The OffspringDexter Holland, frontman of the renowned punk rock band The Offspring, has offered a touching commencement address to approximately 2,000 graduates at USC Dornsife (the University of Southern California) last Friday (15 May).
While he’s one of the biggest names in rock music, the Pretty Fly For A White Guy singer is also a genius who embarks on plenty of sidequests, including participating in a triathlon while on tour in Australia.
As the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences notes, Holland took home a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the university in 1988, followed by a master’s degree in molecular biology in 1990, and, after years on the road and releasing music, he earned a PhD in molecular biology in 2017.
So, to have him deliver a commencement address to this year’s batch of graduate students is pretty awesome. Holland’s speech focused on a key theme: “Life is not a straight line, but a series of pivots.”
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“My journey at USC started straight out of high school as a pre-med student, and I was convinced I wanted to be a doctor,” Holland’s speech began, via a video posted by USC Dornsife on social media.
He continued, “At the same time, I decided to start a punk band while I was at USC. But through taking all those classes, I realised I really loved molecular biology more than I wanted to go to medical school. I was fascinated by DNA, the code of life. And somehow, while I was in grad school here at USC, my band took off.”
It was during his speech that Holland revealed that he wrote one of The Offspring’s best-known songs, Come Out And Play, from 1994’s Smash in the lab on campus at USC. He wrote the song while “washing and sterilising flasks.”
“And that moment was surreal as it continues to be surreal today,” Holland said, sharing that “art and science absolutely do intersect.”
“Life is not a straight line, but a series of pivots,” his speech continued. Offering some great life advice, he added: “Be prepared to pivot, especially if you follow your passions.”
Sharing that his passions took him from molecular biology to rock and roll and back to his studies, Holland urged this year’s graduates to “Make decisions that are driven by your heart, but guided by the critical thinking you’ve learned here.”
He ended his speech by sharing his hopes that the graduates achieve things “so cool and so legit that you too, like me, stop and wonder whether this is really happening. Don’t just choose a career. Choose a life that is as messy and as brilliant as you are.”
You can watch his full commencement address below.
The Offspring brought their SUPERCHARGED tour to Australia last May alongside special guests Simple Plan.
In a recent interview with The Music, promoting their tour and recent album SUPERCHARGED, Dexter Holland and Noodles spoke about how they’re often referenced and their desire to shake off the “punk” label.
“I think that we get the punk label a lot, and I get it because it's where we came from, and there's still a big part of that in our music, but I would like to elevate ourselves and just be The Offspring,” Holland said.
“They don't call Pearl Jam a grunge band anymore, right? They got to the point where they're just Pearl Jam. They don't have to carry that label forever.”
