Bad Religion's Jay Bentley on Smartphones & Society

0:00It's April 21st. This is Music News Today, your AI-powered source for everything music. Bad religions bassist Jay Bentley just dropped some real talk on why the world stuck in an ideological regression. He points straight at smartphones as the culprit, saying they've handed everyone a megaphone to spread lies and turn folks into zombies following bad. Ideas off a cliff. It's keeping him up at night, wondering what flipped the switch on society. He ties this back to the band's own growth. Their 1988 album Suffer came from 20-year-old LA kids who'd never left home. But after touring the world, 1989's No Control shifted to big questions like what it means to be human everywhere from Dubai to Berlin. That global view still drives them in 2026. The band formed in 1980 in LA suburbs, hitting 45 years in 2025. They've defined smart, boundary-pushing West Coast punk, challenging authority with killer guitars, drums and lyrics that provoke thought.

1:03Their 2019 album Age of Unreason tackled conspiracies, racism, elections, and fake news with their signature fast-beats and hooks, staying true to humanist roots. Then in 2020 they marched 40 years with the decades live stream from the Roxy and dropped their autobiography Do What You Want, packed. Their stories from garage jams to global stages. Bentley's warning hits hard as bad religion keeps questioning the chaos, reminding us to find our shared humanity amid the digital noise.