How Punk Of Them: Offspring Kick Out Drummer For Not Vaxxing

The Offspring will have a new drummer when the band starts a tour August 8 in a post-COVID/vaccine world that has decided it will not accept unvaxxed workers to enter concert venues. In an Instagram post, Offspring drummer Pete Parada explained how he’s been dumped by the band because he won’t get the COVID vaccine.

“Since I am unable to comply with what is increasingly becoming an industry mandate, it has recently been decided that I am unsafe to be around, in the studio, and on tour,” he wrote on Instagram. “I mention this because you won’t be seeing me at these upcoming shows. I also want to share my story so that anyone else experiencing the agony and isolation of getting left behind right now knows they’re not entirely alone.”

Parada, who joined the band in 2007, was facing a tough road in a band where the lead singer, Dexter Holland, has a PhD in molecular biology and changed the words to the band’s hit “Come Out & Play” to “you gotta go get vaccinated” to promote getting jabbed.

It was clear that there would be a vaccine reckoning, and Parada stuck to his guns while Holland wasn’t budging either.

“Given my personal medical history and the side-effect profile of these jabs, my doctor has advised me not to get a shot at this time,” the drummer wrote. “I caught the virus over a year ago—it was mild for me, so I am confident I’d be able to handle it again—but I’m not so certain I’d survive another post-vaccination round of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, which dates back to my childhood and has evolved to be progressively worse over my lifetime. Unfortunately for me (and my family, who is hoping to keep me around a bit longer) the risks far outweigh the benefits.”

“While my reason for not getting this jab is medical, I want to make sure I’m not carving out a space that is only big enough for me,” said Parada. “I need to state, unequivocally, that I support informed consent, which necessitates choice unburdened by coercion. I do not find it ethical or wise to allow those with the most power (government, corporations, organizations, employers) to dictate medical procedures to those with the least power. There are countless folks (like me) for whom these shots carry a greater risk than the virus.”

“I have no negative feelings towards my band. They’re doing what they believe is best for them, while I am doing the same. Wishing the entire Offspring family all the best as they get back at it! I’m heartbroken not to be seeing my road community, and I will miss connecting with the fans more than I can express in words.”

And with that, Dexter, Noodles and the rest of the vaxxed Offspring will roll on to places like Texas and Florida where there won’t be vaccination checkpoints.