Here’s how you know you’ve made it in the music business: You’ve stayed strong for threedecades on your own terms, on your own time, by your own rules, and over that time yourinfluence has only grown. Each of your albums has been stronger than your last.You’ve beenbrought onstage by Bruce Springsteen, because he wanted to play one of your songs. You’veseen high times and low ones, good days and tragic days, but every night you give 100%, andevery morning you wake up still swinging.
This is the shortversion of the Social Distortion bio—the long version could be a 10-part mini-series. But over the past 30 years, the punk godfathers in the band have all but trademarkedtheir sound, a brand of hard rockabilly/punk that’s cut with the melodic, road-tested lyrics offrontman Mike Ness. Their searing guitars and a locomotive rhythm section sound as alivetoday as they did in ’82, as do Ness’ hard-luck tales of love, loss and lessons learned. “The mostcommon thing I hear is, ‘Man, your music got me through some hard times,'” Ness says. “And Ijust say, ‘Me too.’
“Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes(produced, for the first time, by Ness himself) is the band’smost recent release. For a band with a career spanning over 40 years, Social Distortionexperienced a significant amount of firsts in 2011. For starters,Hard Times and Nursery Rhymesdebuted at #4 on the Billboard Top 200 and was the highest debut that the band has yet seen.Hard Timeswas also the #1 Independent Album and the #2 Modern Rock/Alternative Albumweek of release. The band also made their late night television debut when they performed”Machine Gun Blues” onJimmy Kimmel Live,and later played forConanonHard Times’ releasedate. Taking their successes to the road, Social Distortion played European festivals includingReading and Leeds for the first time. They also booked their first tours of Australia and SouthAmerica. And finally, Social Distortion played Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits Festival, andCoachella–all of these for the first time.
A release of new music is forthcoming in 2024.
Social Distortion’s patented mix of punk, bluesy rock n’ roll and outlaw country—while alsostretching the boundaries of their signature sound is a blend of potent power that appeals to allages. Theyare honored to have been able to reach as many people as they have so far. “I writesongs for myself, and I hope that other people will like them too,” Ness says. “I think everyrecord you make is showing people what you’ve learned over the past few years.It’s showingpeople, ‘This is what I know.’
“Now in their fifth decade, Ness and Social Distortion have officially achieved one of the mostnon-punk things possible: They’ve failed to burn out
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