Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ platinum selling album “Hot.”  The Chapel Hill band’s second album has sold 1.3 million copies since its June 4, 1996 release.

Squirrel Nut Zippers will re-release “Hot” on July 29.  The album re-release will be accompanied with a tour that will begin on June 29 in Tuscon, Arizona.  The only listed North Carolina date is an October 23 appearance in Black Mountain at the LEAF Festival.

“Hot” launched the band into unexpected fame.  Guitarist and vocalist James “Jimbo” Mathus tells Billboard that it was shocking “to see people just insane about this music, we were shocked, we had no idea we were really reaching people.”

A previously unreleased song, “The Puffer,” will be featured on the re-release as a bonus track.  Hear it below.

Mathus notes that this recording of “The Puffer” is from 1991.

Former member Tom Maxwell mocked that assertion on Twitter.

Maxwell will not be participating in the tour.  In a 2015 blog post titled “Squirrel Not Zippers” Maxwell expressed his displeasure with the 20th anniversary plans.  In the post, he notes that he was open to joining the tour.  But, he asserts that he was never asked.

Maxwell writes:

“I get to watch as the reanimated corpse of something once so lively rises yet again to walk among the unsuspecting. It’s a drag. Jimbo Mathus is a talented dude — a fine songwriter and a hell of a guitarist — but he has no business singing “Hell,” nor should he continue making a business out of doing so. At least, not once I let it be known I was in for another go ‘round.”

The band’s biggest hit song was “Hell.”  It appears on the “Hot” album and was written by Maxwell.

Mathus addressed this controversy with Billboard:

“He wasn’t there on the first record either so it’s been more about the project then the individual members. People have come and gone over the years but the fact of the matter is it’s my project. He quit the band to pursue his own devices and that’s really about all I can say.”

See the full list of tour dates.