Jay Ziskrout was the first drummer for Bad Religion, forming the group with schoolmate Brett Gurewitz in 1980. He performed on the Bad Religion EP and eight tracks on their debut full-length album How Could Hell Be Any Worse?. He decided to leave the band with only half of the songs recorded due to a misunderstanding regarding the band's new press photos. Bad Religion found another drummer in Jay Ziskrout's drum roadie, Pete Finestone, who took over drums to complete the album and subsequent releases.

Shortly after leaving the band, he moved from Los Angeles to New York, where he worked for many years with Clive Davis as Vice President of Album Promotion for Arista Records. Later he returned to his punk roots by joining Epitaph Records in Amsterdam, where he served as Managing Director of Epitaph Europe/International working to break such artists as The Offspring and Rancid. After Epitaph Records, Jay returned to New York to launch two Latin Alternative music businesses, Grita! Records and LatinoVision.com. From 2001-2004, he served as COO of The CMJ Network.

Jay currently works as CEO of the music, marketing and technology consulting company, Sonicvista, based in Vermont.