Pennywise singer gains wisdom with age

Kirk Baird

Friday, June 22, 2001 | 8:52 a.m.

During a recent performance in Austria while on a brief European tour, Jim Lindberg, frontman for Southern California punk band Pennywise, took a routine stage dive -- something he does at most shows.

Unfortunately for him, Lindberg misjudged his leap and landed hard on the ground in a 10-foot gap between the stage and the barricade. The stunt resulted in a broken rib, which proved less painful than his damaged ego.

"My 10-year-old daughter said, 'Daddy, you're too old to be doing this,' " Lindberg recalled recently in a phone interview from his home in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

To which the 35-year-old singer replied: "I think you're right, honey."

It should be noted, however, that Lindberg and his band, which plays Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center as one of the headliners on the "Vans Warped Tour 2001," continued with the show.

And Lindberg's playing through the pain paid off a few weeks later.

After performing a show in Los Angeles, which was filmed for an upcoming episode of HBO's live music series "Reverb," Lindberg was hanging around musicians from veteran punk bands Circle Jerks, Bad Religion and Green Day.

As can be expected when too much testosterone is in the room, it was inevitable that someone brought up war stories about on-the-job injuries and playing through pain.

"It was hilarious. We sounded like a bunch of old football players," Lindberg said. " 'Oh yeah, well I played with a broken nose.' 'Oh yeah, well I sliced my hand open and had to record an album.' "

The winner, by the way, proved to be Jay Bentley, the bassist of Bad Religion.

"Jay was working on his house and had a nail gun and nailed his hand to a two-by-four and had to record the Bad Religion album with a punctured hand. My broken ribs paled in comparison," Lindberg joked.

Performing since the late '80s Pennywise is a throwback to the late '70s/early '80s days of punk, when attitude and agenda walked hand in hand. It's a band that wears the punk heritage on its sleeve, which made the recent death of punk-rock godfather Joey Ramone that much more difficult to take for the group.

"For us it was like (John) Lennon dying," he said. "I definitely have a lot of respect for what the Beatles did. They are the blue print for most of the music out there. But for my generation, the skate-punk generation, the Ramones were it."

But it wasn't the Ramones that got Lindberg into the punk scene.

Growing up in Southern California, where he spent much of his high school years, Lindberg said he was content to "surf, chase girls and get into trouble." That changed when he began listening to California punk bands Black Flag, Bad Religion and Minor Threat -- "serious bands, with a serious message."

Spurred to get involved himself, Lindberg joined Pennywise and began singing anti-establishment songs and taking to task what he felt was the corruption in the power structure.

Which helps explain "(Expletive) Authority," the band's first single off its new album, "Land of the Free?" As a parent, does Lindberg worry about sending the wrong message with that type of song?

"I very much consider our band adult-listening, even though a lot of skater kids listen to it," Lindberg said. "It's up to parents to play what they think their kids should hear. I'm not going to play ("(Expletive) Authority") for my kids. And I'm not going play Eminem for my kids and I'm not going to play Marilyn Manson for my kids. I think they should listen to more innocuous stuff.

"I think later on, when they can understand things a little better, then they're ready for it."

Still, Lindberg did say he's recently had "misgivings" about performing the song, which was written by Pennywise guitarist Fletcher Dragge.

"I've always been the one who's stressed about that, going, 'I don't know if this is the right message we should be putting out there.' It's cool to have rebellious music in there, but at the same time I don't want to be a bad influence. I want to inspire people to be better and to want more.

"In reality that's Fletcher's song and that's how he feels. People should be honest within their music. He's a valid member of the band and that's his opinion. And there is a lot of authority that shouldn't be respected, but I don't take it lightly when I think that there are people out there who might get the wrong idea from it."