Fletcher Dragge was born in 1965 and grew up in Hermosa Beach California.
He founded the punk rock band Pennywise in 1988 along with fellow schoolmates from Mira Costa High School. These were singer Jim Lindberg, bass player Jason Thirsk and drummer Byron McMackin with Fletcher Dragge as guitarist. The name was taken from the Steven King Novel “It”.
The band signed to Epitaph records in 1990 and released their first album in 1991, which was well received throughout the punk world and gained some national recognition but still Pennywise were largely unnoticed outside the punk scene. However, in 1995 the album “About Time” was released and charted selling over 3 million copies worldwide. Despite receiving offers to join major labels, Pennywise opted to stay with Epitaph and have continued to release an album every two years.
The band has had very few line up changes and Fletcher Dragge has been with the band since it’s inception along with Byron McMackin.
Jason Thirsk left the band to deal with his alcoholism but shot himself in 1996 and was replaced by Randy Bradbury. Jim Lindberg left the band in 2009 after twenty years and was replaced by Zoli Téglás. Pennywise continue to tour perform and release albums to a loyal fan base.
Fletcher Dragge has been a controversial figure and holds strong anti liberal and strong anti conservative views managing to offend just about everyone. Fletcher Dragge also appeared on an American talk show Loveline – he was very drunk and vomited on air and attempted to vomit over the show host Dr Drew. Remarkably, he was invited back on the show, got drunk again and threatened to blow up the studio with a concealed bomb.
Pennywise’s music has been widely used in video games and the band have released nine albums with a new release planned in 2011.
Fletcher Dragge is a giant of a man and stands at 6ft 8 ins tall. He plays a 1 ¼ size RG420 Ibanez that has been custom made for him by the company.