rancid put out a lot of there records on warners or some other major i believe as that was was the times so i dont know about diy or anything. even labels like phat and epitaph were fairly larger than a diy label by the mid nineties. the jerry connection, he did there major label debut, is where he probably first came into contact but who knows many artists with unrelated music often meet and see each other in various ways. jerry was great of course and is on many a punk rock or connected to punk rock albums such as jawbreakers major (thats a piece of american punk rock majr label history right there by itself) as well as the suicide machines bad religion and pennywise. of course did many a pop punk album as well with green day mxpx blink 182 but people i think forget or dont know he has also worked with many a straight pop act which might have influenced mozs choice such as the goo goo dolls a boy named goo, that horrible band ash, weezer, fastball ( a one hit wonder but still very popular at the time) and the very underrated indie rock band that dog, marvelous three which is funny since walker went on to be such a big name producer himself, super drag, the living end, the smoking popes etc. jerrys a legend and its a well deserved mantle