Trivia / Rancid

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• Development Hell: Indestructible was delayed for over a year before it was finally released, due to conflicting schedules within the band.
  • Between the breakup of Operation Ivy and the founding of Rancid, Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman were in a short-lived ska-punk group called Downfall. Downfall's sole studio album, Ready for Action, was supposed to be released by Lookout! Records in 1994, despite the fact that the group had already broken up. Various complications relating to Rancid's unexpected mainstream success led to the album being shelved. The full album is circulating online, as is a bootleg recording of one of their only live performances.
• Nobody Loves the Bassist: Averted with Matt Freeman as he's very highly respected and admired for his skill as a bass player, even by those who aren't fans of the band. And, being one of the band's founding members, has always been popular among the fans.
• What Could Have Been: Billie Joe Armstrong was offered to join the band in the early '90s, but turned it down to focus on Green Day. He ended up referring them to Lars Frederiksen. Or according to some sources, Billie very briefly was in the band but decided to leave to focus on Green Day and suggested Lars as a replacement - this being why Billie is credited with co-writing the song "Radio".
  • Let's Go was originally planned to be a double album due to the large tracklisting, but eventually just squeezed down onto one disc.
  • Life Won't Wait had over 50 tracks recorded for it. Some tracks from those sessions still have yet to be released.
  • The short-lived Wrestling Society X was originally pitched to MTV as the Rancid Wrestling Federation, named and themed after the band. Rancid themselves are big wrestling fans and are friends with WSX's creator; they approved of the idea, but turned it down because they did not want to give MTV creative control over something with their name on it.

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