In 1984, he was class valedictorian when he graduated from Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, California.
Holland has actually given a graduation speech once before. After I agreed to it, especially as it gets closer, I’m like, ‘Oh geez, what the hell did I sign up for? How am I going to put myself through this?’ And then you start thinking, ‘Oh shit, this is going to be on YouTube forever.’” But public speaking is completely different. “And in a way, I know what I’m going to sing, and the audience knows what I’m going to sing-the script is there. “I’m used to the environment of getting in front of a crowd and singing,” Holland said.
“I was shocked, stunned,” he said, “but also very flattered.”įrom Rock in Rio to Woodstock ’99, Holland has performed in front of audiences that outnumber the entire population of major metropolitan areas, but giving a speech to a room of med school graduates? That’s not a typical gig for him. Over the 2021 holidays, Holland said he received a call from USC asking if he’d be the commencement speaker at this year’s Keck School of Medicine graduation. “We thought, ’What if instead of a couch, we set up a row of La-Z-Boys?’ That’s a little studio innovation we came up with.” Before we even discussed his doctorate, Holland was already proving himself to be much smarter than the average bear. “Every studio control room has a couch,” he said. He drank from a coffee mug that said, “I’m Silently Judging Your Grammar.” I told Holland that I was pretty comfortable in the La-Z-Boy.īefore we even discussed his doctorate, Holland was already proving himself to be much smarter than the average bear. Holland entered the room, dressed in head-to-toe black, still looking youthful at 56 with his trademark spiky blond hair. On one side of the room, a framed portrait of Spinal Tap looked down on a row of La-Z-Boy chairs. When I visited on an unseasonably scorching April morning, an assistant to the band led me to the studio’s control room, where I waited for Holland. Another serves as the headquarters for Gringo Bandito, the successful hot-sauce brand Holland launched in 2004.
One of the units is used to store the band’s gear. In a nondescript industrial zone in Huntington Beach, just a few miles from the Pacific, The Offspring occupy three units in an office complex reminiscent of Dunder Mifflin. What was in the beer at those ’80s hardcore shows that made so many punks pursue advanced degrees? I decided to find out and check in with Holland as he prepared for his big speech. This brought up another peculiar fact: Holland is one of several punk singers who came up in the 1980s SoCal hardcore scene who have a Ph.D. in molecular biology in 2017 from the University of Southern California. Five of The Offspring’s albums have attained platinum status, and their singles still play in heavy rotation on modern rock radio.Īs soon as I got off the road, I did some Googling. Led by the singles “Come Out and Play” and “Self Esteem,” Smash sold more than 11 million copies, making it the all-time best selling record released by an independent label. They formed in Orange County in 1984 and toiled for a decade in the SoCal punk scene before blowing up with their 1994 LP, Smash, released on Epitaph Records. Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever This is gonna last forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever Now, there's no one here to speak out And interrupt this ceremony, ah baby, yeah (baby, just say) All you got to do is say (you love me) Say that you love me and we will walk (And we will walk down the aisle, watching the people smile Flowers are everywhere, nothing else can compare) Yeah, girl, you got the kind of love that makes a man like me Want to settle down, a picket fence and a house, yeah Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.Growing up in the ’90s, I knew a bit about The Offspring.
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