Offspring Frontman On 'Chinese Democracy'

To be clear, the Offspring never actually tried to steal any material or recordings from Guns N' Roses - they merely considered stealing the long-awaited album's title, just for laughs.

"I think it got blown up a little more than we intended it to," singer Dexter Holland tells Spinner.

While recording in 2003, the band was at a loss for an album title. "When the record's coming together, you try to seriously think of a title for ten minutes and then everyone in the band jokes around for the next two hours with ideas like 'Offspring Bloody Offspring,'" Holland says.

"One day, somebody suggested 'Chinese Democrarcy' and we couldn't stop laughing about it." At that point, the Guns N' Roses album had been in the works for nearly a decade.

The idea grew into a longer title, "Chinese Democracy (You Snooze, You Lose)," when the band decided to put out a press release as a gag. "We got a lot more attention than we thought we would," Holland says. "I heard Axl [Rose] was looking into legal options but there aren't any, since you can't copyright an album title before it's released."

Eventually the band dropped the ruse and titled the album "Splinter."

As for the Axl's finished product, Holland says he's "honestly not that crazy about it."

Comments

[JimmyC8277]

haha i love dexter he's awesome!

[Newagehippy,inc]

i'm not an offspring fan, but i wish they had just to get it right up axl.

[runinotter211]

I'm so proud of this band

[punXander]

lol i wishhhhh.... this would've made axl snap!

[zalitz]

Axl's head would have exploded, raining bits of bandana and red dreadlocks across the land!

[godberry]

"I heard Axl [Rose] was looking into legal options but there aren't any, since you can't copyright an album title before it's released."

HAHA! Yeah. That sounds just like something Axl would try to get away with.

[mlukeroberts222]

Haha!! I'm not that crazy about either Dex!!

[Metallidethium]

he knows whats up

[Power123]

not a huge fan of the offspring, i think a 50 year old man singing songs like pretty fly for a white guy just looks and sounds kinda lame =\...

wudda been funny if theydve done it thou haa..

[Guitar Newbie]

"You snooze you lose!" I remember when Dexter said that...kinda wish they had taken the name xD

[strat0blaster]

Was it because nobody cares about Guns N Roses OR The Offspring anymore?

[David_Bowie=GOD]

strat0blaster wrote:

Was it because nobody cares about Guns N Roses OR The Offspring anymore?

I think lots of people still care about both bands, i dont care about the new GnR but I still like the offspring, aside from a few bad tracks the new cd by them was good. And to the guy a few posts up I dont think hes in his 50s yet.

I kinda wish they had kept the title though, I would have liked it a lot more than splinter. If they had done this, the new gnr album would probably still be unreleased because axl needed another 2 years to think of a title. I agree with him on the new album too, I dont like it that much either. It doesn't have the old GnR sound.

[LeadSalad182]

Power123 wrote:

not a huge fan of the offspring, i think a 50 year old man singing songs like pretty fly for a white guy just looks and sounds kinda lame =\...

Dexter's 43 now and that song was out 15 years ago so you're pretty off on that. And i really wished they called it chinese democracy cuz it really would have cheesed Axl off and its even more funny that there's nothing he could have done about it

wudda been funny if theydve done it thou haa..

[darkfire_storm]

if dexter would have done this, i would've laughed my ass off. although, now that i think about it, i don't think i would've gotten the joke since i only found out about the GnR album about 2 years ago. still, it's funny as hell to read about now.

[ThunderPX]

LeadSalad182 wrote:

Power123 wrote:

not a huge fan of the offspring, i think a 50 year old man singing songs like pretty fly for a white guy just looks and sounds kinda lame =\...

Dexter's 43 now and that song was out 15 years ago so you're pretty off on that. And i really wished they called it chinese democracy cuz it really would have cheesed Axl off and its even more funny that there's nothing he could have done about it

wudda been funny if theydve done it thou haa..

Fifteen? Try ten.

[korn_dawg]

ThunderPX wrote:

LeadSalad182 wrote:

Power123 wrote:

not a huge fan of the offspring, i think a 50 year old man singing songs like pretty fly for a white guy just looks and sounds kinda lame =\...

Dexter's 43 now and that song was out 15 years ago so you're pretty off on that. And i really wished they called it chinese democracy cuz it really would have cheesed Axl off and its even more funny that there's nothing he could have done about it

wudda been funny if theydve done it thou haa..

Fifteen? Try ten.

Ten? Try eleven. He was a 32 year old man who wrote a song called "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" :P

[placebic]

Funny. Where's the "You steal my braids(cornrolls?], I steal your album title bitch!" quote?

either way, was this article really necessary?

"I think it got blown up a little more than we intended it to,"

[placebic]

hahaha about those numbers, guys - wtf fifteen? hahaha eleven is still hard to believe O_O golly... now all we need to do is start singing Ba-wit-da-ba and we'd be set.

[billruption26]

actually a band at a show i played in 2007 was selling their cd and titled it "chinese democracy" with the same joke around it. I wasn't aware that they couldn't copyright the album title until it release but if thats the case does that mean the band could sue axl rose as they have released it first? I'm sure there are a ton of bands that have done this gag throughout the years so how would this go down?

[TSmitty6]

i saw the offspring last summer. i had a good time, kind of a novelty. played all the good old stuff and a couple off the new one. i think they still rocked even for old drunk guys.

[3 days grace14]

Newagehippy,inc wrote:

i'm not an offspring fan, but i wish they had just to get it right up axl.

lol totally agree

[superstud_zat]

This is why The Offspring ****ing rock!

and it was 11 years ago

[ThunderPX]

Axl is probably the only person who cares about having a unique album title anyway. There are tons of albums sharing names with other albums out there, so yeah.

[Jaw Knee]

Power123 wrote:

not a huge fan of the offspring, i think a 50 year old man singing songs like pretty fly for a white guy just looks and sounds kinda lame =\...

wudda been funny if theydve done it thou haa..

Dude, he's 41. A decade off, try again later.

But yeah, Dex is a badass.

[santa_man99]

Here's how it goes: Old GN'R> Offspring> New GN'R. I love Dexter Holland he's amazing, and the fact that he outsmarted Axl makes it all that much better.

[Riffrocker83]

The joke is on both of them. Both bands have seen better days.

[stevezy]

why the eff aren't The Offspring touring the US yet?

[boomtank]

Jaw Knee wrote:

Power123 wrote:

not a huge fan of the offspring, i think a 50 year old man singing songs like pretty fly for a white guy just looks and sounds kinda lame =\...

wudda been funny if theydve done it thou haa..

Dude, he's 41. A decade off, try again later.

But yeah, Dex is a badass.

43, right?

[god of lamb]

In my opinion, its a pretty lame joke and is hardly newsworthy especially now. But then again im only here coz the pit is broken, so never mind

[Ace5gt]

He has a sense of humor, that's why he can write a song like Pretty Fly.

[god of lamb]

Ok let me be diplomatic, I do not find it funny

[NewsoftheWorld]

Offspring make me proud to be from Orange County!

[Slow_N_Low]

Riffrocker83 wrote:

The joke is on both of them. Both bands have seen better days.

Jokes more on Axl since if Offspring were to go away Dexter could use his MS in molecular biology for something whereas Axl can just OD or something.

[JPScralatchtica]

hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha this is why I love this band!