Songfacts®:

• This early Rancid song is a celebration of the music they loved listening to on the radio growing up. Two Clash songs get a mention: "The Magnificent Seven" and "This Is Radio Clash."
• Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day wrote this song with Rancid members Tim Armstrong (no relation) and Matt Freeman. Rancid had three members at the time and were looking for a second guitarist, so Billie Joe joined them for a few shows in 1993 and wrote this song with them. The second guitarist slot was later filled by Lars Frederiksen, who recorded "Radio" with the band.
• This song first appeared on Rancid's EP Radio Radio Radio in 1993, and the following year was included on their second album, Let's Go.
• The Radio Radio Radio EP was released on Fat Wreck Chords, owned by Fat Mike of NOFX. Mike is a huge fan of this song. "Tim Armstrong has written so many lyrics," he told Songfacts. "One line he wrote in the song 'Radio' – 'When I got the music I got a place to go' - yes, everyone can relate to that because we're all people where music saved our lives. Music gives us a place to go when we're sad or depressed or we're about to go out to some event. Music makes us happy or sad. It brings us to a different place that a book doesn't, a painting doesn't. It hits us deep in the soul."
• In 2017, Tim Armstrong and Billie Joe Armstrong teamed up again to form a group called the Armstrongs, rounded out by Tim's nephew Rey (bass) and Billie Joe's son Joey (drums). (of SWMRS) and Tim's nephew Rey. They released a single called "If There Was Ever a Time."