Redd Kross is a band formed by Jeffrey and Steven McDonald who were born in Hawthorne, outside of Los Angeles - it is where Beach Boys were born. Their favorite music is the background of Redd Kross. Jeffrey went to see The Beatles when he was 3 and a half with his grandmother. He says the Beatles were the first band that made him think music was great. There were a lot of records of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in his house. So their musical roots were a bit older than their age and they started searching their own music very early. In 1970's they loved glam rock like David Bowie, Slade and New York Dolls, and loved Kiss like the other kids, and at the same time they loved pop music by family groups as the Osmonds and Partridge Family. Later they saw punk rock born and they got into it's simple musical style - we can say it was something similar to the kind of music the Beatles played.

Jeffrey started playing guitar when he was 13 and Steven started playing bass guitar when he was 9. They copied the songs of American punk bands such as Television, Ramones and Runaways. Especially they got a lot of influence from the most simple music Ramones played and Runaways' immediate music. Runaways at that time was never taken as real musicians because their stage costume was lingerie, but they made the McDonald brothers think they could play music themselves. Runaways' music wasn't typical punk, either. It was just between glam and hard rock and the sound and attitude had some punk essence but the songs themselves were excellent pop songs - the members were punk rockers and at the same time they were pop stars - catchy melody and good visually, it is what Redd Kross has now. They say that when punk was born, they thought it was the perfect music for them, and also they had influence from both Ramones and Osmonds. And the 'perfect' music made them form a band. It was about 2 years after they started playing their instruments. In the end of 1978, they formed Red Cross. The other members were Greg Hetson on guitar (later in Circle Jerks and then in Bad Religion) and Ron Reyes on drums (later in Black Flag), they released a self-titled EP : Red Cross. Then after the members were changed, in 1981 they released their debut album on Smoke 7 which is called Born Innocent (later it was re-released on Frontier.) This album impressed many musicians such as Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth, Roddy Bottum from Faith No More and Mark Arm from Mudhoney. Then the band was accused by the 'real' Red Cross and changed the name to Redd Kross. This idea is from Redd Foxx appeared on Sanford and Son on TV.

In 1984, Teen Babes From Monsanto was released on the Gastanka label, then in 1986 Neurotica was released on Big Time. The members were changed and they were already through of the style of punk. The average age of the band was 22, then.

They toured around on a wagon but when Steven was still a high school student. Their parents didn't admit to tour outside California, so their real tour started sometime in those days. Until the early 80's the clubs in Los Angeles such as Roxy, Whiskey and Starwood were not limited in ages. Now if you are under 21, you can't get in to a club that serves alcohol and if you are not drinking, you have to show them your ID. Before the members became 21, they had to wait in the kitchen even if they were the headliners. Toured and toured, they were known by college radio and in 1990, they released Third Eye on Atlantic, a major label. So they had many more places to play; they toured with Sonic Youth, Go-Go’s and Teenage Fanclub. They also toured Australia. This country has a tribute band called King's Kross - their fans are just all over the world.

Then in 1993, Phaseshifter was released on the This Way Up label. It is self-produced and all the songs except Crazy World are originals. Crazy World is a cover of Frightwig : the early riot girl band. Jo Elliott from Def Leppard says that this is the best album of the year and also says Jimmy's Fantasy is the 'perfect song'. On their bio., it says "Don't you think this is everything. You won't finish reading their perfect bio even when Redd Kross has revival hits."