Social Distortion is the job Mike Ness can't quit

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There are luxuries Mike Ness is willing to pay for, and there are luxuries for which he’d rather find a workaround.It’s a Monday morning in mid-March, and the 64-year-old frontman of Social Distortion is at his producer Dave Sardy’s studio in Los Angeles.Ness, whose band helped invent Orange County punk in the late 1970s, spends much of his time these days on California’s Central Coast, where he and his wife, Christine, bought a place years ago.

Yet the couple recently became grandparents to a kid in L.A., which means they’ve been making frequent trips here.“He’s 2 now, so we can’t be four hours from our grandson,” Ness says.“It’s clear to me that this is gonna be one of the most important relationships of my life.”As he talks, Ness idly strums the latest addition to his collection of guitars: a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Custom that he says cost him $50,000.

He’s wearing a silky leopard-print shirt open at the neck to reveal several gold necklaces and a tattoo of Christine’s name — one of five such shirts he had made to wear onstage every night during Social Distortion’s upcoming tour.“What I really want to do is see if I can find some Dolce & Gabbana leopard-print fabric,” he says.“Then I’ll have a Dolce & Gabbana shirt without the heavy price tag.”Christine, who’s been making coffee in the studio’s kitchen, enters the lounge and scoffs.

“It’s not like they sell it by the bolt,” she says.“I’m not gonna go to the Yarn Barn,” Ness replies.“‘Excuse me, can you please point me to your fine Italian fabrics?’” He laughs.

“Someone’s gotta be able to get it.”Hidden behind a rickety gate on a quiet residential street, Sardy’s studio is where Social Distortion — Social D to its many fans — recorded most of “Born to Kill,” the band’s first album in 15 years.The gap wasn’t intentional, says Ness, wh...