By Brent Hopkins
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Some people begin playing music because they have nothing better to do, and it seems easier than getting a job. They take the easy path and don't strive for anything greater.

Mike Ness is not one of them.

"I just have an undying passion for it, and the thought of doing anything else is just unacceptable," Ness said in a phone interview.

Ness, leader of seminal Orange County punk outfit Social Distortion, has struck out on a solo effort, taking a detour from the band he's fronted for nearly 20 years. Though his life is on track now, the singer-guitarist has journeyed on a long road.

Ness has also had to spend a long time paying his dues with Social D. before tasting success. Although acclaimed in punk circles, the band did not have a hit single until "I Was Wrong" in 1996, 15 years after its first release. Though Ness had ample opportunities to pack up and go home, the decision to stick with his band was not a hard one to make.

"Music is my life - I'm not just in it to see what I can get from it," he said.

Though choosing music over another career may have been easy, other aspects of life have not been as simple for Ness. Cleaned up now, he has struggled with hard times and drug abuse in the past. And though he nearly lost the battle, his near-death experiences were an important wake-up call.

"When you've hit bottom, it's a very lonely place," he said. "When the pain gets too great, you do something about it, if you don't die."

Although scraping the bottom of the barrel may not have been fun, Ness has no regrets. Without the bad times, he could not have risen to his current place in life.

And when asked if that period is still important to him, he didn't hesitate to respond.

"Definitely, it was critical," Ness said. "It was necessary."

This isn't surprising, coming from a man who has "love" and "pain" tattooed on the knuckles of each hand. In his songwriting, angry, anti-establishment rants, such as the classic "Telling Them" and "No Man's Friend," from his latest album, stand alongside the tender sentiment of "If You Leave Before Me" and "A Place In My Heart." The influence of both is clear, with Ness allowing them to balance one another in his work.

"I've learned just as much from both by now," he said. "When I got that tattoo, love and pain were basically the same thing. My examples of love growing up were a little inconsistent, but I also realized that when I was 35 or 36 years old that that was the only thing missing from my life. It's part of becoming a man."

With the sum of his experiences to guide him, Ness has taken on new responsibilities. He has grown to become a stable role model to two sons, Julian, 7, and Johnny, 3. Since he must take to the road to support his albums, Ness cannot always be with his family, one of the down sides of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

"Finding a balance and consistency is hard, but it's worth it," he said. "I flew Julian out for a week of this last tour, when we were in Texas heading West. It was really neat, we had a real good chance to bond. If I'm going to be away, it's little things like that that make all the difference.

Musically, Ness is maturing as well. Where his initial efforts were raw, fiery punk, he now brings a much greater spread of genres into his songwriting. In past albums, he has brought in elements of rockabilly and country, but never to the extent that he has done on the solo project, "Cheating At Solitaire." Some fans may see this as abandoning the horse he rode in on, but Ness differs.

"If you do the same thing for a while, you really need to do something different," he said. "I made four Social Distortion records in the last 10 years. I worked really hard and put everything I had into them. I just really felt like now I had to do something for myself."

Though the album may sound significantly different from his past recordings, Ness believes that the underlying principles are the same. Whether played punk or folk-style, the message remains unchanged.

"I grew up with the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, and eventually heard the Ramones and the Pistols, which sounded like what I felt inside.

"The influences I had as far as country and roots were very subtle in the background. Eventually, I saw a connection from punk music to American roots music in the early '80s. I realized that it was very much the same stuff. Roots music was the first voice of rebellion and the socio-economic issues and dissatisfaction with the way things were."

"Cheating at Solitaire" is intended not only to showcase the messages, but Ness's versatility as a songwriter, as well.

"This record was to show people other sides of me - that I can do other things, and that I'm not just this alleged bad-ass frontman for Social Distortion," Ness said. "I like other things, and I do other things, other styles of music."

But even after stretching his legs and trying something new, Ness is not tempted to give up on his band and try to make it on his own.

"I realize now that from here on out, I need to do both. It definitely provided a missing balance in creativity."

Whether with the band or on his own, Ness won't be walking away from performing anytime soon. Though it has its ups and downs, the life of a musician is the one he wants to stick with.

"That's where I feel most comfortable, up on stage. It's what I love to do."