Whatever Happened To Bloodhound Gang?
"You and me, baby, ain't nothing but mammals, so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel."
With that catchy, deliberately crude chorus, a bouncy Euro disco-influenced beat, and a quirky video where the band's "monkey rat" costumes were probably the only thing that didn't age like milk, the 1999 single "The Bad Touch" turned Pennsylvania-based comedy rockers Bloodhound Gang into household names. At that point, they already had some success with their 1996 album "One Fierce Beer Coaster," which saw them effortlessly jump from genre to genre while making listeners laugh and/or cringe with their brand of off-color, often sexually charged humor. But it was "The Bad Touch" — and its parent album, the unsubtly-titled "Hooray for B**bies" — that served as Bloodhound Gang's true breakout. So what happened next?
If you can consider landing just outside the Top 50 a "hit," Bloodhound Gang is a true one-hit wonder, at least on the Billboard Hot 100. It took them half a decade to record a follow-up to "Hooray for B**bies," and an actual decade before they recorded another album of new music. By the 2020s, the general assumption was that frontman Jimmy Pop (b. James Moyer Franks) and his merry band of misfits had ridden off into the sunset. But is Bloodhound Gang really done, or is there a chance these now-middle-aged jokesters will return to their juvenile roots for more musical misadventures? Let's take a look at what the band's been up to since they made good with "The Bad Touch."
The band made its mark in the Jackass universe
Bloodhound Gang was one of those bands that fit in perfectly with the edgy early 2000s zeitgeist, though they were the comic relief in a music scene dominated by angry, aggressive nu-metal. At the time "The Bad Touch" became a hit, another wacky staple of the era — the "Jackass" franchise — had yet to make its proper debut. But the seeds were already being planted through the CKY video series, which featured Bloodhound Gang members Jimmy Pop and "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff doing stunts with the rest of the crew in the fourth installment, 2002's "CKY 4 Latest & Greatest." You can check out their shenanigans in this YouTube video, though it goes without saying that kids — or anyone regardless of age, for that matter — should not try that stuff at home.
In addition to appearing in the CKY series, Pop collaborated with three of the crew's mainstays — Bam Margera, his brother Jess, and Brandon DiCamillo — on a Christmas song. Released on Pop's eponymous Jimmy Franks Records and credited to the DiCamillo Sisters, "But Why's it So Cold?" was released in 2003 and was perfectly on-brand with its risque Bloodhound Gang-esque lyrics. Various band members also appeared as themselves in the "Viva la Bam" Season 3 episode "Rockstars," which features Bloodhound Gang's punk cover of the Association's 1966 hit "Along Comes Mary."
Hefty Fine was a massive critical flop
Bloodhound Gang's next release after "Hooray For B**bies" came a good five years later when "Hefty Fine" arrived at record stores in 2005. According to bassist "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff, the album got its name because the band kept incurring, well, hefty fines for their on-stage antics. But even that reputation for causing controversy at live shows couldn't propel "Hefty Fine" to the same heights as its predecessor; the album reached No. 24 on the Billboard 200, or 10 spots lower than the peak position of "Hooray For B**bies."
No. 24 isn't bad at all for a rock album, but when it came to the reviews, "Hefty Fine" was a hefty flop. It has a measly score of 28 (out of 100) on Metacritic, with PopMatters summing it up by calling out Bloodhound Gang's lyrical content and musical output alike. "As if the lyrics (and the poop) weren't painful enough, the band actually makes us listen to music that, for the most part, amounts to cheap Blink 182 ripoff — that is, if Blink 182 used more synthesizer and were (get this) less funny," the outlet wrote. Billboard, meanwhile, took aim at Jimmy Pop's penchant for injecting pop culture into his dirty rhymes, writing that his technique had been "employed more effectively in the past 10 years by every other comedy writer on the planet."
Billboard also pointed out how "Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss" sounded way too musically similar to "The Bad Touch" for comfort — if that isn't a sign of a band running out of ideas, how about writing a song whose lyrics almost entirely consist of Ralph Wiggum's funniest lines on "The Simpsons"?
They quietly replaced their drummer
Much like Spinal Tap, Bloodhound Gang went through its fair share of drummers, with Spanky G playing on "One Fierce Beer Coaster" and the aptly named Willie the New Guy (b. William Brehony) taking over on "Hooray for B**bies." Unfortunately, Willie wasn't much longer for the band after the release of "Hefty Fine." In December 2005, it was announced on the official Bloodhound Gang website that Willie wouldn't be joining the band on their upcoming European tour because of his hockey fandom — we needn't remind you that such an excuse should be interpreted with your tongue firmly in your cheek. "Still a full-fledged member of the band, he will be back in Pennsylvania enjoying over forty games a week," the band explained before segueing to some unprintable stuff about Jimmy Pop's plans on tour.
Moving on to a (slightly) more serious note, the statement added that Willie would be replaced on the tour by Adam Perry from the British rock band A. It isn't clear why or when exactly Willie left Bloodhound Gang — as of January 2007, he still appeared in the Flash intro sequence on their website. However, Perry revealed some details on "The Feeling Sound Podcast" in 2022 (from around 9:05 to 9:50), sharing that he joined Bloodhound Gang after Willie "quit in San Francisco" and ended up staying with the band for the next 10 years.
Evil Jared Hasselhoff moved to Germany for political reasons
With a stage name like "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff, the man born Jared Hennegan probably knew he was going to be a big deal in Germany someday. But before all that happened, the bassist moved to the country in late 2006, explaining on his blog that he was doing so because of his opposition to then-U.S. President George W. Bush's politics.
Although Hasselhoff's blog was rife with NSFW jokes, references, and anecdotes that leave no doubt regarding which band he plays for, his politically-charged angst was obvious in some of his posts. "In a move that I would recommend to any other American who's sick of dealing with the greed, corruption, and stupidity the world has come to associate with Mr. George W. Bush, I have decided to ankle the 'home of the brave' in favor of my new Father Land: Germany," read Hasselhoff's post on October 4, 2006. On an ever-slightly more serious note, the musician admitted that his finances weren't as good as some may have been expecting from a famous rocker. But by the start of November, he returned to his blog to express his gratitude to the German people for warmly accepting him, also adding that he had finally found someone reliable to help him learn their language.
Big in Europe
"Hefty Fine" wasn't doing Bloodhound Gang any favors in the U.S., but at least they had their European fanbase to fall back on in the mid-2000s. In fact, they were already more popular in Europe than in America around the time "Hooray for B**bies" was released, as suggested by "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff in a 2000 interview with Pause & Play. Aside from confirming Bloodhound Gang's rock star status in Scandinavia, the bassist also quipped, "We're almost as popular as David Hasselhoff [in Germany]," tipping his hat to the obviously unrelated "Baywatch" star and his massive popularity among the German people.
That was still the case after the release of "Hefty Fine," as Bloodhound Gang played multiple shows in Germany in late 2005 and early 2006 to promote the album. In 2007, the band made stopovers in several countries as they continued touring Europe – they were scheduled to play shows in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Switzerland, and Ukraine. A news article from the Kyiv Post even noted how "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo" — a track off "Hefty Fine" — was still popular all across Europe.
While all the adulation from European audiences helped keep Bloodhound Gang relevant on a worldwide level in the years immediately following "Hefty Fine," there was one member of the band who was in the perfect position to take full advantage of this continued fame away from home.
Jared Hasselhoff made his presence felt on German TV
As he continued adjusting to life in a new country, "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff began to leverage his fame as Bloodhound Gang's bassist by appearing on a variety of German television shows. In June 2008, the musician was cast in two episodes of the soap opera "Verbotene Liebe" (Forbidden Love), where he performed the theme song to a designer's fashion show at the event's after-party. At the very least, this was a role that wasn't too far removed from his day job.
Apart from trying his hand at acting, Hasselhoff made literal use of his hands in another way on German TV in 2012, as the bassist took part in a celebrity boxing match versus former Olympic discus thrower Lars Riedel. Standing 6 feet 4 inches, Hasselhoff is by no means a small man, but one would think he would have had his hands full against Riedel, a tall, burly (6 feet 6 inches, 240 pounds) athlete who won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. However, the musician ended up victorious against the ex-discus thrower, knocking him out in the fourth of five rounds and leaving him in no shape to answer interviewers' questions or attend the after-party.
Longtime guitarist Lupus Thunder quit the band
As 2008 wrapped up, with still no new music from Bloodhound Gang except for one single released the year prior, the band would undergo yet another lineup change when guitarist Lüpüs Thünder (real name Matt Stigliano) departed the group. The axeman's exit was announced on Bloodhound Gang's official MySpace page, with no serious reason given for his decision. "It's with a lot of regret that we have to inform you that Lüpüs Thünder will not be joining us on this tour, as he finally came to the conclusion that the rest of us are a bunch of d***s," read part of the statement, as quoted on the Pie and Bovril forum.
Thünder has yet to comment publicly about why he quit Bloodhound Gang, but he did offer some insight into his relationship with his then-bandmates in a 2005 interview with Ultimate Guitar. "So there are always times I'm ready to kill them all, they're ready to kill me, and you're dealing with five guys from different backgrounds, with different attitudes towards life," he said. "As I'm a big complainer, I like to complain about everything, because it makes me feel better, they don't hate it ... And you just learn to deal with everybody, so you know when you do fight it goes away."
It appears that Thünder/Stigliano has since left the rock 'n' roll lifestyle behind; as of this writing, he works as a realtor in the San Antonio area. He was replaced on guitar by Daniel P. Carter, who played alongside drummer Adam Perry in the British rock band A.
They released a greatest hits album in 2010
It can be said that there are three main reasons why bands release greatest hits compilations. One, the band's still popular and wants to end their current era before moving on to the next. Two, their label wants to make a quick buck off their most popular and/or successful songs. Three, the band wants to tell fans that they're finished without actually saying they're finished. When it came to Bloodhound Gang's 2010 greatest hits album "Show Us Your Hits," it was seemingly more of the third reason than the first two.
At this point, they had barely released anything since "Hefty Fine" in 2005 and there were no signs that they were working on a full album of new songs. But for what it's worth, "Show Us Your Hits" (again with that proclivity for ribald puns) contained one new original song, "Altogether Ooky," as well as the 2007 single "S****ing You on the Beach at Night," along with songs from their three previous albums.
Although it came with "The Bad Touch," "Fire Water Burn," and other memorable tracks, "Show Us Your Hits" failed to crack the Billboard 200. AllMusic also gave the album a so-so three-star rating, noting that "anybody who needs more than one Bloodhound Gang single but less than full albums will find their needs satiated by this fat-free compilation."
The Ukraine incident(s)
By 2013, Bloodhound Gang was still playing shows in Europe, and just in case you need an extra reminder, they still had yet to release a studio follow-up to their now-eight-year-old album "Hefty Fine." And speaking of sanctions and punishments, "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff got way more than just a hefty fine for what he did at two shows in Ukraine. As reported by the BBC, the bassist appeared to relieve himself on the Ukrainian flag during a July 30 show in Kyiv. He pulled off another flag-related stunt the next day in Odessa, stuffing the Russian flag into his underwear. He then asked the audience not to tell Russian President Vladimir Putin about his on-stage actions.
Officials from both countries were far from amused by Hasselhoff's behavior, despite his public apology. As quoted by Rolling Stone, Russia's then-Culture Minister, Vladimir Medinsky, tweeted that Bloodhound Gang's performance at the Kubana Music Festival that weekend was off, adding some choice words toward the end. "Bloodhound Gang packing suitcases," Medinsky said. "These idiots won't perform in Kubana." Meanwhile, Ukrainian security officials announced that Hasselhoff was banned from entering the country for five years after his act of public flag desecration.
In addition to those sanctions, Bloodhound Gang also faced the wrath of Russian townspeople who threw eggs and tomatoes at their touring van on the Sunday after the Ukraine shows, according to The New York Times. The band was also violently attacked in an airport lounge by a group of Cossacks; things could have gotten worse if not for police intervention, as the attackers allegedly tried to smother one band member with an American flag.
Daniel P. Carter formed a band with a future Slipknot member
As Bloodhound Gang entered its ninth year without a new album in 2014, guitarist Daniel P. Carter was keeping himself busy at home in England, where he was part of the side project/supergroup Krokodil. The band featured members from various U.K.-based heavy music acts, but the name that probably sticks out is Alessandro Venturella, who was best known for his guitar work with Cry for Silence at the time he joined Krokodil. You probably know him, though, as the guy who took over on bass in Slipknot, which he joined four years after the death of longtime bassist Paul Gray in 2010.
It would appear Krokodil's recorded output was confined to 2014, where they released three singles and a full-length album. But even if they weren't active for long, they made quite an impression with their only album so far, "Nachash." Rolling Stone ranked it as the 19th best metal album of 2014, acknowledging that the project's members (and their main bands) weren't household names across the pond but also describing the release as the "most arresting metal debut" of the year. By the time of that article's publication, though, Venturella was already with Slipknot, and Carter's U.S.-based band was finally making tangible progress on their long-awaited follow-up to their 2005 album.
Hard-Off: Bloodhound Gang's Chinese Democracy
Given how it took almost a decade and a half for the Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" to get released, the record has practically become a synonym for any musical project that takes so long to get released, only for it to be much ado about nothing. Bloodhound Gang's equivalent to that album was 2015's "Hard-Off," which arrived one decade after "Hefty Fine" and made zero noise on the album charts, where it failed to crack even the lower rungs of the Billboard 200.
Rumors of a new album started swirling around April 2011 when it was suggested that it would be called "Getting Laid on a School Bus" and released later that year. By 2014, there was still no new album, though Jimmy Pop responded to a fan on X (formerly Twitter) in February of that year, hinting that the record would be coming soon and that he's "been in the studio recording vocals every day." Between August 2014 and September 2015, Bloodhound Gang released five new singles, with the last one, "Uncool as Me," featuring NSYNC's Joey Fatone as a guest performer. But alas, that full-length album of new music was still as elusive as ever.
On December 18, 2015, "Hard-Off" finally saw the light of day, with the five aforementioned singles joined by six other tracks. The reviews weren't particularly glowing; Punk News complained about Bloodhound Gang's increased focus on techno, while users on Album of the Year described the album as unfunny and weak in comparison to the rest of the discography.
And with that, Bloodhound Gang seemingly — and quietly — went dark, as "Hard-Off" is the band's last album or single release as of this writing.
Jimmy Pop's team-up with a Russian Hardbass band was panned by fans
Jimmy Pop is no stranger to collaborations and guest appearances on other artists' songs. Within the decade-long span between Bloodhound Gang albums between 2005 and 2015, he made notable appearances on two German tracks – techno band Scooter's "The S*** That Killed Elvis" and hip-hop duo Die Atzen's "Disco Pogo." In 2022, he was once again guesting on a European dance music act's release and making use of his talents as a singer, rapper, and writer of dirty lyrics.
When Pop joined forces with the Hardbass group Russian Village Boys and sang lead vocals on their 2022 single "Daddy WTF?," fans were looking forward to hearing new music at last from the voice of Bloodhound Gang. Unfortunately for some listeners on the r/BloodhoundGang subreddit, the song wasn't doing it for them. "[H]e can do so much better, this is garbage compared to other s***," wrote u/galadriel711. Replying to that post, u/Groo_Spider-Fan expressed their disappointment in waiting so long for new Bloodhound Gang/Jimmy Pop music, only to get what they felt was a subpar collab with the Russian Village Boys. A third Redditor, u/waffles2go2, similarly pooh-poohed "Daddy WTF?" while stressing that Pop should be focusing his energy on his main band. "I love how BHG can walk the line between clever and stupid pretty well," they commented. "This is just s***."
Daniel P. Carter became a BBC Radio 1 host and album artist
Aside from being known as a man with many bands, Daniel P. Carter has established himself in the U.K. as a radio host. The Bloodhound Gang guitarist hosts BBC Radio One's "Rock Show with Daniel P. Carter," where he's interviewed some big names in heavy music, including Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, Tool/A Perfect Circle/Puscifer frontman Maynard James Keenan, Ghost vocalist Tobias Forge, and Bring Me the Horizon singer Oli Sykes. He also had "Stranger Things" actor Jamie Campbell Bower in one episode, and has spotlighted some up-and-coming acts as well on the "Rock Show."
Carter is also a renowned artist who's created album art for numerous hard rock and heavy metal acts, such as HIM, Vision of Disorder, and My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero, as well as his aforementioned supergroup, Krokodil. Clearly, Carter is one talented and versatile individual who doesn't limit himself to one form of creative expression. But as you've seen so far, he isn't the only Bloodhound Gang member who's found success outside of music.
Hasselhoff won a German reality show in 2023
While most of Bloodhound Gang has been lying low since the release of "Hard-Off," "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff is still a bankable name in Germany, where he remains based to this day. He was back in the country's headlines in 2023, but thankfully, it was not for anything related to flag desecration or indecent on-stage exposure.
Adding to his earlier soap opera cameos, celebrity boxing victories, and science show hosting duties, Hasselhoff became the first-ever winner of the survival-themed reality show "Arctic Warrior," which features eight pairs toughing it out in snow-covered Lapland for five days and four nights. Although his inclusion in the program was seen by some as a PR gimmick, Hasselhoff proved to be a fan favorite, and he had a great rapport with the survival professional he was partnered with.
Not long after he and his partner, former soldier Hauke Kuehl, won "Arctic Warrior," Hasselhoff took to Instagram to thank the survival pro for his assistance. "Congratulations and endless thanks to my partner, buddy, coach, and team leader @hauke-kuehl who had the strength and patience dragging a professional alcoholic across the frozen tundra and onto the podium while making the Arctic Circle his b****!" read an English translation of Hasselhoff's post.
Pop says he's still working on Bloodhound Gang demos
We can't really blame you if you're one of the many fans who think Bloodhound Gang broke up sometime after the release of "Hard-Off" — or maybe even before that. There has been much discussion and debate on Reddit regarding the band's status, as well as nostalgic posts that look back fondly on their raunchy tracks from back in the day. Their lack of activity since late 2015 makes it easy to say that they've disbanded, but in July 2023, Jimmy Pop took to X, replying to a fan named Wayne and declaring once and for all that Bloodhound Gang has not broken up.
"Yes! I don't know who decided we broke up, but our Wikipedia should say 1992 to NOW, Wayne!" the frontman wrote. "I've been making Bloodhound Gang demos every year the whole time. Some of the demos that won't work as Bloodhound Gang songs will come out as Jimmy Pop songs. Thanks for asking, Wayne!"
It's anybody's guess as to when fans will get to hear those new Bloodhound Gang songs in a more fully realized form — or when they will get to hear Pop's solo recordings. For what it's worth, the band's account on X is still active, and the fact they've shared several fan posts showing Bloodhound Gang as a Spotify Wrapped top artist for 2023 is a sign that they've still got a dedicated following despite the lack of new material.