Influence - Greenday

Billie Joe Armstrong was born on February 17, 1972, the youngest of six children to Andy and Ollie Armstrong from Rodeo, California. The family was strictly working class – Andy was a truck driver while Ollie worked as a part-time waitress at Rod's Hickory Pit. A musical atmosphere surrounded Billie from birth – his father was a jazz drummer, and his mother, whom Andy Armstrong met at a gig, shared his love of music and dancing. Billie Joe and his siblings were always encouraged to learn to play instruments – especially the drums.


When Billie was five years old, his mother took him to Fiatarone's, a local music shop, to sign him and his sisters up for piano lessons. The owner thought that he had potential and brought him into the studio to hear his voice, and she was astounded. "We did ‘He's Got the Whole World in His Hands', and he could just move and change keys and sing right on pitch" remembers Marie Louise Fiatarone . Billie was then brought in to record "Look for Love", a 7"" vinyl that pressed 800 copies and earned the budding star a 500-word article in the local newspaper. After he made the album, Andy put his youngest son's potential to good use and took him on a mini-tour of Northern California, where elderly women fawned over this cute boy with a great voice. At seven years old, his parents bought him his first guitar to celebrate his success.




Unfortunately, when Billie was ten his father Andy was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Four months later, in September 1982, Andy passed away. To support her six children, Ollie began working full-time at her waitressing job, therefore keeping her away from the family for much of the time. Billie comforted himself with records of bands his brother passed down to him, particularly The Beatles, and focused on learning to play the guitar, which he had an uncanny talent for. For Christmas one year, Ollie bought him the guitar that changed it all – "Blue" – from his guitar teacher, and since then it has appeared on almost every Green Day record and tour.




Michael Ryan Pritchard was born on May 4, 1972 in Oakland, California. His mother put him up for adoption soon after his birth because of her powerful addiction to heroin. When Michael was six weeks old, Cheryl Nasser and Patrick Pritchard took him in as a foster child, and they would eventually become his legal adoptive parents. His parents divorced when he was seven, after which time Mike briefly stayed with his father but eventually moved to Rodeo, California to be with his mother and sister Mycla.




Billie Joe and Mike met at 10 years old while attending Carquienez Middle School, and they formed an instant bond. "I think they just allowed each other to be themselves," says Billie's sister Anna Armstrong-Humann ("Nobody Likes You", 2006). Soon after, Billie began teaching Mike how to play guitar, and he picked it up very quickly. The duo began jamming, which turned into song-writing sessions that they took very seriously which "made them a tight unit even before they had any rhythm section." By the time the boys were in tenth grade, they had added friend Sean Hughes on drums. By eleventh grade, the whole band had transferred to Pinole Valley High School. They also had a permanent name – Sweet Children – after trying such oddities as Condom and Desecrated Youth.




Billie Joe and Mike dove into the punk scene, smoking weed, and honing their craft. Eventually, they met up with other punk rock kids in their area, and with them they finally felt as though they fit in somewhere, and that somewhere was 924 Gilman Street, the launching point of Green Day's explosive career.




When Billie Joe and Mike first attempted to book shows at Gilman, they consistently failed to even get the lowest slot on the bill. Their demo tapes were dismissed as not being punk enough. In 1987, their luck changed when they drunkenly asked John Kiffmeyer (nicknamed "Al Sobrante") to join their band as a drummer. The fame that Sobrante had garnered as the drummer for locally-famous punk band Isocracy marked a turning point in Sweet Children's budding career. In 1987, they booked their first gig at Gilman, which was preceded by a warm-up show at Rod's Hickory Pit, the restaurant where Billie Joe's mother worked. This show got their name out there successfully – and left many in attendance impressed by the quality of punk that the young trio put out there.




As the band became more popular, they began to attract attention from prominent figures in the bay area music scene. They met Larry Livermore, founder of Lookout Records, at a house party where they had performed, and he was instantly captivated. He says, "the band travelled] 200 miles to play a gig in a freezing mountain cabin for about five bored teenagers, and still managed to pull it off as though they were the Beatles at Shea Stadium" (source, 2009) . Soon after meeting him, the band was signed to the label and began to release EP's. Right before their first release, 1000 Hours in 1989, Sweet Children made the spontaneous decision to change their name to Green Day, inspired by a song Billie wrote for the album. During the Christmas holiday in 1989, the band recorded their first full-length album 39/Smooth, followed by a second EP titled "Slappy" which was released in summer 1990. All three releases were combined and released as a compilation album 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours




The album made quite a buzz in the Gilman scene, and in June of 1990 Green Day embarked on their first tour of the US, leaving on the day that Mike graduated high school. Many of the shows were played to small audiences, some just at someones house, but the band experienced success in many areas while in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They managed to book several shows due to the area's budding indie music scene, and Billie Joe met his future wife Adrienne Nesser at one of these shows. Upon going home and being once again engulfed by boredom and loneliness, he wrote the song "2,000 Light Years Away" about her.




After their first tour, Kiffmeyer delivered the crippling news that he would be going away for college. Billie and Mike were distressed about the future of their band until Billie jammed with the Lookouts former drummer Tre Cool. Tre joined Billie and Mike for a show in November of 1990, and the relationship blossomed from there. Although Tre was a handful, he was a brilliant drummer and a dependable choice for a band that wanted stability. In the spring of 1991, the new trio recorded their second full-length for Lookout Records, Kerplunk. This album began to demonstrate the pop-punk melodic quality that Green Day has come to be known for, and it caught on with listeners across the country.




On the Kerplunk tours, the band began filling venues that they previously couldn't even book. They even began to make some money, enough to buy new equipment and a converted bookmobile for touring. The band even went overseas and toured Europe with this album. Their label was flabbergasted with the success – Kerplunk was selling out across the board, and cities that previously had fifty kids watching the boys play would have three hundred when they came back around.




This amount of success inevitably attracted attention from major labels looking for a new trend. The trio's early days with John Kiffmeyer taught them how to properly manage themselves, and they used these skills to their advantage in dealings with scouts. The most important thing to the band was having control over their music and image, and after talking with several labels they finally found their match with Rob Cavallo and Reprise Records. Green Day signed with Reprise, a division of Warner Brothers, in the summer of 1993. On September 23rd of that year, they played their last show at Gilman Street. This would mark the last time the band was welcome there for nearly a decade.




In November of 2003, Green Day hit the studio once more and recorded an album entitled Cigarettes and Valentines. They left the studio one night, leaving behind the finished tracks , which would be mastered during their next session. When they came back, all of the masters had been stolen, and until the 2010 North American tour, none of the tracks were ever heard by the public. Instead of re-recording the stolen tracks, the band decided to sit down and write something better and more ambitious, something that would eventually become American Idiot.

During one particularly long night, Billie challenged Mike to write a thirty-second song to give him something to do while he was alone in the studio. Mike came up with "Nobody Likes You." Soon after, Tré decided to give it a shot. His idea turned out to be "Rock ‘N Roll Girlfriend." Billie had his hand at it and wrote about "Jesus filling out paper work" on "East 12th Street." All of these pieces meshed together, and formed the operatic nine-and-a-half minute song, "Homecoming." This song was only a taste of the ambition that would be displayed through American Idiot.

The term "rock opera" had been thrown around as early as the recording sessions for Nimrod in 1997. However, they started taking the possibility of this format seriously after recording "Homecoming" and other songs like "Give Me Novacaine," both of which received brilliant feedback from anyone who listened. The idea became permanent once Billie wrote "American Idiot," which was inspired by the ever-growing news coverage of the war in Iraq. This was Billie growing up and expressing his rage over the state of the nation. He decided, in that moment, to organize the band's new songs to form a concept album that reflected all of this angst. With the title track and ending to the story under his belt, Armstrong began work on the character that is essentially the centerpiece of the story, and the poster-boy for disenfranchised youth: the "Jesus of Suburbia."

Armstrong describes the story as "…this Jesus of Suburbia character [who's] pretty disenfranchised. He hates his town. Hates his family. Hates his friends. He needs to get out so he leaves and goes into the city. He starts dealing with what true rebellion means. Rebellion could be disguised as self-destruction." St. Jimmy is JOS' alter-ego – his rebellion, his drug-dealer, his dark-side. Whatsername is the love of his life, who he eventually loses to the evils that Jimmy introduces him to. Green Day managed to tell this whole story (which feels eerily like a reminiscence on a personal struggle) while also confronting the "idiots" running our nation. They did it well, too. In the beginning, however, some diehard fans disagreed.

Many people who read the web-circulated rumors regarding Green Day's "new sound" in early 2004 weren't as excited as the band was. They thought that Green Day was history, and that the album would fail miserably. The band ignored these sentiments and indulged every creative impulse while recording in LA. They took their sound to places it had never gone before, and the people who were listening to the process were far more supportive than those merely judging based on the gossip.

As the album neared completion, the band recruited director Samuel Bayer to produce the video for the first single, "American Idiot." They knew that it had to be explosive and catch people's attention; Bayer was the man for the job. After they explained their vision to him, Bayer immediately knew the direction in which he wanted to travel. His envisioned ideas for not only the first single, but for the entire album's promotion (he directed the videos for each of the album's five singles). The single hit airwaves like a punch to the gut – the riff was punchy and concise, and the message was screamed out loud and clear. The emotions that it provoked, both good and bad, in people around the world helped to propel the band into relevance again, and certainly paved the road for the immense success of the album as a whole.

American Idiot debuted at number one on the charts on September 21, 2004. This was the first sign that Green Day were back in full force. The album went on to produce five singles, two of which ("Holiday" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams") shot straight up to number one. The album also won the 2005 Grammy Award for "Best Rock Album," and seven of the eight VMAs for which it was nominated. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" won the 2006 Grammy for "Best Rock Record." The American Idiot Tours, which kicked off on October 1, 2004, were perhaps the pinnacle of the band's world-takeover. The first leg started in modest venues across North America, but by the final leg, Green Day was selling out massive stadiums holding up to 65,000 people. The years 2004-2006 saw Green Day growing into themselves as musicians in many ways – they rallied voters before the 2004 presidential election, they adopted a red-and-black, faux-formal dress code that became synonymous with their message, and their live show became the explosive, arena-slaying force that it still is today. The band was everywhere during the American Idiot era: opening the 2005 Grammys, and also playing Live 8 in July of 2005. The band went on to commemorate the massive success of this album and tour with a live CD/DVD filmed at the Milton Keynes National Bowl in England on July 18 and 19th of 2005. This was the largest show that Green Day had ever played. Samuel Bayer captured the monumental show and the message behind it with stunning success. Shortly after the release of the live album, the band officially announced the end of the American Idiot era, and began a well-deserved break to enjoy their successes and begin work on their next projects.

The five year span between American Idiot and the release of Green Day's ninth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, saw the members of Green Day venturing to places they had previously never been. In September of 2006, they collaborated with U2 and covered "The Saints Are Coming" to benefit Hurricane Katrina victims. The two bands came together and performed the song live on September 25th, 2005 at the Louisiana Superdome's grand reopening. In June 2007, the band recorded John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" for the benefit album Instant Karma, whose profits went towards the conflicts in Darfur. On May 23, 2007, the band played the song live on American Idol's season finale. December of this same year would bring Green Day fans the most exciting happenings since the band had stopped touring. In October of 2007, a mysterious Myspace page popped up, exhibiting a few songs that featured a lead singer who sounded a bit too much like Billie Joe. In December, a six-track EP became available for free download. Later, in 2008, Billie Joe admitted that Green Day were in fact behind the Foxboro Hot Tubs. In May of 2008, the side-band released a full album entitled, Stop, Drop and Roll!!!, and went on a mini club-tour of the west and southwest parts of North America that summer.

After the raucous, whirlwind mini-tour, Green Day decided to get serious about making their next record. In an unexpected move, they signed Butch Vig on to produce the new album instead of Warner Bros exec Rob Cavallo, who had produced each of the band's albums from Dookie to American Idiot. In May of 2009, the long awaited follow-up to American Idiot was released. It was also a rock-opera, with a storyline similar to that of American Idiot running through it. 21st Century Breakdown tells the tale of Christian and Gloria, vigilante punk-rockers who set out to change post-Bush America, but ultimately fell to their own demons. Although it wasn't near as successful as American Idiot, the new album debuted high on the charts, got great reviews, and went on to win several VMAs and the Grammy Award for "Best Rock Album" in 2010. The band promoted the album on several TV shows, including the kick off of Good Morning America's summer concert-series. They also played a handful of small shows in California clubs, during which they played the album front to back. The most notable of these taking place at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California. In July of 2009, the 21st Century Breakdown World Tour began in large-scale venues across North America.

In addition to promoting 21st Century Breakdown and touring, the band was also beginning work on another project – the transformation of American Idiot into a musical. Director Michael Mayer, who had previously worked on musicals such as Spring Awakening, approached the band with his visions regarding the album-turned musical. Upon seeing Spring Awakening, the band agreed to collaborate with him on the massive venture. Billie Joe boldly told the New York Times that it was going to be his "wildest dream" come true. On September 4 of 2009, the show premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre to a sold-out crowd. In April of 2010, American Idiot: The Musical opened previews on Broadway. It featured much of the original cast from Berkeley, including John Gallagher Jr., who played the lead role of Johnny. The show received amazing reviews. People from many socio-economic classes and backgrounds were blown away. Even so, the show struggled to sell out on a nightly basis. This changed drastically when Billie Joe unexpectedly stepped in to play the role of St. Jimmy during the week of October 28, 2010. The Green Day fans that saw Billie Joe perform raved, and those who couldn't make it wished they had. The stint was so successful that Billie Joe came back again for fifty performances in January-February, and closed out the Broadway version of the show in April of 2011. The musical kicked off its full tour in Toronto, ON on December 28, 2011, and hit a lineup of major cities in North America before moving on to Europe.

Amidst the growing popularity of the musical, the band had also started a second leg of the 21st Century Breakdown Tour in North America during the summer of 2010. Fans were greatly pleased with the old, rare songs ("One For The Razorbacks," "At The Library," "Paper Lanterns") that made appearances during this outdoor arena tour. The Green Day Rock Band video game was released on June 8, 2010 as the band begun this leg of the tour. That June, American Idiot won two Tony Awards, though it lost out on "Best New Musical" to Memphis. The collection of songs from the musical performances also won a Grammy Award for "Best Musical Album" in March of 2010. On March 21, 2011, Green Day released their second full-length live album/DVD, boldly entitled Awesome as Fuck. The title reflected the band's respect for their fans, as it was these same fans who first started holding up "Awesome as fuck!!!" signs at gigs, following Billie Joe's use of the phrase in an interview. The live tracks came from various locations across Europe and North America, and the DVD was filmed over the course of two shows in Tokyo, Japan.

The latter-half of 2011 produced a few special events that marked the beginning of Green Day's next new era. Out of nowhere, Green Day announced (largely via Billie Joe's Twitter account) a tiny secret show, which took place on August 11, 2011. Fans who were lucky enough to snag one of the 250 tickets available had no idea what they'd be seeing. By the time the night was over, Green Day had played 18 brand-new songs. Before 2011 was over, Green Day had played four more impromptu, new material-packed secret shows: NYC, Texas, and two in California. It was clear that Green Day were now fully focused on their next batch of new songs. Fans waited with bated breath for the band's next great venture. On February 14 of 2012, Billie Joe broke the news: "Happy Valentine's day! Officially started recording the new record today. It's FUCK TIME!!!!" Fans weren't aware of the true scale of the new project until April 11, when Billie Joe tweeted yet another eventful message: "Ok. Here's the deal. We're making a 3 album trilogy. Not 1. Not 2. But 3 albums. Called ¡UNO! ¡DOS! ¡TRE! Coming September November January". Production of the ¡UNO!, ¡DOS!, ¡TRÉ! trilogy apparently finished up in June.

During the summer months of 2012 that lead up to the releases of the three new albums, Green Day did many an interview. Fans found more about what to expect from the three monumental albums coming their way. The band announced that two documentaries would be released in the near future: one on the making of the trilogy (¡Cuatro!), and one using pre-Dookie archival footage. In early August, the band played one more secret show at the Echoplex in LA before heading off to Japan and Europe for a 10-show festival tour. Green Day was forced to cancel their final appearance of this tour, at the I-Day fest in Italy, due to Billie Joe being briefly hospitalized for a stomach issue. The band returned to the US, and gave a vicious, energy-charged performance of ¡UNO!'s "Let Yourself Go" at the MTV VMAs on September 6. Green Day then jetted off to New York to appear at Irving Plaza for a club show on September 15.

They carried their never-ending supply of energy right into a set at the iHeartRadio festival in Las Vegas, NV. At the end of the band's allotted time slot, Billie Joe stopped the band mid-song after seeing a monitor which said that the band had only a few minutes left to play. He felt that their time had been cut into by a previous artist, and went on an expletive-laden rant that ended in the angry smashing of a guitar and a bass. A few days later, Green Day released a statement in which they apologized to "those they offended" at the festival, and revealed that Billie Joe would be going through a rehab process for help with substance abuse. As a result, some US tour dates got cancelled or postponed, and ¡TRÉ!'s release date was moved from January 15 up to December 11th. Official release dates for ¡UNO! and ¡DOS! stayed at September 25 and November 13, respectively. Now, after all three albums' releases and a few more cancelled/rescheduled tour dates, fans eagerly await the band's return to regular touring in March and the impending release of the full ¡Cuatro! documentary.