Ska-punk hitmakers the Mighty Mighty Bosstones started way back in the early '80s and hit a serious career peak in the late '90s. They kept it going for a long time after that, too. The band finally broke up in 2022 without explanation, and it was pretty easy to speculate that frontman Dicky Barrett's anti-vaccine campaigning had something to do with their decision to call it quits.
Barrett co-wrote a song with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to promote one of Kennedy's anti-vaxxer rallies in DC and became a very visible all-around vaccine denier. That position cost Barrett his longtime job as the announcer on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and he went on to start a band called the Defiant with a bunch of other guys who'd been kicked out of prominent punk bands, seemingly for being anti-vaxxers.
About a year ago, Barrett joined the Boston hardcore band Haywire for a Bosstones cover, and he's been talking lately about trying to get the band back together. Next spring, British second-wave ska greats Madness will play the Hollywood Bowl. The openers include the Bosstones, along with fellow '90s ska-punk bands Dance Hall Crashers, Goldfinger, and Reel Big Fish. It's going down May 8. If you still haven't caught COVID yet, maybe you can go to that show and pick it up pick it up pick it up.
UPDATE: It appears that the Mighty Mighty Bosstones haven't gotten back together. The version of the Bosstones performing at the Hollywood Bowl are Dicky Barrett and an all-new backing band, according to Sammy Kay of the Pietasters, who plays in the Kilograms with Bosstones bassist Joe Gittleman. In an Instagram post, Kay writes, "Let’s face it. No fiddleman. No Joe the kid. No Vegas, no Nate Albert. No Chris Rhodes. Just a hostile takeover for a buck. #sosadtosay." His message indicates that Gittleman, drummer Joe Sirois, tenor saxophonist Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton, trombonist Chris Rhodes, and original guitarist Nate Albert are not involved. As of Oct. 9, Barrett has a pending trademark on the Mighty Mighty Bosstones name.
