Billie Joe Armstrong
ROCK'S RUDE BOY
Some people are born troublemakers. When Green Day played a recent arena show in Nashville, in the heart of the Bible Belt, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong tailored his provocations accordingly. "I smell pot," he said, leaning down to the front row. "Jesus is gonna git you!" he added in a pinched Church Lady voice. Then he straightened up and chuckled. "Who are we kidding?" he said. "Jesus looks like a fucking pothead, doesn't he?" Not every multiplatinum pop star would choose this line of stage patter in a city with the largest number of churches per capita in the Union. But then Armstrong, 33, is the same rock star who decided, for Green Day's latest album, to write a sustained fifty-seven-minute-long anti-Bush, anti-war manifesto, the raging American Idiot -- and this back when a stray dissenting comment could earn you radio boycotts (the Dixie Chicks) or TV cancellation (Bill Maher). Yet somehow, the more furiously outspoken Green Day were, the more CDs and concert tickets they sold -- 2005 was the best in their seventeen years as a band.
In England, they played to 130,000 adoring fans at Milton Keynes stadium, they swept the MTV Video Music Awards and sold 10 million albums worldwide. And they're still eager to piss people off. "There are times," bassist Mike Dirnt admits, "when Billie Joe calls Bush an asshole from the stage, and we see a guy throw us the finger -- but then they'll change it into a fist and start pumping the air," he marvels. "So I don't know. Maybe they suddenly figure, 'Fuck, yeah -- he is an asshole.'" Armstrong himself makes no apologies. "People look at politicians as religious figures," he says. "It's like you're not supposed to question them, because it's bad table manners." By that measure, Armstrong and Green Day were among the most ill-mannered rockers on the planet this year.
After about seventeen months of touring, how will you adjust to life off the road?
It's kind of sad because we're not going to be playing those songs for a long time, but at the same time -- especially politically -- you want to be more aware of what's going on. So right now, I need a home base to follow up on what's going on in the world and what's going on at home. American Idiot seemed like it kept making sense in a lot of ways -- from Hurricane Katrina to this new CIA-leak case. But it's time to hunker down and take a look at the world around you a little bit more instead of feeling like you're being self-absorbed.
Would it be fair to say that the rage in American Idiot comes out of patriotism?
I look at American culture -- I think of rock & roll as being the ultimate American culture. And I always look at that and I feel like that's what I'm playing too, and that's what I want other people to look at: This is the good side of America, this is the side that doesn't just settle for the grand scheme of things.
Your best moment of the year?
Teaching my son how to play guitar. He's going to be eleven in February. That's something I can honestly pass on to him. It's like, "Oh God, I can't throw a football very good, but I can play a few chords on the guitar . . ."
Worst moment of the year?
Hmm, um . . .
I'm sure you'd love to share that with a few million readers . . .
No, it's not that. I don't have anything juicy, necessarily. But I think it's just getting to this point where we're finished with this cycle, and sort of looking down and saying, "OK, what's next?" That's always the scariest moment in a band's career, and it's happening to us in a big way.
Finally, what's the biggest way you made trouble this year?
Every day we were making trouble. The fact that so many people got behind the album just shows you that there were a lot of people willing to question things or change their mind -- all it takes is a spark to start a riot. And hopefully if you get enough people -- if you take a song and you get enough people singing it, it becomes an anthem, and an anthem becomes the national anthem, to a degree. I love people when they join together and sing, and it's just massive, and it's done for the right reason. Even if it's just a great party.
ROCK'S RUDE BOY
Some people are born troublemakers. When Green Day played a recent arena show in Nashville, in the heart of the Bible Belt, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong tailored his provocations accordingly. "I smell pot," he said, leaning down to the front row. "Jesus is gonna git you!" he added in a pinched Church Lady voice. Then he straightened up and chuckled. "Who are we kidding?" he said. "Jesus looks like a fucking pothead, doesn't he?" Not every multiplatinum pop star would choose this line of stage patter in a city with the largest number of churches per capita in the Union. But then Armstrong, 33, is the same rock star who decided, for Green Day's latest album, to write a sustained fifty-seven-minute-long anti-Bush, anti-war manifesto, the raging American Idiot -- and this back when a stray dissenting comment could earn you radio boycotts (the Dixie Chicks) or TV cancellation (Bill Maher). Yet somehow, the more furiously outspoken Green Day were, the more CDs and concert tickets they sold -- 2005 was the best in their seventeen years as a band.
In England, they played to 130,000 adoring fans at Milton Keynes stadium, they swept the MTV Video Music Awards and sold 10 million albums worldwide. And they're still eager to piss people off. "There are times," bassist Mike Dirnt admits, "when Billie Joe calls Bush an asshole from the stage, and we see a guy throw us the finger -- but then they'll change it into a fist and start pumping the air," he marvels. "So I don't know. Maybe they suddenly figure, 'Fuck, yeah -- he is an asshole.'" Armstrong himself makes no apologies. "People look at politicians as religious figures," he says. "It's like you're not supposed to question them, because it's bad table manners." By that measure, Armstrong and Green Day were among the most ill-mannered rockers on the planet this year.
After about seventeen months of touring, how will you adjust to life off the road?
It's kind of sad because we're not going to be playing those songs for a long time, but at the same time -- especially politically -- you want to be more aware of what's going on. So right now, I need a home base to follow up on what's going on in the world and what's going on at home. American Idiot seemed like it kept making sense in a lot of ways -- from Hurricane Katrina to this new CIA-leak case. But it's time to hunker down and take a look at the world around you a little bit more instead of feeling like you're being self-absorbed.
Would it be fair to say that the rage in American Idiot comes out of patriotism?
I look at American culture -- I think of rock & roll as being the ultimate American culture. And I always look at that and I feel like that's what I'm playing too, and that's what I want other people to look at: This is the good side of America, this is the side that doesn't just settle for the grand scheme of things.
Your best moment of the year?
Teaching my son how to play guitar. He's going to be eleven in February. That's something I can honestly pass on to him. It's like, "Oh God, I can't throw a football very good, but I can play a few chords on the guitar . . ."
Worst moment of the year?
Hmm, um . . .
I'm sure you'd love to share that with a few million readers . . .
No, it's not that. I don't have anything juicy, necessarily. But I think it's just getting to this point where we're finished with this cycle, and sort of looking down and saying, "OK, what's next?" That's always the scariest moment in a band's career, and it's happening to us in a big way.
Finally, what's the biggest way you made trouble this year?
Every day we were making trouble. The fact that so many people got behind the album just shows you that there were a lot of people willing to question things or change their mind -- all it takes is a spark to start a riot. And hopefully if you get enough people -- if you take a song and you get enough people singing it, it becomes an anthem, and an anthem becomes the national anthem, to a degree. I love people when they join together and sing, and it's just massive, and it's done for the right reason. Even if it's just a great party.
