Greg Graffin

The band Bad religion was formed in the early eighties and has
now been
around over 15 years and has released over eight albums, the lead
singer has
continued his schooling and now has one bachelors degree ,a masters and
is
working on his Ph.D.

Greg Graffin was born in 1965 in Wisconsin. His mother and

father were
divorced after his birth. In 1976 his mother his brother and him moved
to San
Fernando valley California, which is now the punk rock capital of the
world.
"Like millions of other victims of divorce in the seventies I had to
deal with
the fact that my father was now living far away(In Racine, Wisconsin)
and that I
would not get to see him very much." While his father was in Wisconsin
he began
work at the university of Wisconsin as a professor. He still works
their today.
Greg was often picked on in high school because of his "Punkness".
"There were
three people at my high school who were punkers, I mean I got beat up
everyday
by long haired people who listened to Rush and would beat me up because
I didn't.
When he was fifteen he started a band with other social outcasts who
didn't
quite fit in. They settled on the name BAD RELIGION.

Bad Religion does not pertain to any kind of sacrilegious

activities or
the like. Instead it is a statement against any establishment that
promotes
dogmatic thinking or punishes individualism and rewards followers.
Greg once
said in an interview "Instead of rewarding uniqueness we, for some
reason
probably because of cultural and social necessity, we chastise unique
behavior
and reward conformity". On 15/10/93 Greg said BR has 108 songs and 5 or
6 are
about religious issues.

Greg has a very different view point about education then most
punks.
When the band broke up in 1983 he moved back to Wisconsin and attend the
university of wisconsin-madison. soon the administration had found out
that he
was not an official resident any longer so he was kicked out. (he had
recently
spent several years as a California resident) He traveled back to
California
where he was a resident and attended school at UCLA. in 1987 he
received his
masters degree in geology. He had previously received his Masters
degree in
Anthropology and a his B.Sc. in geology. This work was very field
oriented
since he had to study fossils to get the degrees. In 1990 he
transferred to
Cornell University (in Ithica where he currently lives) for a Ph.D..
It will be
a biology degree, but since he studies fossils it will be evolutionary
biology-
paleontology. Because of touring with his band the Ph.D. is on hold.
Currently
he still has to write his thesis on bone tissue , finish up some of his
actual
lab work and take the orals. He is planning to due this in 1997. He
was a
teaching assistant in The evolutionary department at Cornell
university. He
taught mainly pre-medical students when they took a course in
comparative
anatomy. His Ph.D. is in evolutionary biology but he sometimes
refers it to
Zoology since the fossils he studies are from vertebrates. The actual
Ph.D. is
on bone tissue he has been referred to as one of the top five bone
paleontologists n the world. He has had one of his papers printed in a
leading
scientific journal. He says that he plans to stay involved in science
for the
rest of his life. He said "if I could make a million dollars with Bad
Religion ,
I would start an institute that would be for research on early
vertebrates ,
that is what I study."

Greg says he chose punk rock as his medium because he saw a

vacancy in
the music. "Maybe that's what attracted me to it. I saw that there was
definitely a vacancy. People didn't perceive (punk) as valuable, and I
like
challenges ... What better thing to do than use a style of music that
the media
characterizes as all negative and use it for something positive?" says
Graffin.
"There has always been this problem because the media stigmatized punk
from the
earliest days. I think what they were concentrating on was the fashion.
When you
say 'punk' people automatically think of spiked hair and leather
jackets and
violent people. And that has nothing to do with what I thought of it in
the
early days, (which was) really thought-provoking music with a great
melody,"
says Graffin. In fact he considers the music he and his band make as
folk music.
"The music is very sparse, the guitars aren't Multi-layered or
processed. It's
not elaborate; it's something that anyone can play in their garage.
It's very
populist oriented. Even the things we talk about are populist in scope.
So it's
very much like folk music. A lot louder of course..."

At a concert in '96 Greg announced in a Philadelphia concert:

"This is
about half over.......not the show, our career. We've been around 16
years and
we plan on being around 16 more!!!" So hopefully they will be around
to
inspire more people to use their minds for exploration and to create
great music.