Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion

by Bad Religion, Jim Ruland (With)

From their beginnings as teenagers experimenting in a San Fernando Valley garage dubbed "The Hell Hole" to headlining major music festivals around the world, discover the whole story of Bad Religion's forty-year career in irreverent style.

Do What You Want's principal storytellers are the four voices that define Bad Religion: Greg Graffin, a Wisconsin kid who sang in the choir and became an L.A. punk rock icon while he was still a teenager; Brett Gurewitz, a high school dropout who founded the independent punk label Epitaph Records and went on to become a record mogul; Jay Bentley, a surfer and skater who gained recognition as much for his bass skills as for his antics on and off the stage; and Brian Baker, a founding member of Minor Threat who joined the band in 1994 and brings a fresh perspective as an intimate outsider.

With a unique blend of melodic hardcore and thought-provoking lyrics, Bad Religion paved the way for the punk rock explosion of the 1990s, opening the door for bands like NOFX, The Offspring, Rancid, Green Day, and Blink-182 to reach wider audiences. They showed the world what punk could be, and they continue to spread their message one song, one show, one tour at a time.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Punk, Audiobook, Autobiography, Memoir

336 pages, Hardcover

Published August 18, 2020

Reviews

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Joe Strummer, Sid Vicious, Joey Ramone, Brett Geurwitz, Greg Graffin

These are just a few undisputed names of people who made the face of punk as it is today. No one can deny the impact that Bad Religion has had on the music scene since the late 80s. Do What You Want follows the many members of Bad Religion throughout the decades cataloguing their work on an impressive resume of work. Jim Ruland has done a great job at making you understand the grind and determination that got Bad Religion to their status. There were many time where a lesser band would have thrown in the towel, but Bad Religion weathered the twists and turns. It's amazing that they are still relevant to music today.

I literally wouldn't be the person that I am today if Bad Religion didn't exist. While I've always been a only casual fan, but their influence has been strong on the music that shaped my beliefs, my personality, my memories and my life since I was a teen. Jim Ruland has clearly and undoubtedly highlighted that legacy. As he says, their album Suffer was "a record that would mark a seismic shift in the punk rock landscape whose aftershocks can still be felt today."

For as much as I enjoyed the story of Bad Religion, Do What You Want was lacking for me. The writing style felt a little dumbed down. Bad Religion is an intelligent band, but this book was missing that part of them. I know it wasn't written by Greg Graffin or anything, but it felt like it was written by an outsider far removed from their circle. I didn't get the personality of any of the members even when they were talking about their toughest moments. It was missing that spark of passion.

Parts of Do What You Want felt like reading a Wikipedia entry. It was so focused on listing who knew who or who played with who that we missing the real stories and gems. It seems like the band has always had a weird and interesting dynamic, but this book didn't make me feel like I know what it's like to be in Bad Religion. Maybe I'm asking too much of it, but when I compare it to other bios I've read recently, there is a personal touch missing.

Despite that I did enjoy Do What You Want. I would only recommend it for a fan who already has some love of the band though. Someone who wasn't invested in the band may not find it as captivating.

[Piotr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing band, mediocre writing

I feel very conflicted about the book. I've been listening to bad religion since I was a teenager and I really looked forward to reading the ultimate biography of my favorite band. Unfortunately the writing seems like a high school essay, and not what I would expect from a band with such potential. Still it's a must read for bad religions fans, but if you want great writing and amazing stories about southern Californian punk you'd be better reading the NOFX book.

[Julie Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Bad Religion represents nothing less than the marriage of punk rock protest and intellectual inquiry....[their] legacy is...one that champions questioning authority, challenging dogma, and resisting easy answers. For the last forty years, Bad Religion has urged its audience to think for themselves, and by doing so has made the world a more intelligent place, one lyric, one listener, at a time." (304)

I discovered BR as a 14-year-old swimming in outrage with no healthy outlets. The No Control album began my 6-year punk phase that evolved into listening to other bands that WERE characterized by "mindless fury, self-effacing debasement"(304) and those who just cared to keep the party going. It was about finding a new community of like-minded people and finding the music that matched my inner turmoil. Listening together became that healthy outlet, and those were formative years. When I had my own child, I put all the punk music away in favor of folk music and children's peace-promoting tunes. 20 years later, I still consider myself a punk at heart, even though my lifestyle, I figured, didn't reflect it. I haven't dropped the "punk" from my online handles, and wondered why I have held onto this for so long. I identify mostly as an "ex-punk."

I live the life of what I would've called a sellout back then. I attend education and technology conferences in professional attire (with intentionally mismatching socks as my way of harmlessly but surely protesting my conformity), and twice I have met another educator who shared my punk history albeit on different coasts. We stayed up all night reminiscing as if we had been friends back then, and it's like meeting long-lost family. We no longer to listen to punk, but we cherish that part of ourselves. I will try to have something on me that communicates my experience in the punk scene in my youth, as it's a beacon to others who shared that experience as a way to make new connections with the kinds of people I want to know.

Reading this book made me realize that BR has been carrying on all of these years without me! I've been lilting along for the past 19 days, immersing myself in punk songs (I played a track from every band mentioned, and oh, the sweet nostalgia!) feeling so comfortable with myself, past and present. I've a lot to catch up on in terms of BR's music since 1998, but the most important thing I learned is that I'm still punk rock, no matter what I listen to anymore. It's not something I'm "holding onto" or trying to be even though I'm not. It's not that I was a punk back then and a sellout now. This book reminded me that where I started, with BR, is where I still am. Greg says that BR's objective all along was to "get people to think, and reject the falsities of pseudo-science and superstition." Ya-hey! That is me. I love their lyrics, I love their mission, and I have chosen a profession in which I have the ability to influence our youth to become critical thinkers. I advocate, I'm vocal, I protest, I am never satisfied with the status quo. I may not dress the part of a teen punk rocker, but I am punk rock in the way I want to be. I do what I want.

This biography of the band couldn't be any more well written. I learned a ton about the band and leave with even more respect for them and a desire to catch up on all of the albums I missed during my child-rearing years. But to be honest, it was also pretty depressing despite the author's attempts at ending with hope. Revisiting the lyrics from 30 and 40 years ago is an upsetting experience in that nothing has changed. The relevance of the band's observations, fears, and complaints to today's society and government is ridiculous and disturbing. In fact, things are significantly worse.

The chapter Shock and Awful is the most distressful. The chapter chronicles BR's reaction to the Iraq war after 9/11 and the re-election of George W. Bush. The authors claim that "most of the free world saw this for what it was: a shameless show of brute force by an imperialist power that needed to flex its muscles after the September 11 attacks." However, unconnected to a punk community and struggling with my first year of teaching and being a single mom of a toddler (and getting my Master's degree at the same time), I felt utterly alone in my interpretation of events. I live in a rural part of upstate New York, only two hours from Greg Gaffin's liberal Ithaca, and could only see the blind support and false patriotism of conservatives, and I wondered where all the intelligent people were....they certainly weren't in congress. I felt like no one got it. Oh, how I wish I had been connected to BR and all its fans, listening to Empire Strikes First! Anyway, about the book, the authors make statements like this:
-"In the wake of 9/11, protest was painted as unpatriotic" (251)
-"The band's anger at the administration was outpaced only by its incredulity that a simpleton like Bush could get elected in the first place. This was a man who, during the presidential election, couldn't remember the title of a single book he admired..."
-"To combat the xenophobia the administration was cultivating...(252) and
-"On the 25th anniversary of "Fuck Armageddon..This is Hell", the war criminals in the White House could no longer lay claim to any moral high ground as they...conned their base into voting against its own interests with an agenda that pandered to Christian fundamentalism....their hypocrisy was out in the open and Bad Religion was having none of it" (260).

These notes on the state of the Bush administration seen through the lens of today's Trump country is disturbing. Can all of this only get progressively worse? Is this just a milder iteration of what's to come despite our futile attempts at change? As I did at 14-20, I contemplated the text of this book and BR lyrics with a feeling of despair. To be fair, the author does try to inspire you with hope, touting BR as an influencer of change and continuing the fight in the best way they can, via song writing, production of albums and stimulating shows, but I'm not buying it. RBG died last night, just to provide some context for my current mood as I write this review.

This book will remind you how awesome BR is, and you will fall in love with them all over again. You'll learn their whole story in the most entertaining way, and your mind will be stimulated as well (as per usual with anything BR). You will hear from the band members about their intentions behind particular songs and what they had intended to accomplish with each album. And you’ll remember what punk really is and isn’t if you’ve been out of the scene for 20 years. :) I can’t recommend this book enough to fans, and if you've been disenchanted with them because of some of their decisions you didn't support, read this to get a better understanding.

5 stars, and thanks for all the new perspectives!

[Matthew Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this cover to cover the day it arrived. I am quite a big Bad Religion fan though... he says with more than a little understatement :-)

Jim’s writing style is accessible and most people will find this to be an easy read in learning the 40 year history (so far!) of an incredibly influential band, without whom guitar music from the 80s onwards would be very different.

If I had one criticism it would be that you can tell Jim isn’t a huge fan of the band. It is clear that he likes the band, but at times I feel that he misses the things about the band that makes them so great. Then again, perhaps he is more objective as a result, but I do sense that he started writing this from a very low base of pre-existing knowledge.

Nevertheless, it is clearly a ‘must read’ for any fan of Bad Religion. I would argue it should also be read by anyone who is interested in punk-rock and the other genres that spun off from that in the 90s, if you want to learn about the band that kicked all that off.

[Tristan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are you a fan of Bad Religion? If so, you'll enjoy this book. The writing leaves a little to be desired, there are only so many words to describe music.

I was a huge fan of Bad Religion in high school, but haven't really kept up with their work since then. I also didn't know much of their history or the history of Epitaph. Those sections of the book were the most interesting.

[Vicente Ribes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro excelente de una banda genial. Bad Religion sembraron el futuro del punk con sus discos y fueron el nexo entre las bandas clásicas del género y la nueva ola de los 90, sin ellos seguramente no hubiesen existido bandas como Rancid o Offspring o el sello discográfico por excelencia, Epitaph.
En este libro asistimos a su trayectoria desde su formación tocando en fiestas y squats, diseñando el polémico logo de la cruz tachada y recorriendo una trayectoria de 40 años. La historia de sus dos lideres me parece genial; Greg Graffin, el pensador intelectual capaz de sacarse una carrera y ser profesor universitario mientras mantiene a flote el grupo a lo largo de todos estos años y Brett Gurewitz, que después de pelear contra sus adicciones a las drogas acaba convirtendose en productor y amo del sello discográfico independiente más exitoso de los 90.
Cada capítulo nos cuenta diversas anecdotas referentes a la inspiración de cada canción, los problemas para sostener al grupo y las giras que les llevan alrededor del mundo.
Si eres fan lo disfrutaras enormemente.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion by Bad Religion with Jim Ruland is an enjoyable biography of the band.

Even though I had lived and gone to school in Van Nuys (a few years before the band members got together) and kept ties to the area, it wasn't until the Suffer album in 1989 or so that I heard them. Over the next 30+ years they have stayed on my radar even though I wouldn't say I was a diehard fan. But I did like their music a lot. Just wanted to preface my comments on the book with this so you'll know where my opinions come from. Basically a casual fan of the band with just a cursory idea of their history.

I found this bio of the band to be both an enjoyable read and serves to give me better insight into their music. We, meaning me of course, so often hear about musicians problems or bands breaking up and reforming that we tend to write off every instance as self-indulgence or self-destruction. While these are certainly part of most of these events, they are only small parts, much as they are for the majority of us when we go through life's ups and downs. Reading this gave me an appreciation for what they were trying to do, what they weren't trying to do (often just as important), and what simply happened and they reacted to.

I found the discussions of lyrics and what they were intended to convey enlightening. Just about the last thing I would call them is condescending, but then I am fairly secure in myself and don't feel like writers explaining what they were trying to do is an insult to whatever I took from the song. I think the tone of the book throughout was more explanatory than blind praise. In other words, it read like how most people reflect and explain their life (some subtle whitewashing but largely honest attempts at understanding and explaining) rather than a Trumpian ode to self where every failure and misstep is blamed on someone else. But then I am not from the south or a cult member, so...

I would highly recommend this to fans of Bad Religion and/or punk, as well as most music lovers who like to know the hows and whys of an artist's career.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Kaiulani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bad Religion is one of my favorite bands but this really did nothing for me. It told a story, sure, but without any heart. It glossed over most of the darker bits and zoomed in on the uninteresting. It felt like a Wiki or the result of a legal battle. Masturbatory, heartless and boring.

[Mat]

As someone else wrote here, this is basically an extended Wikipedia entry; it won’t tell you anything you won’t already know if you’re a fan of the band and have read a little about them over the years. You’d think given the brains behind the band that something creative and interesting could have been done in the style of NOFX’s Hepatitis Bathtub or Motley Crue’s The Dirt. But this is about as by numbers as it gets. It gets the job done but I’m left wondering what could have been.

The early years stuff is the most interesting, and had a bit more energy than the rote latter sections. But as someone who adores The Gray Race, I was sad to see so little time spent on it. And after hearing so much about the New America sessions, it’s pretty much glossed over bar one or two benign anecdotes. Perhaps it’s because they’re nice guys, but the gloves are always on and nothing juicy really ever transpires, which I find hard to believe after 40 years in a touring punk band. And I’d probably be fine with that if the stories about the album sessions or writing process had any detail to them, but even these aren’t notable. Why did Greg sing songs so high on The Gray Race? How did Brett feel about the Geurwitz cracked line in the Tested version of Stranger than Fiction? Why no mention of the song Hate You by Brett and his side project The Daredevils? Why did the various excellent b-sides get cut from the albums?

The part that best captured my feelings about the missed opportunities in this book was when Jamie joined the band late on, and he’d heard of these notorious Bad Religion barbeques and how Jay will probably attack you with a fire hose if you show up. And I was like, wow, that all sounds amazing. Someone should probably put those stories in a book one day.

[Eli Hornyak · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I got an arc for this one. Bad Religion is still one of my favorite bands and still making great music!

[Wes Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bad Religion is my favorite band.

[Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bad Religion has been with me since the mid 90s and since then I listened to every album as soon as I could. I didn't track them closely and I first went to a concert about 5 years ago, but they were always close to my heart. I'm thankful this book has brought me a lot closer to the members of the band, has explained a lot of history and touched on lots of topics. I found it well written and an easy read, and it's helpful to look up locations and listen to their songs while reading. For non-fans it might go too deep into the lives of the musicians, but for fans it enhances the experience immensely.

[Christopher Hudson Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing autobiography of one of the greatest bands of all time. Even as a fan I learned quite a bit. But the book definitely isn’t only for diehards. There’s a lot of engaging material even for casual fans of punk rock, and Do What You Want might be the perfect entry point and roadmap into the substantial Bad Religion discography.

[The Kawaii Slartibartfast · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Ive been a fan of Bad Religion since high school so I probably am not a good unbiased source but I really enjoyed the insights into the band. They're one of those bands that is so on point that its easy to forget they existed years before Id even heard of them.

Its a fantastic read about a much beloved band.

[Jesse Havoc · Rating 4 out of 5]

"And when your life endeavor evades your clever meddling,
It's only headphone weather, so get your head together."

[Sebastian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This very comprehensive and informing story about Bad Religion is captivating and makes you understand and possibly even appreciate their hard work during the years, even more. However, what's keeping this from being 5/5 for me, is the writing. Sometimes it feels like a fourth grade book report that lists the contents of a book, or a Wikipedia article.

[Kevin Gentilcore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t think of a band that’s been such a big part of my life, consistently, for as long as Bad Religion, so fucking obviously when a new autobiography comes out about the bands history, it’s an instant read for me.

That being said, it was a fairly straight forward accounting of the bands long and legendary career. If you’re familiar with punk likely you’ve heard the stories of the west coast hardcore punk revival a million times, and there’s far more in-depth books and documentaries about that. Bad Religion were of course there but they don’t really add much to that story except their take, which is fairly uneventful, or maybe just not as dramatic as Henry Rollins or Keith Morris would recount them.

There’s some fun anecdotes and insight and overall it did a good job of laying out exactly why Bad Religion is the legendary band they are. However, while reading it I kept wishing there was a book or documentary just about Epitaph Records, which I think is one of the most monumental and important music labels ever, and one spawned into existence by necessity because of Bad Religion. There’s nuggets of info in the book about different eras of Epitaph and I’m like “damn, that’s interesting, that could be a whole chapter on its own.” Alas, this is not that book, but likely if you’re a big enough Bad Religion fan that you’d read an autobiography about them, this is the book for you. Of course, I’d recommend listening to all of their music, ever, then read this book.

[David Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of critics and music fans attempt to connect the dots between the "death" of punk in 1983 (end of The Ramones) to the "rebirth" in 1994 (Green Day). They often anoint Nirvana as the link, but for those who study musics history and what this book ultimately shows is that Bad Religion was the band who did this. 40 years on the "intellectual punks" still put out great music with a message, and do exactly what they want.

[Steve Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the best biography of a punk rock band I’ve read. If you are a fan of Bad Religion or of punk rock in general, this is a must read! It takes you through their entire career.

[Dani Kass · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've loved a handful of Bad Religion songs for at least the last decade, and play them all the time, but I never knew much about the band themselves besides them being icons. When I saw them live for the first time last year, I was blown away: by how good they were live, by how much they just looked like nerdy dads, by how dumb I'd been for not listening to them more earlier. So I went home and did my research, and kept getting more confused about how I missed that the singer is also a PhD who teaches evolutionary biology, that their guitarist created Epitaph, that they started when they were 16?

Needless to say, this book was perfect for me. I needed the true crash course on everything Bad Religion: the scene they came from, the band members, the messages over time, the how tf do you make this work while teaching at UCLA, were they really 16, and how truly epic are they? And this book provided all that.

I do wish it got a little more personal. I still walked away with very top level understanding of the people in the band and their dynamic, and that lack of depth about the people involved was felt throughout.

But still, it made me want to go back through the entire overwhelming catalog with a new clarity. It was also very cool to realize that I wasn't just getting the history of Bad Religion, but of the label that put out so many of my favorite albums as well.

I loved hearing about the dynamics of how, for the first decade of the band, it was basically a side project for everyone, and then how, once they started touring regularly, they lived all over the continent. It's a strange dynamic that was intriguing to hear more about, and clearly it produces something incredible.

[Stijn Roelants · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never felt confident enough to write a review about a book i have read. Mostly because my backlog isn’t big enough to have decent perspective of what makes a good book or how i would review it.

But with this one its about more than the writing itself. It about a band I discovered in my early teens and persisted to be a soundtrack for me, to this day. Its an interesting view of how one band helped shape a whole culture. Of how one bands lyrics influenced many of us and how these lyrics are still relative today. Nor is it afraid to explore the darker sides of living the life of a punk legend.

Do What You Want kept me enticed to last page and only made my love for this band grow further, discovering more songs and how they came to be.

If your not a fan of the genre i would still recommend this book. The amazing journey the long time members of this band went through is more than enough of a reason to pick this one up.

[bojana · Rating 4 out of 5]

i am torn... i want to give it 5* even though it is not a 5* book just because of the sheer joy it gave me. i limited myself to only one chapter per day so that it lasts longer.
bad religion in one of my favourite bands of all time, and, with my mood the last year or two, it is the band i listened the most this year, judging by my apple music stats. therefore, i am the key demographic for this book. it has a lot of history and nice stories, but i really really wish someone edited it better. it would've easilly be a 5* book if some parts were rewritten. i wished for more of band members imput, not just the basic history. some stories just get mentioned and never picked up (we all know brian is super healthy and rarely drinks, but the last thing we read about him is about him drinking himself to oblivion in jay's house, never mentioning what happened after). love the story about mike's youth though, that was unexpected and fun.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan, I loved this book. It's a detailed history of one of the most influential bands in punk history and canon for those interested in understanding their unique style of intellectual and subtextual songwriting. I am still always amazed by the fact that the album Suffer came out in 1988, considering its sound and lyrics remain relevant to this day, in an industry that has changed so much. I enjoyed getting to know the many parts, aka people, that have fueled this musical genius that is Bad Religion. It's candid. There are fun stories and not so fun stories. There is reflection of all the success, as well as some of the failures. There are interesting moments of great decision-making and also of disappointment. I enjoyed every minute of reading this book.

[Dave Schumaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bad Religion was probably one of my top 3 favorite bands while growing up as an angsty teenager. As I've gotten older, I've lost some of my punk rock sensibilities and the desire to keep up with the bands that I used to love so much.

But I have so many pleasant and vivid memories of listening to various albums on full blast in my room or car, while driving around during the sweltering Southern California summers. I remember wearing my cross buster t-shirt and feeling so smug when a fellow student (who went to one of these crazy mega churches) in a high school class asked "why on Earth would you wear something like that?" I remember keeping a dictionary nearby to look up every third word of a song because their wordy lyrics were so ridiculously complex.

And although some of their albums came out half a decade or more before I started listening to them, "Suffer", "No Control", "Against the Grain", and "Generator" were critical components in the sound track of my teenage life.

Anyway, it's been awhile since I've given them a serious listen, so, imagine my surprise when I see a friend add "Do What You Want", a biography about Bad Religion, to their reading list. A book?! About Bad Religion?!

The book spans 40 years of the band's history, from their first practice sessions inside a hot garage in the valley, to their most recent album (Age of Unreason). (Have they really been at it for forty years and have something like 17 albums!? It's really unbelievable to me that these guys are pushing 60 and still at it and enjoying it.)

Despite being fairly emotionless and dry (imagine reading about a history of a band in a newspaper article), this book was a really easy read. There's nothing scandalous or exceptionally profound within, but it does share interesting anecdotes from tours and recording sessions of every album they've put out. And hey, I definitely learned some interesting things about the band!

I also found myself flipping back and forth between this book and then loading up Spotify in order to listen to various songs and albums that were mentioned. I forgot how good some of these early albums are. And I've really missed out on some of the more recent stuff. There are some good tunes there.

All in all, the book provided a nice sense of nostalgia and even helped me rediscover some more recent tunes from one of my all-time favorites.

[Nathan Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun read if you’re a long standing Bad Religion fan such as myself. I really enjoyed hearing the whole thing specifically the parts where band members came and went. Since BR doesn’t comment on a members departure it was interesting to see how people came and went and why.
Overall though it reads like an extended Wikipedia article. It’s not terribly well written and I came across a few typos. It reads easy and flows nicely but some sentences and phrasing are superfluous or just downright useless. Even so it was worth the four days it took me to read this. Would have been faster if I didn’t have to work.

[Leo Sheehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If your a fan, read it. If your not a fan, read it anyways.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruland's narration is well-done. He paces the narrative and tells the 40-year history of the greatest band on earth in a way that focuses on the creation of the music without devolving into soap-opera or anecdotal litanies of famous friends. The dramas of the group are told from the members' points-of-view and those that couldn't (or wouldn't) speak on their behalf were handled tactfully, much to the chagrin of the gossip-mongers.

On a personal level, Bad Religion has been such an important part of my life for so long, I can't imagine the person I'd have become without them in my life. They had their first rehearsal a few months before I was born. I first heard them the same year I first asked myself what kind of person I wanted to become. I found myself reliving the years of my life as I read along with the overlapping chapters of the band's history. One of the best things about Bad Religion is how earnest and human they've always been despite their success. Reading through their ups and downs humanized them even more, and—like their music has always inspired me to do—made me reflect back on my own decisions, regrets, triumphs and failures I've lived along the way. As the book caught up with today, a melancholy hung over me. Some day, Bad Religion will release their last song and play their last show. I'm not by hyperbolic to say I dread that day as much as I dread the inevitable last time I ever pick up my kids. But, everything must cease, and the inevitability of that end just means we have to cherish the present and celebrate the history, like all those things that leave their marks upon us.

No Bad Religion song can make your life complete, but more than 400 of them over 40 years can certainly enrich it in a meaningful and profound way that I, at least, will be forever grateful.

[Bonkach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dao sam petaka jer obožavammy, al stil pisanja je nekako za klince, ili pak penzionere, koji nužno ne moraju znati niti jednu pismu.

[Daniel Finnegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good biography of a great band. With so many members over their 40 years together, a lot of time was spent on introducing new characters, but it’s cleanly written and always interesting. These guys, and Greg Graffin in particular, have been a huge influence on my life and way of thinking. Recommended for fans new and old.

[Mary Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is for fans only, looking for a catalog of the shifting lineup. I appreciated (re)learning new or forgotten details, but the music itself stands far and above.