“I love flying single pilot” – Bryan ‘Dexter’ Holland of The Offspring shares his passion for planes

The Offspring vocalist Bryan “Dexter” Holland, a licensed pilot, said in a recent interview with Billboard that he didn’t initially choose to pursue a career in music.

I wanted to fly fighter jets when I was a kid. And I tried to get in the Air Force Academy, and I almost got in. They weren’t gonna let me fly because I had to wear contact lenses or whatever. And so I decided to do something else, and I went to university instead, but I always wanted to fly. And so when I finally had the chance to later on, after the band took off, I started flying and I just get a big kick out of it. I love it. And I have a plane, and we take it on tour. But I will say I always take a pilot with me on tour. I don’t wanna take all the credit, because on tour you should probably have some help in the flying department.

It can get scary, though.

Yeah, I can see how there’s two things going on. On the one hand, it can seem exciting and adrenaline and maybe scary and ‘I’m way up here. And what am I doing?’ And on the other hand, it’s very peaceful. It’s very, almost meditative in a way, which is kind of weird. And I love flying single pilot. There’s something about it. I love the getting away, and it doesn’t bother me to be by myself.

He talked about this passion of his earlier in another interview with Twin & Turbine.

I always knew that I was going to fly one day. I went to USC for undergrad and was focused on a medical research track. At that point in my twenties, that’s what I was concerned about, and there was no way that I would be able to afford flying. Something had to happen before I could afford flight lessons. Luckily, my band took off in the ’90s, and then I was able to pay for the lessons. I started taking them pretty much as soon as I could, which would have been in ’95. I just loved it, and it’s one of those things in life. For some people, it’s golf, and for others, it’s horseback riding or whatever. The first time that I got in an airplane, it felt completely natural, and I knew that I wanted to keep doing it.

The new album “Supercharged” by The Offspring is scheduled to be released on Concord Records on October 11th. The recent single “Make It All Right” by The Offspring peaked at number one on the Billboard Rock and Alternative Airplay chart, as well as the Alternative Airplay and Active Rock charts (Mediabase).