Ongoing History Daily: The “Keep ‘Em Separated” Guy
If you know the Offspring, you’re well aware of their 1995 single “Come Out and Play” from their Smash album. A couple of times in the song, some guy comes in and says “You gotta keep ‘em separated.” Who’s that?
His name is James McLean, a forklift operator from Orange County and one of the very first fans the Offspring ever had. Back in the early days, the band could always count on James showing up to a gig, even if he was just one of six people. As a reward for his loyalty, the Offspring decided to give him a part on a song on the Smash record.
But because James couldn’t sing, they had to invent a speaking part for him. Hence him saying “You gotta keep ‘em separated.” (By the way, that line comes from the time Dexter Holland–who has a PhD in molecular biology–was conducting an experiment and realized he had to keep two components separated for it to work.)
