The world's first punk rock museum is opening in 2023, funded by members of NOFX, Bad Religion and Foo Fighters

Punks — (Image credit: Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

As NOFX wind down their career ahead ahead of their promise to quit in 2023, band leader 'Fat Mike' Burkett is intent upon preserving the legacy of the music he loves by opening the world's first dedicated punk rock music.

Located in Las Vegas, the Punk Rock Museum will open its doors on January 13 next year, with the aim of showing the influence the genre has had upon the world. Investors in the project include Epitaph Records founder/Bad Religion founder Brett Guerwitz, Germs/Nirvana/Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear, Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Rancid's Tim Armstrong, Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman and skate legend Tony Hawk.

Packages for the museum are already on sale.

The museum's website states:

'The Punk Rock Museum houses the world's most expansive, inclusive, and intimate display of artifacts, fliers, photos, clothing, instruments, handwritten lyrics, artwork, and just about everything else donated by the people and bands who were there.

Not only can you see amazing artifacts, there’s a guitar room where you can play the actual guitars and basses played through the amps the artists played them through. We have guitars and amps from Rise Against, NOFX, Pennywise, Sick of it All, Strung Out, and many more. Yes… you can actually PLAY THEM.'

Fat Mike tells Spin that the criterion for acceptance into the museum is uncomplicated: “If you’re a punk band, you’re fucking in,” he says. “It’s that simple.”

“We want people to come from Indonesia and see the flier of their band on the wall,” he says. “You know how proud they would feel? I want anyone in a punk band around the world to have that opportunity.”

In April, Fat Mike revealed that the only major US punk band who turned down the opportunity to get involved with the museum were Green Day, the genre's biggest band.

"We're still going to give them a display," he promised on the Tuna on Toast with Stryker podcast. "It'll be real small though."

Artists

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.