The guitarist who has played on every Offspring studio album is handing the stage over to his bandmates, and he hasn’t told fans what’s wrong.
Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman, 63, the Offspring’s lead guitarist, announced Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, that he is stepping away from live performances, in a statement posted to the band’s social media accounts. His last show was Sunday, Oct. 18, in San Diego.
“It is with deep sadness that I have to announce that I need to step away from live performances for a while to deal with a sudden and fairly serious health issue,” he wrote.
He said his bandmates “have my back” and will keep the shows going while he is out, and that he hopes to return “sooner rather than later.” He closed by thanking fans for their support.
Noodles gave no details about his condition or a timeline for his return. No temporary replacement has been named. “We are all supportive of Noodles as he navigates this challenging time,” representatives for the group said in an emailed statement to the Los Angeles Times.
The Band Plays the Wiltern Anyway
Four gigs sit on the schedule, and the first one is days away. The Offspring play the Wiltern in Los Angeles on Saturday, Oct. 24, then SEMA Fest in Las Vegas on Nov. 6 and the Corona Capital 2026 festival in Mexico City on Nov. 21. After that comes a break, until a Jan. 16, 2027, show at the Kia Forum in Inglewood as part of iHeartRadio ALTer EGO 2027.
The band has been on the road all year behind “Supercharged,” wrapping the main North American arena leg of its Supercharged Worldwide tour earlier in 2026 after a run through the U.S. and Canada. The Offspring played the Aftershock festival at Discovery Park in Sacramento on Oct. 1.
What Satriani Wrote in the Comments
“Get well soon brother,” guitarist Joe Satriani wrote on the post.
Garbage sent love. So did Simple Plan frontman Pierre Bouvier, who called Noodles a legend, and the Los Angeles radio station ALT 98.7 KYSR FM. Well wishes also arrived from Slightly Stoopid, The Early November and Sublime. Fans flooded the comments with messages of support.
From Garden Grove to “Smash”
The Offspring formed in Garden Grove, in Orange County, in 1984. Noodles joined the following year, shortly after singer and co-founder Dexter Holland helped launch the group. They cut a demo in 1988 and recorded their debut album in 1989.
Then came 1994 and “Smash,” the album that carried “Come Out and Play” and “Self Esteem” out of the Southern California punk scene and onto mainstream radio. “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy),” “Why Don’t You Get a Job?” and “The Kids Aren’t Alright” followed as MTV staples in the late 1990s.
Noodles has played on every one of the band’s studio albums, including 2024’s “Supercharged,” their 11th — the record they are still out supporting, now without him.
One of the stranger moments of that stretch came at BottleRock Napa Valley on May 26, 2024, when Ed Sheeran — who has the Offspring’s skull logo tattooed on him — joined the band onstage for “Million Miles Away,” a track from 2000’s “Conspiracy of One” that the group had not played live since 2016. Holland told the Napa crowd that Sheeran had said an Offspring record was the first CD he ever bought as a kid.