JOHN KIFFMEYER
John Kiffmeyer (born July 11, 1969), also known professionally in music as Al Sobrante, is an American musician, best known as the former drummer for the punk rock band Green Day. His name of Al Sobrante is a reference to his hometown, El Sobrante. His work with Green Day resulted in about 961,000 albums sold, which are mostly from the compilation album 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. (More from Wikipedia)
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.
In late 1990, John Kiffmeyer left Green Day to attend college, with Tré Cool – formerly with the Lookouts; Lookout! Records founder Larry Livermore was their guitarist – filling in on drums and eventually joining the band permanently. The lineup of Green Day has been stable ever since, although Jason White joined the band on stage as a second guitarist beginning in 1999 and was an official bandmember between 2012 and 2016.
(June 2017)
