Social Distortion

Social Distortion is a punk rock band that formed in Fullerton, California in 1978.

Early years (1978-1985)
Social Distortion was formed in 1978 by Mike Ness, Rikk Agnew, Frank Agnew and Casey Royer. Ness was mainly inspired by The Sex Pistols. In 1981, Social Distortion (now Mike Ness, Dennis Danell and John Carrot) released the Mainliner/Playpen 7-inch on Posh Boy Records. The previous year, Casey, Rikk and Frank left to form the Adolescents and Dennis Danell joined Mike Ness.

In 1982, Social Distortion (as of this period Ness, Danell, Brent Liles and Derek O'Brien) did a tour with Youth Brigade, another punk band. This tour was chronicled in the rockumentary Another State of Mind. After this, the band recorded and released their first album, Mommy's Little Monster. On December 31, 1983, Brent and Derek left. They were replaced by Ness's friend John Maurer and another man called Bob Stubbs. Stubbs played for a short time, then he was replaced by Chris Reece. Their first hiatus occured in 1985 because Mike Ness was beginning to get addicted to drugs. This hiatus stopped the next year.