For nearly two decades, The Big Ol’ Nasty Getdown has been less a band and more a living organism—shapeshifting, mutating, and reinventing itself with every release. Born out of jam sessions and the refusal to stick to a single lane, the Los Angeles–based project has become a sprawling musical collective featuring over 225 musicians from 180 major bands. The roster reads like a crash course in music history: Fishbone, Parliament Funkadelic, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Korn, Suicidal Tendencies, Earth, Wind & Fire—the list keeps going.
Now, the Getdown is back with their newest single, “Wrong Side of the Law,” and true to form, it’s a thunderclap of talent, chaos, and pure groove. Out now with an electrifying music video, the track marks another defiant chapter in the Getdown’s ongoing sonic odyssey.
This time, the spotlight shines on a lineup that shouldn’t work on paper but absolutely does in sound. Thirteen-year-old bass prodigy Ellen Alaverdyan (who recorded the track at age eleven) brings a monstrous low end that feels wise beyond her years, her playing both precise and ferocious. She’s joined by Croatian powerhouse Dino Jelusick—best known for Whitesnake and Trans-Siberian Orchestra—whose vocals add a soaring, rock-god edge to the funk-driven storm. Anchoring it all is Kenny Aronoff, the legendary drummer whose resume spans John Mellencamp, Smashing Pumpkins, and beyond, delivering the kind of thunder only he can conjure. Guitarist Hovak Alaverdyan (Octovision) matches that energy with blistering riffs, while Armenian keyboardist Ara Torosyan layers in atmospheric textures that pull the track into a cinematic universe.
“During the production, this song gave me the chance to stretch the Getdown in ways we hadn’t explored yet,” says founder and producer John Heintz. “We’ve never been about fitting into one genre—whether it’s funk, rock, hip-hop, jazz, country, metal—we just chase the vibe and create what feels right.”
That ethos is the Getdown in a nutshell: no formulas, no walls, no compromises. Just an open invitation to play. And after nearly twenty years of chasing the spark of collaboration, the project still manages to feel fresh, unexpected, and gloriously unhinged.
With “Wrong Side of the Law” serving as the latest glimpse into the group’s upcoming album Volume 3 (out this September), The Big Ol’ Nasty Getdown continues to prove that their DIY, genre-bending experiment is more than sustainable—it’s essential. In a music world still obsessed with labels and marketing lanes, the Getdown is a reminder that the best art often happens when you ignore all of that and just get in a room together.
Because on the “wrong side of the law,” at least in their world, is exactly where the magic happens.
