THE YEAR IS 1994!
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This song was written after a trip to the Middle East. This is what inspired frontman Dexter Holland to write the catchy guitar riff.
- The phrase, “Gotta keep ’em separated” came from when Holland was in medical school. At the time, the band was unsure of how to tie the parts of the song together. One day, Holland was experimenting with bacteria in vials. He left the vials of bacteria in a room to let them cool down, came back after an hour or so, and noticed that the bacteria were still warm because the two samples were interacting with each other because the vials were close to each other. Dexter thought to himself, “I gotta keep ’em separated” and decided to use it to tie the new song together.
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According to The Offspring’s record label website, Smash became the highest-selling album of all time on an independent label.
- The band enlisted their friend Jason “Blackball” McLean to deliver the famous phrase, “Gotta keep ’em separated.” “[He] had kind of a distinctive voice,” said Noodles. “He grew up in a Mexican neighborhood, all his friends were Mexican, he had the slang down, the accent. He was a Scottish cholo from Whittier. So we asked him to come in and do the line. He wound up doing it in the video, too.”
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