It’s pretty hard to think about punk music over the past 50 years without paying mind to the great Greg Ginn.
Beginning his career with a radio equipment company before he was even a teenager, Ginn co-founded the band Panic with vocalist Keith Morris in 1976, with the group adopting the name Black Flag in 1978.
The ensuing decade has been studied, talked about, written about, and immortalised at great length, with Black Flag quickly becoming one of the most hard-working, prolific, and energetic punk bands on the scene.
When someone talks about hardcore punk, laments the ‘glory days’ of the genre, or turns their attention to what a punk band ‘should’ be, they’re probably talking about Black Flag.
Though Black Flag would split in 1986, a batch of reunions have taken place since, and just last year – in 2025 – Ginn announced the latest lineup of the band. This time around, it made headlines, largely due to the fact that the combined ages of his new bandmates don’t equate to his own.
While some critics have derided the latest era of Black Flag for featuring a ‘Gen Z’ lineup, and others have exercised some misogyny with comments towards their newly-recruited vocalist – the first woman to hold down the role – recent footage has shown that the band are actually firing on all cylinders.
This May, Black Flag are returning to Australia for a batch of shows, and to celebrate, the normally media-shy Ginn joined me for a brief chat about the band’s latest happenings. We don’t quite get to all of his favourite songs, but with such a hard question put to a great musical mind, who can blame him?
Anyway, buy a ticket to Black Flag’s upcoming Australian tour, and I’ll see you at the end of the episode for some general housekeeping.
Greg Ginn’s Trusty Chords
Greg’s One Influential Artist
- Jerry Garcia
Greg’s Three Impactful Albums
- Jerry Garcia – Entire Discography
- Iggy And The Stooges – Raw Power (1973)
- Mahavishnu Orchestra – Birds Of Fire (1973)
Honourable Mention:
- Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane – Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane (1963)
Greg’s Three Trusty Songs
- John Coltrane – ‘My Favorite Things’ (1961)
- Mahavishnu Orchestra – ‘Birds Of Fire’ (1973)
- BoomBox – ‘Stereo’ (2005)
(Greg actually just picked anything by BoomBox, but for the sake of picking a single song, I’ve selected one of the band’s most-listened to tracks.)