Began preliminary work for ninth album

In May 2010, the band started doing preliminary work for what would be the ninth Offspring album with Bob Rock in Hawaii. They recorded sporadically throughout the next year. In June 2010 the Offspring headlined two dates in Western Canada. The Offspring took a break from the studio in order to join 311 on their summer 2010 Unity Tour. The 19-date tour was held in amphitheaters around the U.S. and also featured Pepper as a special guest. Before the 311 and Pepper tour, the Offspring played four West Coast dates in June, which were supported by Terrible Things . In January 2011, session drummer Josh Freese (who recorded drum tracks for the band’s last two albums) mentioned on his website that he was in the studio working with the Offspring again. Ronnie King had also confirmed that he would appear as the album’s keyboardist after performing the same role on Splinter . The band interrupted their work in 2011 in order to tour and took the main stage at the 2011 Reading and Leeds Festivals .