Editing The Offspring (section)

===Ron Welty's departure, ''Splinter'' and ''Greatest Hits'' (2003–2005)===
[[File:Offspring.jpg|thumb|The Offspring performing in 2004]]
On March 16, 2003, it was announced that longtime drummer [[Ron Welty]] had left the group in 2003 to play in [[Steady Ground]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.offspring.com/news/224/ron-welty-no-longer-a-member-of-the-offspring |title=Ron Welty No Longer a Member of the Offspring |publisher=Offspring.com |access-date=August 11, 2013 |date=March 18, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004214330/http://www.offspring.com/news/224/ron-welty-no-longer-a-member-of-the-offspring |archive-date=October 4, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.punknews.org/article/5599/ron-welty-leaves-the-offspring |title=Ron Welty leaves the Offspring |publisher=Punknews.org |access-date=August 11, 2013 |date=March 19, 2003 |author=Scott}}</ref> a band in which he played drums and co-produced (they broke up in 2007). It was later revealed that Welty was fired on January 3th, 2003 by Holland and Noodles "without any prior notice" before recording their seventh album. That same year, the band released their seventh album, ''[[Splinter (The Offspring album)|Splinter]]''. The Offspring recruited [[Josh Freese]] to record the drums for ''Splinter'' and later announced that former [[Rocket from the Crypt]] drummer [[Atom Willard|Adam "Atom" Willard]] would be the replacement for Welty. The first single, "Hit That", had moderate success on MTV. "Hit That" used a variety of electronic samples, different from what the Offspring has done in the past.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=193947 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070513171703/http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=193947 |archive-date=May 13, 2007 |title=JS Online: Punk's Offspring is aging well |access-date=April 1, 2014}}</ref>

In 2005, the band released a ''[[Greatest Hits (The Offspring album)|Greatest Hits]]'' album in both [[DualDisc]] and regular CD editions. ''Greatest Hits'' contains 14 of the band's hits between ''[[Smash (The Offspring album)|Smash]]'' and ''[[Splinter (The Offspring album)|Splinter]]'', and two previously unreleased songs, "[[Can't Repeat]]" and "[[Next to You (The Police song)#The Offspring version|Next to You]]" (a cover of [[the Police]] song available as a hidden track). The compilation does not include any songs from the band's first two albums. The DualDisc contains video of Dexter and Noodles discussing the band's history and a bonus acoustic version of the song "Dirty Magic". About a month later, the band released a video DVD with all of their music videos and some videos from a live show.

During the summer of 2005, the band played the [[Vans Warped Tour]] for the first time and followed that with a European and Japanese tour. After the "Greatest Hits" world tour, the band took a break from writing, recording, and touring. During the hiatus, Willard was recruited by [[Tom DeLonge]] for his band [[Angels & Airwaves]] and released an album, ''[[We Don't Need to Whisper]]'', in 2006.