Green Day
The American rock band Green Day has had an interesting history ranging from their popularity to the members, along with what they’re doing today and how they impacted society.
In 1987, Sweet Children formed. The members were Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar, Mike Dirnt on guitar, Sean Hughes on bass, and John Kiffmeyer (who went by the name Al Sobrante) on drums. Then in 1989 Green Day formed with the members Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar, Mike Dirnt on bass, and John Kiffmeyer on drums. John Kiffmeyer left the band the same year after Green Day’s first small tour to pursue college. Green Day recruited Tre Cool who had been in the band Lookout--the record label that Green Day used. After Green Day had released 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours and Kerplunk, they released their third album in 1994, Dookie. The album was a tremendous success, selling more than eight million copies. In 2004, Green Day released an album called American Idiot, which is their best album and was more popular than Dookie.
Green Day has both musical and political influences. In 1994, when Green Day released Dookie, they had lots of sarcasm and pin-point harmonies in their songs. Before Dookie, most guitar rock was humorless, bleak, and monotonic. Green Day ignored this and made the music how they wanted and became a popular band. In 2004, Green Day released an album called American Idiot, which was quite political and had lyrics aimed at George W. Bush and the government. Green Day hasn’t made songs about the government after the 2016 elections like many people thought they would, because the songs on American Idiot are still relevant today.
Green Day is working on a new album called Father of All… that will be released on February 7, 2020. So far, Green Day has released two songs from the album, which are “Father of All” and “Fire, Ready, Aim”. Along with Father of All..., Green Day will be going on tour with Fall Out Boy, Weezer, and the Interrupters, who will only be in North America. The Tour is called the Hella Mega Tour, which will be going through France, Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Austria, United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, and Canada. Before Green Day released this information, people were worried about the band breaking up, because the members have been making music with other bands, and also Green Day’s last album, Revolution Radio, was released in 2016. They announced that they have just been taking a break and having fun.
The lead singer and guitarist for Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong, has always loved music, which was the reason he became friends with Mike Dirnt in the school cafeteria when they were ten years old. He was born in Berkeley, California, on February 17, 1972, to Ollie Jackson and Andrew “Andy” Armstrong. His dad was a truck driver and jazz musician, but died on September 10, 1982, due to esophageal cancer, which was the reason that Green Day made the song Wake Me Up When September Ends. His mom worked at Rod’s Hickory Pit restaurant in El Cerrito, where Green Day first performed. Billie is the youngest of six children and was first introduced to punk rock by his brothers and was inspired to form a band by his teachers in school.
Mike Dirnt, Mychael Ryan Pritchard, was born on May 4, 1972, and was given up for adoption. He was adopted by a Native American mom and a white dad who divorced when he was seven. He originally lived with his father but later went to live with his mother. One night, when Mike was in fourth or fifth grade, his mom brought home a guy that Mike had never met, and not long after they married, but Mike wasn’t good friends with him until his mom moved away. Mike moved away from home when he was fifteen to live in his truck, and at one point he rented a room in Billie Joe Armstrong’s mom’s house. Around this time, Mike worked as a cook and this started the idea for the restaurant that he owns called Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe in Emeryville, California.
The drummer for Green Day, Tre Cool, was born on December 17, 1972, in Frankfurt, Germany. Tre Cool, born Frank Edwin Wright III, grew up near the Mendocino mountains with his dad and his two siblings. When he was 12 years old, his neighbor Larry Livermore recruited him to his band the Lookouts and gave him the name Tre Cool, because Tre is a common nickname given to people that are III. After John Kiffmeyer left Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt recruited Tre Cool because of his association with Larry Livermore, who owned Lookout Records, which was the record label that Green Day used. He dropped out of high school as a sophomore to join Green Day, and he later tried to go to college at a community college, but he dropped out.
