Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is an American musician and actor. He is best known for being the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt in 1987. He is also a guitarist and vocalist for the punk rock band Pinhead Gunpowder, and provides lead vocals for Green Day’s side projects Foxboro Hot Tubs, the Network, the Longshot and the Coverups. Armstrong has been considered by critics as one of the greatest punk rock guitarists of all time
Armstrong developed an interest in music at a young age, and recorded his first song at the age of five. He met 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 14 years old. The band later changed its name to Green Day. Armstrong has also pursued musical projects including numerous collaborations with other musicians.
Armstrong has acted in several films and TV series, including Like Sunday, Like Rain, Ordinary World, King of the Hill, Haunted, and Drunk History. In addition to co-writing the book and lyrics for American Idiot, a jukebox musical featuring several of Green Day’s songs, Armstrong portrayed the role of St. Jimmy in the show for several weeks during its run on Broadway.
Armstrong’s business ventures include founding Adeline Records to help support other bands in 1997, coinciding with the release of Nimrod. Adeline signed acts such as the Frustrators, AFI, and Dillinger Four. The record company shut down two decades later in August 2017.[6] Armstrong also co-founded Punk Bunny Coffee (formerly Oakland Coffee Works) in 2015.
Early life
Armstrong was born in Oakland, California,[7] on February 17, 1972,[8] the youngest of six children of Ollie Jackson (born 1932)[9] and Andrew Marsicano Armstrong (1928–1982).[10] He was raised in Rodeo, California. His father, a jazz musician and truck driver for Safeway, died of esophageal cancer on September 10, 1982, when Armstrong was 10 years old.[10] The song “Wake Me Up When September Ends” is a memorial to his father. Armstrong has five siblings, including three older sisters, Marci, Hollie, and Anna, and two older brothers, David and Alan. His mother worked as a waitress at Rod’s Hickory Pit in El Cerrito, California, where he and Mike Dirnt later played their first gig in 1987.[10] His great-great-grandparents Pietro Marsicano and Teresa Nigro were Italian immigrants from Viggiano, who settled in Boston prior to relocating to Berkeley, California, in 1869.[11]
Armstrong attended Hillcrest Elementary School in Rodeo, where a teacher encouraged him to record a song titled “Look for Love” at the age of five[12] on the Bay Area label Fiat Records.[10][13] After his father died, his mother married a man whom her children disliked, which resulted in Armstrong’s further retreat into music.[citation needed] At the age of 10, he met future bandmate Mike Dirnt in the school cafeteria, and they immediately bonded over their love of music.[10] He became interested in punk rock after being introduced to the genre by his brothers.[14] He has cited Van Halen, Ramones, The Replacements, and Hüsker Dü as musical influences. The first concert he ever attended was Van Halen in 1984. After Hillcrest Elementary, Armstrong attended Carquinez Middle School and John Swett High School, both in Crockett, California, and later transferred to Pinole Valley High School in Pinole, California. On his 18th birthday, he dropped out to pursue a musical career.[citation needed]
Career
In 1987, aged 15, Armstrong formed a band called Sweet Children with his childhood friend Mike Dirnt. In the beginning, Armstrong and Dirnt both played guitar, with Raj Punjabi[15] on drums[16] and Sean Hughes on bass. Punjabi was later replaced on drums by John Kiffmeyer, also known as Al Sobrante. After a few performances, Hughes left the band in 1988; Dirnt then began playing bass and they became a three-piece band. They changed their name to Green Day in April 1989, choosing the name because of their fondness for marijuana.[17]
In 1989, Green Day released their debut EP 1,000 Hours through Lookout! Records. They recorded their debut studio album 39/Smooth and the extended play Slappy in 1990, which were later combined with 1,000 Hours into the compilation 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours in 1991.
In 1990, Armstrong provided lead guitar and backing vocals on three songs for The Lookouts’ final EP IV, which featured Tré Cool on drums. Tré became Green Day’s drummer in late 1990 after Sobrante left to go to college. Cool made his debut on Green Day’s second album, Kerplunk (1991).
In 1991, Armstrong joined the band Pinhead Gunpowder, consisting of bassist Bill Schneider, drummer Aaron Cometbus, and fellow vocalist/guitarist Sarah Kirsch. Kirsch left the group in 1992, and was replaced by Jason White. The group has released several extended plays and albums from 1991 to the present, and performs live shows on an intermittent basis.[18]
In 1993, Armstrong played live several times with California punk band Rancid. Rancid’s lead singer, Tim Armstrong, asked Billie Joe Armstrong to join his band, but he refused due to his progress with Green Day. However, Billie Joe Armstrong was credited as a co-writer on Rancid’s 1993 song, Radio.
With their third LP, Dookie (1994), Green Day broke through into the mainstream, and have remained one of the most popular rock bands of the 1990s and 2000s with over 60 million records sold worldwide.[19] The album was followed by Insomniac (1995), Nimrod (1997), and Warning (2000).
Armstrong collaborated with many artists. He co-wrote the Go-Go’s 2001 song “Unforgiven”. He has also co-written songs with Penelope Houston (“The Angel and The Jerk” and “New Day”), and sung backing vocals with Melissa Auf der Maur on Ryan Adams’ “Do Miss America” (where they acted as the backing band for Iggy Pop on his album Skull Ring (“Private Hell” and “Supermarket”). Armstrong produced an album for the Riverdales. He was part of the Green Day side project the Network from 2003 to 2005, which became active again in 2020. The Network released two albums: 2003’s Money Money 2020 and 2020’s Money Money 2020 Part II: We Told Ya So!.
Hoping to clear his head and develop new ideas for songs, Armstrong traveled to New York City alone for a few weeks in 2003, renting a small apartment in the East Village of Manhattan.[20] He spent much of this time taking long walks and participating in jam sessions in the basement of Hi-Fi, a bar in Manhattan.[21] However, the friends he made during this time drank too much for his liking, which was the catalyst for Armstrong’s return to the Bay Area.[21] After returning home, Armstrong was arrested for driving under the influence on January 5, 2003, and released on $1,200 bail.[21]
In 2004, Green Day debuted American Idiot, their first rock opera. The album has sold more than 15,000,000 copies worldwide, fueled by the hit singles “American Idiot”, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends”.[22] In 2009, Green Day released 21st Century Breakdown, the band’s second rock opera, which was another commercial success.[23] Between these two projects, Armstrong was the lead vocalist of the Green Day side project Foxboro Hot Tubs, who formed in 2007 and have performed intermittent live shows ever since. Foxboro Hot Tubs released one album, Stop Drop and Roll!!!, in 2008.[24][25]
In 2009, Armstrong formed a band called Rodeo Queens, along with members of Green Day and NYC punk rocker Jesse Malin. They released one song, along with a video, called “Depression Times”.[26]
In 2009, American Idiot was adapted into a Broadway musical, also called American Idiot.[27] The musical won two Tony Awards. Armstrong appeared in American Idiot in the role of St. Jimmy for two stints in late 2010[28][29] and early 2011.[30]
In 2012, Green Day released a trio of albums: ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré!.[31] In 2013, Armstrong appeared on Season 3 of NBC’s The Voice as an assistant mentor for Christina Aguilera’s team.[32] In 2013, Armstrong and singer-songwriter Norah Jones released the album Foreverly, consisting of covers of songs from The Everly Brothers’ album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us.[33] The first single from the album, “Long Time Gone”, was released on October 23.
2012 substance abuse
On September 21, 2012, during a Green Day performance at Las Vegas’ iHeartRadio Music Festival, Armstrong became agitated onstage and stopped the band’s set midway through their performance of the 1994 hit song “Basket Case”. In an expletive-filled rant, Armstrong criticized the event’s promoters for allegedly cutting short the band’s performance, before smashing his guitar and storming off stage. The band later issued a statement apologizing for the incident and clarifying that their set had not actually been cut short.[35] The incident occurred just four days prior to the release of Green Day’s ninth studio album, ¡Uno
Two days after the incident at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, Green Day announced that Armstrong was seeking treatment for an unspecified substance abuse problem. As a result, scheduled appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Ellen DeGeneres Show were canceled.[39] According to Claudia Suarez Wright, Tre Cool’s ex-wife and the mother of Armstrong’s godson, Armstrong had been drinking heavily in Las Vegas prior to the iHeartRadio Music Festival, following approximately one year of sobriety.
Armstrong gave an interview to Rolling Stone in March 2013 in which he said that he had “been trying to get sober since 1997, right around Nimrod”.[42] He discussed how, during the 21st Century Breakdown tour of 2009–2010, “There were meltdowns on that tour that were huge”.[42] Armstrong detailed his addiction, in particular how it had escalated in the months prior to the release of the ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tre! albums and the performance at iHeartRadio, stating that during the band’s 2011 summer tour of Europe, “I was at my pill-taking height at that time, medicating the shit out of myself”.[43] Armstrong gave details of a gig at Irving Plaza in New York just over a week before the iHeartRadio incident, in which he “Threw back four or five beers before we went on and probably had four or five when we played. Then I drank my body weight in alcohol after that. I ended up hungover on the West Side Highway, laying in a little park.”
Green Day canceled all remaining concert dates for 2012 and early 2013 as Armstrong continued dealing with his personal problems.[44] In late December 2012, the band announced they would return to touring at the end of March 2013.[45] Armstrong later said that the substances he had been abusing were alcohol and prescription pillfor anxiety and insomnia.
On September 21, 2012, during a Green Day performance at Las Vegas’ iHeartRadio Music Festival, Armstrong became agitated onstage and stopped the band’s set midway through their performance of the 1994 hit song “Basket Case”. In an expletive-filled rant, Armstrong criticized the event’s promoters for allegedly cutting short the band’s performance, before smashing his guitar and storming off stage.[34] The band later issued a statement apologizing for the incident and clarifying that their set had not actually been cut short.[35] The incident occurred just four days prior to the release of Green Day’s ninth studio album, ¡Uno![36]
Two days after the incident at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, Green Day announced that Armstrong was seeking treatment for an unspecified substance abuse problem.[37][38] As a result, scheduled appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Ellen DeGeneres Show were canceled.[39] According to Claudia Suarez Wright, Tre Cool’s ex-wife and the mother of Armstrong’s godson, Armstrong had been drinking heavily in Las Vegas prior to the iHeartRadio Music Festival, following approximately one year of sobriety.[40][41]
Armstrong gave an interview to Rolling Stone in March 2013 in which he said that he had “been trying to get sober since 1997, right around Nimrod”.[42] He discussed how, during the 21st Century Breakdown tour of 2009–2010, “There were meltdowns on that tour that were huge”.[42] Armstrong detailed his addiction, in particular how it had escalated in the months prior to the release of the ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tre! albums and the performance at iHeartRadio, stating that during the band’s 2011 summer tour of Europe, “I was at my pill-taking height at that time, medicating the shit out of myself”.[43] Armstrong gave details of a gig at Irving Plaza in New York just over a week before the iHeartRadio incident, in which he “Threw back four or five beers before we went on and probably had four or five when we played. Then I drank my body weight in alcohol after that. I ended up hungover on the West Side Highway, laying in a little park.”[43]
Green Day canceled all remaining concert dates for 2012 and early 2013 as Armstrong continued dealing with his personal problems.[44] In late December 2012, the band announced they would return to touring at the end of March 2013.[45] Armstrong later said that the substances he had been abusing were alcohol and prescription pills for anxiety and insomnia.[46]
2013 onward
Armstrong in 2013
Armstrong also collaborated with the comedy hip hop group Lonely Island in their song “I Run NY” from The Wack Album released on June 7, 2013.[47] He starred alongside Leighton Meester in the 2014 film Like Sunday, Like Rain.[48] For his work in the film, Bilie Joe won the Breakout Performance Award at the 2014 Williamsburg Independent Film Festival.[49] Armstrong wrote songs for These Paper Bullets, a rock musical adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, which premiered at Yale Repertory Theater in March 2014.[50]
In 2014, Armstrong joined The Replacements for a number of shows beginning on April 19 at Coachella. Frontman Paul Westerberg had been suffering with back problems and spent the majority of the gig lying on a sofa while Armstrong helped play his parts. Westerberg referred to Billie Joe as an “expansion of the band”.[51] Armstrong joined The Replacements on stage again at the Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta in May.[52]
In November 2014, Armstrong moved with his son Joseph to New York[53] and began working on another acting role, in the film Ordinary World. It was Armstrong’s first lead acting role. The film centers on the mid-life crisis of a husband and father who attempts to revisit his punk past, and was released in 2016. It included new songs written and performed by Armstrong.[54][55] The film got mixed reviews, although Armstrong’s own performance was generally praised, with The Village Voice writing that he had “a low-key charm suggesting that, if he desired it, he could get more onscreen gigs in between albums.
In October 2016, Green Day released their album Revolution Radio. In July 2017, Armstrong formed a supergroup with Tim Armstrong of Rancid, named The Armstrongs.
In April 2018, Armstrong formed the rock band The Longshot, and on April 20, the band released their debut studio album Love Is for Losers.[59] Shortly after, Armstrong announced that he and The Longshot would embark on a summer tour. Aside from Armstrong, the band’s lineup consists of Kevin Preston and David S. Field of the band Prima Don
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