In February 1994, Brett Gurewitz was driving to his home in Studio City, California in his 1984 Volvo station wagon, listening to the final mixes of Smash, The Offspring’s forthcoming third album. With the tape deck cranked as loud as it would go, he circled the block “maybe 20 times” in order to listen to the music “over and over and over and over again”. When he did finally slow the vehicle to a stop, he walked through his front door and greeted his then-wife, Maggie, with the words, “Honey, everything’s going to be different now.” Then as now, Brett Gurewitz was the owner of Epitaph Records, the punk rock imprint to which The Offspring were signed. The release of Smash on April 8, 1994 saw the company’s (and not to mention the band’s) fortunes change in a radical manner. Previously...
