Social Distortion Look Ahead With 'Far Behind'

Social Distortion will release their first-ever 'Greatest Hits' on June 26, and while the punk vets have stocked up on chestnuts like 'Story of My Life,' 'Ball and Chain' and a cover of Johnny Cash's 'Ring of Fire,' the band made room for a new tune as well: 'Far Behind.' "Everyone has someone in their life that talks smack and they don't want to see you do well. They want to see you fall," frontman Mike Ness tells Spinner. "I thought it was time to write a song about it."

While 'Far Behind' finds the band looking ahead to a new album, which Ness is currently writing, the prospect of releasing a career retrospective required some serious hindsight. "It's interesting -- when you haven't heard a song in ten years and then you hear it, it puts you back in that place when you were recording it and touring it," Ness says. "You pick out things you like and don't like, and see if you've grown, evolved or devolved."

With all of Ness' mining in the song vault, he consistently found himself in awe. "We didn't really think that it was going to last this long," he says. "We really weren't supposed to live this long."