2026 marks 30 years of high energy scream-a-longs that have echoed far from the Massachusetts basement clubs where Dropkick Murphys got their start. Fife, drums and bagpipes bring the band’s Celtic roots to life in songs like “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya” and “Who’ll Stand With Us?” I can only imagine how many Boston bars closed for the night to the strains of “Kiss Me I’m $!@’faced” and, thanks its use in Martin Scorsese’s film The Departed, “Shipping Up to Boston” has blared from jukeboxes all over America since 2006.
The band has played shows for striking union members, insists all of the official shirts bearing the band’s name are American made … and the band was started on a bet bassist and vocalist Ken Casey made with an old buddy.
I spoke with Casey in advance of the band’s recent show in West Des Moines and began by asking whether he feels nostalgia when looking back at three decades.
Casey:
I hadn't until recently. Then all of a sudden I was like, 'Wow!' I mean, the band started out on a bet. A kid that I worked with — I was bartending and working construction in the day — the kid I bartended with said, ‘You're always threatening to start a band. I dare you to put a band together and open for my band. We have a show in three weeks.’ And here we are 30 years later.
In 2013 Dropkick Murphys played historic Fenway Park during the 2013 World Series. The Boston Red Sox clinched the championship that night, and while Casey was elated, the memories that loom largest are of his kids running the bases at that storied ballpark. Dropkick Murphys are intrinsically tied to Boston: love for The Olde Town is all over the band’s lyrics, the imagery in their music videos and their album artwork. In 2009 Casey founded The Claddagh Fund, supporting community-based nonprofits.
Between family and the childhood friends he made at his all-boys Catholic high school, Casey had both feet planted in Boston at a young age.
Casey:
Boston's a big city, but a small-town vibe. We kind of just embedded ourselves in a way that a lot of bands don't. We were always very concerned about having respect for our hometown because that's our people. That's where we're from.
Earlier this year Dropkick Murphys were one of many artists to leave talent agency Wasserman due to its founder’s ties with Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
Casey:
I just feel like you got to put your principles ahead of your career. And there's a lot of people in the world right now that aren't willing to do that, particularly in our government. I feel like doing the right thing creates good karma, you know? And it might make life a little bit more difficult, but hopefully it all comes around.
Brunner:
Recognizing that there's no one ambassador for punk rock, I'm curious about your perspective about its role in 2026. From the bands coming up, established artists and audience response — how, if at all, has it changed to meet the moment?
Casey:
Well, you hit the nail on the head in the sense that it's hard to speak on behalf of punk rock because you have so many different sub-genres and everything. We've always been involved in social and worker solidarity issues. So for us to be the band we are and what we do and what we've done and what we've spoken about for 30 years, we are smack dab in the middle of the division in the country where a lot of people just want to keep their heads down. But we don't consider that an option for us.
If we're going to be true to ourselves, we need to speak up. And I will say right now that this current administration in no way, shape or form represents regular blue-collar people. They represent and do the bidding of the billionaire class. They're bilking the next generation, stealing billions out the back door and using the culture wars to divide us and distract us from paying attention to what they're doing. I'm not everyone, but there's a lot of people I know that voted for Donald Trump because they said that they liked his economic policies. But as we keep going, now they're okay with his people executing American citizens on the street for using their First Amendment to speak up against them.
People seem to be going down the ladder of things they're willing to be okay with, and I do think there's parallels to Nazi Germany in that. What started as supporting someone for something based on promises and economic glory suddenly turned into being willing to essentially be okay with genocide. I say to any Dropkick Murphys fan that is MAGA and supports Donald Trump and say, 'hey man, if you disagree with us and don't like us, just know that we're doing it because we believe in what we're saying.'
I know I can't change everyone's mind, nor do I think I should have the ability to change everyone's mind. But I think what makes Dropkick Murphys important is that we always do what's authentic to us. Authenticity is important, and I think that's why we've been around 30 years.
Brunner:
Considering that we're all exposed to this fire hose of opinion and information every minute, I'm curious about when you need time off. What do you do to mitigate the effects on your mental health?
Casey:
We have our charity foundation, The Claddagh Fund, that focuses on helping a lot of people with substance abuse recovery stuff. We also help children and veterans' causes. At the end of the day, when I'm getting caught up in the rhetoric side of things, I just try to focus back to people helping people, you know what I mean? There's a lot of people that I might disagree with that if I was able to have a cup of coffee with them or whatever, we might be able to bring the rhetoric down and stuff.
I do have to pull back and think about the human side of it a lot, because as much as I need to speak out, I also don't want to add to the division. Sometimes it's hard not to do that because it's stuff you're passionate about, especially when you're being met by someone who's antagonizing. But try to see the human side in all of this as much as we can and just say like, ‘hey, we're all just people trying to get along.’
Brunner:
As I was prepping for our conversation today, I noted that this year marks twenty years since Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. The Dropkick Murphys profile got a nice boost thanks to that film. I’m curious if you ever attempted to reach out to Scorsese to pitch another song. ‘Hey, we got Billy Bragg on this one, Marty. You're going to love it!’
Casey:
You know, we never pitched that one to Marty.
When we were filming the music video for “Shipping up to Boston” we were doing our own B-rate / D-rate version of Departed, a little crime thing running around in Boston. We sent it to Scorsese just to see what he thought and he said, ‘I love it. Why don't you put real movie footage in it?’ He sent our buddy — who was editing the movie in his house — raw footage from The Departed. Most bands that have a song that's in a movie like that, they would have to pay an exorbitant amount of money to be able to make a music video with the film. And he just sent it to us and said, ‘use it as you'd like!’
It was shocking. I mean, our buddy who was the film guy was practically passed out on his floor when he saw a package arrive directly from Martin Scorsese with the footage.
In March, Dropkick Murphys united with Haywire 617 on the split E.P. New England Forever. The band sets out for a summer tour across Europe in June.
This interview has been edited for clarity and readability
