Ronald Stephen Welty (born February 1, 1971) Welty started playing the drums in 8th Grade, one of his first bands were called Fuck Quality X-Rays. He also played drums in a band called Spinning Fish. Ron Welty moved to Garden Grove for part of high school, and it was there that his older stepsister introduced him to Offspring frontman Dexter Holland.
The Offspring
In July 1987, 16-year-old Welty was brought in to the Offspring, to fill in for original drummer James Lilja. Welty knew other members of the Offspring and lived in the same neighborhood. Even though he was too young to get into many of the clubs where the band played, Welty convinced them to let him replace their previous drummer. It was later revealed that Welty was "forced out of The Offspring without any prior notice." Of all the band's drummers, Welty's tenure of 16 years remains the longest.
In September 2020, Welty filed a lawsuit against the Offspring for unpaid royalties. Welty claimed he was owed millions more profits from the Offspring’s $35 million catalog sale and that former bandmate Dexter Holland tried to “erase” his contributions to the band's career by failing to pay him his rightful cut of the sale of the band’s rights to Round Hill Music in 2015, in addition to deleting his name from the liner notes on re-releases of albums he played on.
Steady Ground
After the Offspring, Welty formed Steady Ground, and in the same year they broke up.
Discography
The Offspring
- The Offspring (1989)
- Ignition (1992)
- Smash (1994)
- Ixnay on the Hombre (1997)
- Americana (1998)
- Conspiracy of One (2000)
Steady Ground
- Jettison (2007)