From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greg Graffin
Greg Graffin on stage with Bad Religion in 2007 at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey
Background information
Birth name	Gregory Walter Graffin
Born	November 6, 1964 (1964-11-06) (age 45) Racine, Wisconsin, United States
Genres	Punk rock
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, lecturer, producer
Instruments	vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica, synthesizer, drums
Years active	1980–present
Labels	Epitaph, Atlantic, ANTI-
Associated acts	Bad Religion
Website	www.badreligion.com

Gregory Walter Graffin (born November 6, 1964 in Racine, Wisconsin) is an American punk rock musician and college professor. He is most recognized as the lead vocalist and songwriter of the noted Los Angeles band Bad Religion, which he co-founded in 1980 and has been its only continual member. Graffin obtained his Ph.D. at Cornell University and has lectured courses in life sciences and paleontology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Biography

Career with Bad Religion

In 1980, at the age of 15, Graffin and a few high school classmates formed Bad Religion in Southern California's San Fernando Valley. After making a name for themselves in the Los Angeles punk scene, releasing two EPs and two full-length albums, they disbanded around 1985. However, Bad Religion reformed in 1986 with a new line-up, consisting of Graffin on vocals, Brett Gurewitz and Greg Hetson on guitars, Jay Bentley on bass, and Pete Finestone on drums. In 1988, they released Suffer, which was a comeback for Bad Religion as well as a watershed for the Southern California punk sound popularized by guitarist Gurewitz's Epitaph Records. The reunion lineup, now considered the "classic" one by fans, made two more records before Finestone left the band in 1991. Despite Bad Religion's many member changes over their 25-year history, the current lineup of Graffin, Gurewitz, Hetson, Brian Baker, Jay Bentley and Brooks Wackerman has remained constant since 2001.

Bad Religion has been known for its articulate and often politically charged lyrics as well as its fast-paced harmony, melody and counterpoint. Graffin and Gurewitz are the band's two main songwriters, though Graffin wrote the bulk of the material on his own for a three-album period in the late 1990s when Gurewitz left the band.

After a stint with major label Atlantic Records ended in the early 2000s, Bad Religion re-signed with Epitaph and Gurewitz also rejoined. They have since co-written and recorded three records, the latest of which, New Maps of Hell, was released on July 10, 2007. Bad Religion is currently writing a new studio album to be recorded in April 2010 for a fall release.^[1]

Solo career

Graffin recorded a solo album in 1997, called American Lesion, which consisted of softer, more pop-oriented folk songs. Most of this album was written during the break up of his marriage, and the songs reflect this in lyrics and style.

In June 2005, Graffin released Cold as the Clay.^[2] The new album is an amalgamation of new songs by Graffin and 18th- and 19th-century American folk songs. It was produced by Brett Gurewitz and released on ANTI- Records on July 10, 2006.

Personal life

Graffin attended El Camino Real High School, then double-majored in anthropology and geology as an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles. He went on to earn a master's degree in geology from UCLA and received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. The Ph.D. dissertation was officially a zoology Ph.D., supervised by William B. Provine at Cornell. The dissertation was entitled "Monism, Atheism and the Naturalist Worldview: Perspectives from Evolutionary Biology." It is described as being essentially an evolutionary biology Ph.D. but having also relevance to history and philosophy of science.^[3]

Greg Graffin spends most of his time in Upstate New York, and teaches Life Science 1 and Earth & Space Sciences 116 (paleontology) at UCLA during the winter or fall quarters of each school year.^[4] According to a June 2008 interview with Bad Religion bassist Jay Bentley, Graffin will be teaching there from January to March 2009.^[5]

Greg Graffin received the Harvard Secular Society's "Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism" on April 26, 2008. During the award ceremony he played some acoustic versions of Bad Religion songs as well as songs from his solo career. ^[6]

Preston Jones, a historian at the Christian John Brown University in Arkansas, sent Graffin an e-mail asking about one of his songs, and Graffin replied. Their resulting year-long e-mail exchange was published as a book in 2006, entitled "Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant? A Professor and Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism & Christianity".^[7]

In 2009 Graffin announced that he had written a book entitled "Anarchy Evolution", and that it will be published by Harper Collins with a tentative release date of April 14, 2010. ^{[8] [9]}.

He also wrote on his twitter page that he was filming and co-producing a television series called "Punk Professor". ^[10].

Solo discography

For all his contributions with Bad Religion, see Bad Religion discography

• American Lesion (1997)
• Cold as the Clay (2006)

References

External links

• Greg Graffin at MySpace
• Bad Religion official website
• The Cornell Evolution Project, Graffin's Ph.D project