This rocker chose music over medicine. But it wasn’t for the groupies

Dexter Holland has been in the music industry for more than 30 years, most notably as lead singer of punk-rock band the Offspring. But, says the 59-year-old father of three, he nearly chose a different career path as a doctor, had his mother put her foot down.

Dexter Holland: “I have fond memories of coming home from kindergarten and reading with [Mom] on the couch before the older two got home.”Credit: Getty Images

My maternal grandmother, Anna, was a nurturing stay-at-home mom who raised her family in 1940s Los Angeles. Her husband worked as a plumber. She was always over at our house.

My paternal grandmother, Miriam, was a partier. When I’d visit, she’d be wearing her muumuu and smoking cigarettes. She always had a drink in her hand and a bottle of prescription medication nearby.

My mom, Yvonne, got a piano from her parents when she was 11. She told us it was the first time she ever cried from happiness. She played until she was 18. There were always pop records in the house from Tom Jones to the Everly Brothers and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Mom worked as a school teacher for 30 years. She had four children – I am the third born. I was nine when she went back to study to get her teacher’s degree. I have fond memories of coming home from kindergarten and reading with her on the couch before the older two got home.

My sister Sheryl is six years older than me and introduced me to John Denver, the Carpenters and Barry Manilow. I was scornful of her music when I was younger, but now I totally get it. Sheryl is a music lover and became a school teacher, too. She still lives in the same house we grew up in. I grew up around strong women and was raised to always respect them.

I had my first girlfriend, Ann, in the fifth grade. There was no affection, it was very sweet love. Growing up, I had a serious celebrity crush on Farrah Fawcett – I had posters of her on my bedroom walls.

I was 15 when I wrote my first song about a girl. I wrote it on the piano. Mom made me take lessons until I was 16. Then I decided it wasn’t cool to do it any more and gave it up for punk rock.

Mom was very supportive of my desire to become a musician, but I think she assumed it would be a phase. I was enrolled to go to college and had plans to study medicine, but then the band took off. In her eyes, as long as I had a back-up plan, I’d be fine.

I was in and out of relationships when I first started playing in bands. I got into music because I loved the energy of punk rock. If you were in a Sunset Strip metal band, then girls were a big part of the equation. I like girls as much as the next guy, but it almost seemed clichéd and dumb to have that level of attention. At the time we were coming up in the ’90s, it felt like there were cooler things to write about and heavier stuff to unload through songwriting. There weren’t many groupies around in our scene.

I was married to hair stylist Kristine Luna from 1995 to 2012. We met in the early ’90s. We didn’t have children.

I have a daughter, Alexa, from a previous relationship. She wanted to be a musician from a young age. I tried to talk her out of it because I knew how difficult the music business is. She is doing great and makes a living out of it. Now that I am in my 50s, I care less about my child pursuing a career path and more interested to see her doing what makes her happy.

I married my wife, Amber Sasse, in 2013. We have known each other for 17 years and have two daughters aged nine and five. Our relationship works because we are comfortable around each other and have a lot of trust. I do some crazy things – I go on tours all the time, fly aeroplanes, and my wife is fine with it all. She actually wants to do things with me too; she doesn’t limit me, and she wants to be a part of it.

I got to know Courtney Love when the Offspring and her band Hole toured Australia in 1995. She is so outrageous and lays it out there: the good, bad and the ugly. I find her refreshing.

The Offspring play Melbourne on May 7-8 and Sydney May 11.

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