The reason Tim got into punk is because his older brother recorded some songs on a tape, and gave it to Tim. Right away he just got hooked. Tim is a really big fan of ska music.
In 1996/1997 he started his own record label called HELLCAT RECORDS which is only going to release oi, punk, and ska music.
Tim got married in 1998 with his long time girlfriend Brody (The Distillers). Brody filed for divorce in February 2003.
Tim was also a member of the "Black Student Union" while a student at Albany High School in 1986.
When Lars was 20 years old, he moved to Boston, Massachussets, and joined the band Uk Subs. Lars, at that time, had been an alcoholic and drug addict for about three years. He got the boot for Uk Subs because they couldnt get along with Lars and his "problems".
Shortly after that, Lars started to play in a local punk band called Cajones, but they too found out his incompetence impossible to deal with. He'd always show up drunk and so, that's the reason for him being kicked out of the band.
Eventually Lars put together a
band called Slip, which in 1992 scored a local gig with Rancid at the
oft-fabled Gilman Street Project. Lars talked to Tim Armstrong after the
gig and they exchanged phone numbers and kept in touch. Sometime after
that night Slip was going to do a gig in L.A. Ten minutes before they
were going on stage, their bass player calls Lars up and says he's
quitting the band because he has fallen in love and was going to move to
Sacramento, CA. That same night, Tim calls Lars and asked him to join
Rancid, and Lars said "FUCK YA!"
The reason Lars didn't sing on the first Rancid record is because he had been in the band for a short time, and he thought the guys had been working hard with the album and it was their thing.
Lars has the Danish flag on
his guitar, and that's because he is part Danish. His mother is from
Denmark, and thats where his last name is from.
Matt was born in Albany, CA, a working class suburb located between Berkeley and El Cerrito. Matt met Tim when he was only five years old. Him and Tim played in little league together. They went to high school together. They got into punk together when Tim got a tape of punk bands from his older brother.
In 1987 Matt and Tim formed the band Operation Ivy. After that, Matt joined the political punk band MDC in 1990. Tim came on board as a roadie. The first show MDC did there were lots of cops coming up on the stage and the singer yelled "FUCK THE COPS!", and they beat him in the head with sticks.
Matt was raised by a single father. He was also told that he either get a job and help pay at home, or he could move. Matt got a job at a truck-rental place. Matt is really fond of old cars.
Brett moved to Atlanta during his formative punk years, before reassimiling into the Bay Area, where he lived in a one room apartment with his father. He dropped out of high school because he didnt think it was anything for him.
Brett likes to skateboard,
(you can see him skateboarding in the "Hyena" video by Rancid,) and he
also likes to collect records. (He has a very big record collection.)
Brett
has a small collection of hot rods. He has a 50 mercury full custom.
It's chopped and lowered running a small-block chevy, four speed. He has
a 32 roadster. In one week, he took a bare
frame of a car and all the parts, and brought them to a garage near his
house called "The Lucky 7". He repainted all the parts, and brought them
all back to his house in his garage and put them together.
