BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG
Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor who is best known as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter, and guitarist of the punk rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt. He met Mike Dirnt while attending elementary school, and the two instantly bonded over their mutual interest in music, forming the band Sweet Children when the two were 15 years old. The band changed its name to Green Day, and would later achieve massive commercial success. Armstrong has also pursued musical projects outside of Green Day’s work, including numerous collaborations with other musicians. (More from Wikipedia)
But it wasn’t until I saw footage of Green Day’s live performance at Woodstock ’94 that I tuned into their punk roots. I had recently moved from New York to San Francisco and admitted as much to some of my work buddies, who assured me that this Bay Area rock band was very much a punk rock band from the beginning.
Green Day’s set at Woodstock ’94 was one of the most memorable of this revival of the original Woodstock festival 25 years earlier, though not necessarily because of the music. At one point during their performance, bandleader Billie Joe Armstrong started a “mud fight” with audience members, leading to a new nickname for the rock festival of Mudstock.
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Childhood friends Billie Joe Armstrong (lead vocals and guitar) and Mike Dirnt (bass) are from Oakland (across the San Francisco Bay from San Francisco) and formed a band called Sweet Children when they were just 14. Their first live show was on October 17, 1987, at Rod’s Hickory Pit in Vallejo, California. Drummer John Kiffmeyer joined the line-up in 1988; he was previously in Isocracy. By the time their first EP, 1,000 Hours came out on Lookout! Records in 1989, they had dropped the name Sweet Children, since it was similar to that of another local band, Sweet Baby. Their new name, Green Day was selected because of their fondness for marijuana.
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“Wake Me Up When September Ends” is Billie Joe Armstrong’s tribute to his father, who died in September 1982. Later, as reported in Wikipedia: “In the United States, the song became symbolic after Hurricane Katrina [in August-September 2005], where it was dedicated to victims of the disaster and also regarded as a dedication to the victims of the September 11 attacks that occurred in 2001.”
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But nothing prepared me for Green Day’s rock opera to become a hit Broadway show called American Idiot; the musical ran for a full year beginning in April 2010 and since then has had regular performances worldwide. The musical American Idiot featured all of the songs from the original American Idiot album, plus several from their second rock opera, 21st Century Breakdown (2009) and one previously unreleased song, “When it’s Time”. Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the book for the musical with director Michael Mayer; while Green Day never performed during the show, Armstrong occasionally played the role of “St. Jimmy” during the Broadway run.
(June 2017)
