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Al: Greg, you're the only surviving member of Bad Religion......

Greg: Peter is in it too....

Al: But he wasn't original...

Greg: Oh, really original back to Jay Ziskrout, yeah......

Al: So you were gonna tell us the truth about Bad Religion.... well you used to be "Bad Religion" and then you were "Bad Religion" and now you are "Bad Religion"....

Greg: I see what you mean. Well there was never a real loss of the whole band, the original ideas are still there, we've always wanted to just play the kind of music we wanted to play. I think what you're getting at is the last record we put out. Now first of all I don't dislike that kind of music. I don't dislike any kind of music for any particular reason. If it's a good song I'll like it. A lot ofpeople are wondering if that was good music we put out, and I think it is. The basic ideas behind it, I mean we had something to say so we said it. And you're seeing it on the record. I think a lot of the times what you have to say doesn't come out clear enough because of the music.... People in other parts of the country, not like beautiful L.A., um, they don't really know us by our records, and they've seen the change... we've got a lot of mail, some of it good, some of it not so good, a lot of the not so good has come from L.A. In other places people still think we're as alive as ever, and as far as I'm concerned we are.

Al: Do you play that stuff live? [Refering to Bad Religions "Into the Unknown" album - you have to hear it to know what we're talking about].

Grag: We play a lot of the older stuff that I have written, Brett is not in the band anymore so we don't play a lot of his songs except for "Bad Religion" and "Drastic Actions". There is another band that I and Greg Hetson [Circle Jerks] are in called Greg Greg, ok. It started 2 1/2 years ago and we never really followed it up with anything, we did get a drummer, Davey Goldman, and he was on the new Bad Religion album. He is no longer with us. Greg Greg was gonna play this new Bad Religion stuff, that was the original plan, the Bad Religion (that we saw that night) plays the older stuff and some new stuff.

Al: What does the future hold for Bad Religion?

Greg: Well, we are gonna keep playing and keep playing what we like to play. Ideas are always changing in my head. I write a song whne I feel one way and that's for Greg Greg, other times I feel differently and I write that for Bad Religion. "Inot the Unknown" was kind of a mixing of all of my idea and putting it on the record. Brett would feel the same way he wrote a few of the songs. 

Al: What happened to Bad Religion in the last year or so?

Greg: Well I've been going to school in Wisconsin, amjoring in Biology. I came back out here and now I'm at UCLA. I don't forsee any more educational shifts, I like it better here than in Wisconsin.

Al: Who is in the band now?

Greg: Well, myself, I will be playing keyboards but you won't hear them to the extent that you heard them on the last album and acoustic guitar, Greg Hetson is playing guitar, Peter is playing drums still and Jim Giago is playing bass, he used to be in Wasted Youth.

Al: How is the audience responding?

Greg: Well there hasn't been a lot of bad responses, but there are some nad I think it's because they feel we've sort of let them down. But that was not the intent, it wasn't an album to say "fuck you". If you really look at it and listen to what's being said it's really got some good ideas. It's like the same thing Elvis Costello went thru, but if you don't give up after a "bad" album, or a very popular album I should say, well people ahve said were "dead" or "has beens" but I don't think so. We're putting out a new ep in about a month, all new stuff, one song is called "New Leaf". I don't know, it's not hardcore punk but it's not softcore 70's music either, it's got a meaning, it's got vigor, lots of vigor....... I just want to encourage all those of you who used to love Bad Religion and now only like us that there's no reason you shouldn't like us anymore. We still have lots to say. I don't know. I've always felt the most interesting people liked Bad Religion anyway.

Al: What did you think of all the bad fanzine reviews.

Greg: I looked at a lot of them in Wisconsin and believe me it didn't hurt. I just felt that the person wasn't looking at it in the right way. If you're in an angry mood and you listen to the first Bad Religion then it's gonna grow on you. If you listen to the new Bad Religion in an angry mood it won't grow on you as much, however if you're in a different mood, if you're in a certain mood you will be able to identify with it a lot better. A lot of critics were quick to refuse it because of the music, or because we looked a little different........

Al: What happened to your leather jacket?

Greg: It's at home, it's sort of hidden away, well when I was younger I think there was a lot more I didn't know and a lot less in control of my own self. It's still there though, maybe one day I'll break it out, ... when I'm really pissed. But I don't really have much to be pissed about, sure it's a shitty world but being pissed your whole life isn't gonna change that. But I'm not one that is apathetic but then I'm not one that thinks taking part in a nuclear protest will make them close down the plants. I just a kicked back kind of a guy... without a leather jacket. I mean Keith Morris can go up there with a Budwiser shirt and no one will ever question him, but when a guy like me takes off his leather jacket people are shocked. It really was hard to play in that....

I just don't want people to hate us because they think we arn't punks anymore, thinks haven't changed that much for us.

Al: I just think, speaking for myself, that people were just craving another dose of a record like "How Could Hell Be Any Worse".

Greg: Yeah, that was a very good album. But I can not understand some people. I have a lot of punk albums from all over, and I think people liked that album because it had good lyrics, the music was also good but it wasn't that important. I look back and think "God I must have been in a really weird mood when I wrote that". The music is ok but it's not that special, AND the lyrics really haven't changed that much if you read the ones on the newer album, they still have the same meaning...

Al: Some seem a little sarcastic towards punks, -- listening to the music and hearing what you were saying it seemed like you were saying "Well I was into that, now I've move on" or something...

Greg: Yeah. There is something sort of like that, because it si true, ya know... people change, christ I wrote those first songs when I was 15, now I'm 19 -- still a child but I've changed a lot and I don't think that my life is ever gonna stagnate. I don't think that anyone who's honest with themselves will say that their's will either....

Gus: You've just grown up....

Grag: It is a sort of a growing up, but ti's not a bad kind of a growing up either, because everybody grows up and they are all going to look back and say "Remember when we did this" and they're not going to say it was dumb, they're just going to remember it for what it was, and that's what I've done.