Let the Bad Times Roll

Let the Bad Times Roll is the tenth studio album by American rock band the Offspring, released on April 16, 2021. Produced by Bob Rock, it is the band's first release on Concord Records, and their first studio album in nine years since Days Go By (2012), marking the longest gap between two Offspring studio albums. Let the Bad Times Roll also marks the band's first album without bassist and co-founding member Greg K., who was fired from the Offspring in 2018 amid business disputes. Even though new bassist Todd Morse had already joined the band and appeared in the video for the album’s title track, bass guitar accompaniment was provided by guitarist and vocalist Dexter Holland. It is the second and last album to feature drummer Pete Parada, who was fired from the band in August 2021 for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID 19, due to suffering from Guillain–Barré syndrome. The band's tour schedules, lineup changes, legal issues and the search for a new label after their split with Columbia Records, who released the Offspring's previous six albums, contributed to a years-long delay behind Let the Bad Times Roll. The band started recording new material for the album with Rock as early as the summer of 2013, and after re-recording it at various studios and at various periods between 2013 and 2020, it had been completed by 2020 and was ready for release later that year. However, due to the aforementioned issues, other inner disputes and the COVID-19 pandemic, the album's release was pushed back to 2021. Background, production and delays Plans for a tenth studio album were first mentioned about six months after the release of Days Go By by Offspring guitarist Noodles, who stated that they would "sit down and take a look at a new record" after the completion of the Days Go By tour. Noodles had then hoped that the band would enter the studio in 2014 to begin recording their album. Vocalist Dexter Holland stated in a May 2013 interview that he had written a "punk" song about "the government keeping you down." The Offspring entered the studio in August 2013 to begin tracking new material, with producer Bob Rock at the helm. Within the next few years, the album's progress was slowed down by grueling tour schedules and the end of their contract with Columbia Records, the label that the Offspring had been on since 1996.