Jay Dee Bentley was born on June 6, 1964 in Wichita, Kansas. He is the bassist and co-founding member of the legendary punk rock group Bad Religion. Jay played in the band from 1980 to 1982, until quitting before the release of the band's 2nd album, Into the Unknown, in 1983.
Jay was also a onetime member of such notable L.A. groups as Wasted Youth, T.S.O.L, The Circle Jerks and Cathedral Of Tears. He later rejoined Bad Religion in 1986 while the How Could Hell Be Any Worse? line-up – adding Circle Jerks' Greg Hetson as the band's second guitarist – was reuniting to record the first three reunion albums, Suffer, No Control and Against the Grain, which are often considered their best releases. Today, Bentley has continued touring and recording with Bad Religion.
Jay Bentley grew up in the San Fernando Valley suburb of Woodland Hills,CA. As with guitarist Brett Gurewitz and lead singer Greg Graffin, Jay was also a student of El Camino Real High School.
He has appeared on every Bad Religion release, with the exceptions of Into the Unknown (1983) and the Back to the Known (1984) EP. The band's most recent studio album, titled New Maps of Hell, was released on July 10, 2007. To this day he is highly regarded as one of the most respected and influential bass players of the Southern California hardcore/punk scene of the last 25 years. There are several websites dedicated to the music of Bad Religion as well as various members of the group including two websites in his honor. In 2005, Jay Bentley was divorced from his first wife of 13 years, Michaela. He is currently dating Natalia Fabia, a Los Angeles based fashion designer and artist. Jay is the proud father of two boys Miles [born 1991] and Hunter Bentley [born 1993]. Today he is a resident of Vancouver, British Columbia.
