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| Billie Joe |
Billie Joe is actually his real name
Billie Joe was born on February 17, 1972
His father was a truck driver and jazz drummer who died of lung cancer when Billie was 10. His mother was a waitress at Rod's Hickory Pit.
The first song Billie ever wrote was when he was 12. "Why Do You Want Him?".
At age 5, Billie would sing at hospitals to cheer up patients.
His side band is Pinhead Gunpowder
Billie recorded "Look for Love" at age five.
He married Adreinne Nesser in July 1994. They have two kids, Joseph Marcicano and Jacob Danger Armstrong.
Billie met Mike in the school cafeteria and they started talking about music.
Billie Joe is the youngest of 6 children.
Billie's guitar is called Blue. There have been several replicas of the original made so as not to ruin the original any more. The original was a gift from his father. |
| Tre Cool |
Tre Cool's real name is Frank Edwin Wright III.
His birthday is December 9, 1972
Tre grew up in the Mendocino mountains.
He was raised by his father, a Vietnam vet, and he had two siblings.
Tre's father built houses, including Lawrence Livermore's, the founder of Lookout! Records, where Green Day recorded their first two albums before signing to Reprise.
Tre has a daughter names Ramona Cool, but has divorced his wife.
He wrote and sang "Dominated Love Slave" on Kerplunk!. |
| Mike Dirnt |
Mike's real name was Micheal Pritchard.
He was born on May 4, 1972
Mike was born into poverty. His mother was a heroin-addict.
HHe was adopted. But his adoptive parents divorced when he was seven. For a short period, he lived with his adoptive mother, but he eventually left to live on his own.
Mike Dirnt worked odd jobs, including one at Rod's Hickory Pit, where Billie's mother worked as well.
Mike rented a room in Billie's house for a period of time.
Mike is Green Day's bassist.
He has one daughter, Estelle-Desiree. But he is divorced from his wife. |
The two original members of Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, learned how to be pissed off about life growing up in the barren wastelands of northern Californian suburbia, and learned to do something about it as they immersed themselves in the thrashy San Francisco Bay area punk-rock music scene of the eighties and early nineties. Billie Joe and Mike formed the band Sweet Children in 1987, along with drummer Al Sobrante (John Kriftmeyer to his mama). Shortly thereafter, the band became Green Day (an homage to lazy days of big, juicy buds and bong hits) and released its first EP, 1000 Hours, when the guys were only 17.
After three years of playing gigs around the punk-Mecca Gilman Street, in Berkeley, and pumping out more EPs, the band recorded their first full-length album, 1039 Smoothed-Out Slappy Hours, ( the record that eventually evolved into 39/Smooth ), on the indie label, Lookout! Records. John soon left the band to go to school, and Green Day replaced him with fellow Gilman Street rocker, Tre Cool.
Over the next few years, Green Day became major players in the local scene, and caught the attention of big-time record labels with their 1992 underground smash, Kerplunk. Then, in 1994, after leaving Lookout! for Reprise, the much-hyped release of Dookie introduced the world to the hilariously gross, screw-you sounds of California punk rock, done Green Day style. Dookie got the punk sound out to a lot of kids wallowing in the monotony of suburban life and offered them an alternative to the suicidal strains of grunge music. Why no get pissed off instead? Why not scream and yell and laugh like a maniac and stage a mental prison-break? Dookie produced hit single after hit single for the band, including now-classics like "Basketcase," "She," and "When I come around."
Over the next several years, Green Day continued to work their asses off making music, although 1995's Insomniac was not overly well received due to its refusal to conform to the demands of mainstream music listeners, and 1997's Nimrod seemed to do the opposite, getting a little too mellowed-by-age in places. Nimrod contained the now-infamous single "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," which became a massive commercial success, providing the soundtrack to the series finale of Seinfeld, several episodes of ER, and the 1998 PGA Golf Tour.
Can a band still be punk after providing the background music for pro golf and wedding receptions? The situation seemed doubtful when, after a three-year hiatus, Green Day released Warning in 2000, which gained little recognition from critics or fans. The album seemed to be the work of a band of maybe-too-old-for-punk-rockers; more ideologically committed than ever, but no longer able to drum up the F.O.D. enthusiasm they once possessed in such abundance.
However, Green Day was far from ready for retirement. They had been spending their time wisely, honing their musical and song-writing abilities into a big, mean steel-toed boot of raw talent, energy, and pissed-off politics, ready to kick any and all asses that would dare to suggest that punk is dead.
In 2004, after releasing a couple albums' work of b-sides and greatest hits (International Superhits! In 2001, and Shenanigans in 2002), Green Day released the truly ass-smoking American Idiot. The album came together after the twenty songs that were originally going to make up the band's new album were stolen out of the studio. The brutal theft had the effect of a sign from the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It blew the collective minds of Green Day wide open and made them go just crazy enough to take a risk and do something really ambitious. At a time when the MPAA had artists and producers running scared, Green Day said a big, loud fuck-you to capitalist politics and corporate media. At a time when the music scene was dying for some real old-school crunchy rock and roll with killer riffs, and lyrics that weren't afraid to talk some shit, Green Day stepped up.
American Idiot is hailed by critics as the first punk-rock opera, a great boldly-go-where-no-one-has-gone-before revolution in genre and style. The album reaches back to the roots of where punk rage comes from, and where the band members themselves come from. It speaks to all the angry kids, and adults too, trapped out there in the giant suburban-America mouse wheel and tells them to wake up, be proud of being angry, and do something about it before you die in your slippers.
And somehow, in a bizarro ironic twist that enraged old-school fans by winning the adoration of the masses, Green Day did all this anti-establishment shit while catapulting themselves back to the top of the charts. They've won more music awards in the last year than most bands see in their entire careers, proving that the stuffy old industry has got a little love for punk in it, even if it is nothing more than a love of punk bling.
Over the last several years, Green Day has picked up some new band members, including a horn section and a new lead guitarist, punk-rock veteran Jason White. White is a big part of Warning and American Idiot, and we see a lot of him in the November 15th, 2005 DVD release, Bullet in a Bible, which features extensive concert footage and interviews with the band about the making of American Idiot.
Clearly those funny green men are here to stay, and not just for a snotty laugh. Green Day speaks out against bullshit politics and exposes our screwed-up modern morality, refusing us the comfort of apathy. Hardcore fans might not like the idea of their favorite band suddenly becoming everyone's favorite band, but at least the guys are using their power, through their influential involvement in protest events such as Live8, to try and make the world a less idiotic place.
Today, Green Day is busy promoting Bullet in a Bible, as well as working with other bands they are involved in such as Billie Joe's Pinhead Gunpowder, Mike's The Frustrators, and The Network. Billie Joe is also busy with a new line of clothing released by Adeline Records (http://www.adelinerecords.net/), a company he runs along with three other co-founders. Plans are in the works for a new album in 2006.
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