Article content

Yes, Bad Religion is an old punk band and pretty old-school, too. This Los Angeles outfit hasn’t fundamentally changed its sound since it broke out of the San Fernando Valley region of L.A. at the start of the ’80s.

But on the phone this week from his home in Costa Mesa in Orange County just south of Los Angeles, Bad Religion bassist and co-founder Jay Bentley was happy to concede that, yeah, they’re an ancient band, but the guys themselves are a little younger than you might think. That’s because when they formed in 1980, the three main guys — lead singer Greg Graffin, guitarist Brett Gurewitz and Bentley — were still students at El Camino Real High School. In other words, today they are younger than many of the original punk-era musicians. Bentley is 55, Graffin 54 and Gurewitz 57.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Bad Religion defines the spirit of punk fests like '77 Montréal Back to video

Still, like every other original-era punk musician, Bentley never imagined he’d still be whipping off fast tough tunes nearly four decades down the road.