The Offspring has announced the name of their new drummer. He’s Atom Willard, formerly of the punk act Rocket From The Crypt. Willard will appear with the band on their fall tour, with dates to be announced soon. Original drummer Ron Welty departed the Offspring earlier this year to devote more time to other projects. The new Offspring album, titled Splinter, arrives on December 2.
Welty left before the band began recording Splinter, so the drums on the album were handled by A Perfect Circle’s Josh Freese, who has also played drums on albums by Evanescence, Staind, Puddle Of Mudd, and Static-X, among many others. Freese revealed why he thinks he’s in such high demand. “I’m a confident drummer, but there’s other drummers out there that can play as well or better than I play. But I think that I’ve got a reputation for being able to come in and kind of adapt and chameleon myself into blending in with their music like on, you know, an hour’s notice.”
The Offspring was originally going to call the new album Chinese Democrazy (You Snooze, You Lose) as a way of poking fun at the long-delayed Guns N’ Roses record, Chinese Democracy. But Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose threatened legal action, and the Offspring admitted on their website that the flap over the title “had brought production to a halt.”
The Offspring’s last album, Conspiracy Of One, emerged in 2000.