Greg Hetson (born June 29 1961) is an American guitarist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and has lived in Los Angeles, California since he was 2 years old. Active since 1978, Hetson is best known as the guitarist for the influential hardcore punk bands Redd Kross, Circle Jerks and Bad Religion.
While Hetson declares Bad Religion as his main occupation, he has alternated between both Bad Religion and The Circle Jerks since 1994. He also plays guitar in two supergroup bands Punk Rock Karaoke and Black President.
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Greg Hetson (born June 29 1961) is an American guitarist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and has lived in Los Angeles, California since he was 2 years old. Active since 1978, Hetson is best known as the guitarist for the influential hardcore punk bands Redd Kross, Circle Jerks and Bad Religion.
While Hetson declares Bad Religion as his main occupation, he has alternated between both Bad Religion and The Circle Jerks since 1994. He also plays guitar in two supergroup bands Punk Rock Karaoke and Black President.
The Circle Jerks
In 1980, Hetson abandoned his position as guitarist of the punk/alternative band Redd Kross to form The Circle Jerks with former Black Flag vocalist Keith Morris. Soon after, they released their debut LP, Group Sex and in 1981 were featured in the Los Angeles documentary The Decline of Western Civilization along with several other Los Angeles punk bands.
In 1982, The Circle Jerks released their second album Wild in the Streets. This album, while popular, did not sell nearly as much as their third LP Golden Shower of Hits, released in 1983.
While Bad Religion was on hiatus, the Circle Jerks continued touring and recorded two more albums (Wonderful and VI) before breaking up around 1989. However, they reformed in 1994 and released Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities, their last album to date, a year later. Hetson has been playing in both bands since then.
Bad Religion
Greg Hetson was credited on Bad Religion's debut album How Could Hell Be Any Worse? for playing the solo for the song Part III. His first (official) release with Bad Religion was the Back to the Known EP, released in 1984, which declared the band's return to their original punk sound after releasing the highly unsuccessful, progressive rock album Into the Unknown, after which the band disbanded.
After the release of Back to the Known, Bad Religion broke up for a second time, but reformed in 1986 with the How Could Hell Be Any Worse? line-up and Hetson was included. Bad Religion recorded their first three highly acclaimed reunion albums, Suffer, No Control and Against the Grain, before drummer Pete Finestone quit the band in 1991.
Bad Religion replaced Finestone with Bobby Schayer, then recorded their next album, Generator, which was already in completed in the spring of 1991, but was forced to delay its release until a year later. For the album, Bad Religion also filmed their first music video "Atomic Garden", which was also their first song to be released as a single. In 1993, the band left their original label Epitaph Records and signed to Atlantic Records, who released their next album Recipe for Hate. While moderately successful, this was the first Bad Religion album to reach any Billboard charts and two videos for the album, "American Jesus" and "Struck a Nerve", were made.
The band's popularity grew in 1994 with their widely successful album Stranger Than Fiction, including their well-known hits "Infected" and "21st Century (Digital Boy)", which are also often considered concert staples. After the album was completed, longtime guitarist Brett Gurewitz soon left Bad Religion to concentrate on the future of Epitaph, citing the increasing amount of time he was spending at Epitaph's offices as The Offspring became one of the biggest bands of the mid-1990s, but it was well known that his departure was not on good terms.
Gurewitz was replaced by former Minor Threat/Dag Nasty guitarist Brian Baker and Bad Religion recorded three more albums without him before returning in 2001. The band's current line-up now includes Greg Graffin (vocals), Gurewitz, Hetson, Baker (all on guitar), Jay Bentley (bass) and Brooks Wackerman (drums).
Punk Rock Karaoke
Hetson also plays guitar in the all star band "Punk Rock Karaoke" with Eric Melvin of NOFX and Steve Soto & Derek O'Brien of The Adolescents .
Black President
Hetson formed a supergroup band called Black President, consisting of Charlie Paulson (from Goldfinger), Jason Christopher, Ty Smith from Guttermouth and Christian Black (from Dee Dee Ramone). The band is in the process of writing and recording their debut album and have announced some tour dates on their Myspace page.
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…shrink me down again