role: Guitar
Biography
In 1980, Hetson abandoned his position as guitarist of the punk/alternative band Redd Kross to form The Circle Jerks with former Black Flag vocalist Keith Morris. Soon after, they released their debut LP, Group Sex and in 1980 were featured in the Los Angeles documentary The Decline of Western Civilization along with several other Los Angeles punk bands.
In 1982, The Circle Jerks released their second album Wild in the Streets. This album, while popular, did not sell nearly as much as their third LP Golden Shower of Hits, released in 1983.
Greg Hetson was credited on Bad Religion’s album How Could Hell Be Any Worse? for playing the solo for the song Part III. His first (official) release with Bad Religion was the Back to the Known EP, released in 1985, which declared the band’s return to their original punk sound after releasing the highly unsuccessful, progressive rock album Into the Unknown, after which the band disbanded.
While Bad Religion was on hiatus, the Circle Jerks continued touring and recorded two more albums (Wonderful and VI) before breaking up in 1990. However, they reformed in 1994 and released Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities, their last album to date, a year later. Hetson would continue to play for both Bad Religion and The Circle Jerks.
After the release of Back to the Known, Bad Religion broke up for a second time, but reformed in 1986 with the How Could Hell Be Any Worse? line-up and Hetson was included. Bad Religion recorded their first three highly acclaimed reunion albums, Suffer, No Control and Against the Grain, before drummer Pete Finestone quit the band in 1991.
In April 2013, Hetson stopped touring with Bad Religion, supposedly due to divorce, and after briefly playing as a four-piece band (as Gurewitz does not tour with the band due to his commitments with Epitaph), Bad Religion recruited Mike Dimkich of The Cult to fill in for Hetson.
Hetson plays guitar in the all star band Punk Rock Karaoke with Eric Melvin of NOFX, and Steve Soto of The Adolescents, Stan Lee of The Dickies and original Goldfinger drummer Darrin Pfeiffer. Other notable past and recurring members have included Bob Mothersbaugh of Devo, and Mike Watt of Minutemen, Iggy and the Stooges. It was the first interactive live Punk Karaoke band since 1996. The band released DVD/CD set on MVD which has “sing along with” videos as well as a covers album featuring singers such as Matt Skiba, Dave King and Mike Herrera.
Read more.