “Trump is lying to you. But they’re gonna believe that anyways.
“It’s crazy this is where we are in this world today,” he continued. “And it’s not just Trump. Like I said, that kind of stuff is happening all around the world in different governments, in different parts of the world.
“For democracy to succeed — and I’m very pro-democracy. I know that we live in a democratic republic. But I’m very pro-democracy, and I think that people should have a say,” Noodles added. “For the people to be cared for properly and defended properly, they need to have their say. But they also need real information and honest, truthful information. And we’re not always getting that in this country, and you’re not always seeing that in other parts of the world.”
The follow-up to 2012’s “Days Go By”, “Let The Bad Times Roll” was once again produced by Bob Rock, who also worked on the band’s previous two LPs.
Noodles, frontman Bryan “Dexter” Holland, drummer Pete Parada and new bassist Todd Morse wrote and recorded “Let The Bad Times Roll” in the last few years at various locations, including the band’s studio in Huntington Beach, California.
