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More Green Day
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Mike Dirnt, Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool
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NY Rock’s second interview with Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day finds him and his band all grown up – or so the record company claims. Of course, this didn’t stop Billy Joe from bouncing happily all over the Warped Tour stage this summer, doing his customary striptease.
Can Billie Joe (vocals, guitars), Mike Dirnt (bass, vocals) and Tré Cool (drums) really leave blazing fires, shattered glass, and trashed hotel rooms behind? For the lowdown on this and other matters, read on....
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Your label says you've grown up. It seems a bit hard to believe. During your career, chaos seemed to follow you around....
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In a way everything just happened in our career. We were a couple of guys with shitty jobs – if we had jobs for long enough – playing in a band, having fun, recording an album and all of a sudden things took off. Punk went from being unpopular to absolutely popular! Of course, we were having fun. Of course, we did a couple of outrageous things. Who wouldn't? But you reach a point in your life where you ask yourself "Is it all I want to do?" And then you have to decide. Just because we're a bit older doesn't mean we've become boring. We have different values and let's face facts, I'm a family man. It's a lot harder to be on tour and just live it up when you've got a family. A family means responsibility.
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You have two sons (aged 3 and 5). How easy is it to go on tour? Is it a nice break from being a dad or is it more just duty?
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I never thought I'd say it, but I do miss my family more than I thought when I'm on the road. I still like being on stage and I'm a musician. To be honest, I couldn't be anything else. I don't qualify for much else, but I still miss them.
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So why not take your family along?
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Of course, I could take them along, but it wouldn't really be fair. Being on tour is a lot of stress and I wouldn't have much time for them. So it's better for them if they're in their environment with their mom and friends. How much fun can it be for a kid to be on tour without any other kids to play with? To have different time zones, get up at odd hours because you have a schedule to keep, no other kids around and everybody's really busy because things have to get done? Of course, we're still going to tour. We were on the Warped Tour, but it's great to come home again.
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The lyrics of "Church on Sunday" sound almost depressing....
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"Church on Sunday" deals with compromises in the relationship I have with my wife. You have to compromise in every relationship. If you want it to work out you've always got to look ahead, have a future in front of your eyes and work on your relationships, no matter if they're with your partner or with friends. There will always be problems, but you've got to find solutions, or at least try to find solutions. I really hope there is a solution for every problem.
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What happened to the angry young man?
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Oh, I was an angry, pessimistic and egomaniac person. Sometimes if I look at my old lyrics, they seem to be full of rage but still empty. There was an emptiness in my life. Now I'm trying to fill that void.
It doesn't mean that you have to bottle up all your anger and your rage, but I learned that it makes a lot more sense to find out what really makes you angry, then try and channel the anger and to try to remove the cause for it. I think it's your own choice if you turn from an angry young man to a bitter, old bastard, or if you stay angry in a good way.
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It seems that you've become more of a songwriter with Warning....
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I don't want to live in an ivory tower, being the songwriter who just turns inward. I always want to be a part of the whole thing. That's why I live a pretty normal life at home, go shopping, all that. It's part of my life and I don't want to have that part of my life taken from me.
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I'm surprised that you say it so matter of fact, a lot of bands would try to keep up the angry image just for the sake of marketing....
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You can never tell if your fans will like an album or if they won't and I'm not gonna sit and try to market myself to anybody. If you feel like getting into this record, then do it. If you don't, then don't. It's as simple as that. I know a lot of people are going to call me arrogant and all that, but I don't care. If somebody likes our songs, they should like them for the right reason and not just for marketing.
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Aren't you worried that they're going to claim – yet again – that Green Day is not punk anymore and probably throw the old "sold out" accusations at you?
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I don't want to paint myself into a corner; punk will always be a part of my life. But I don't want to limit myself musically. On Warning we managed to test how far we can go. I love punk and punk songs will always be part of Green Day. But it would be really limiting if we'd neglect something we really want to do, like explore other styles of music.
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What would you say were your main influences when you worked on the album?
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I listened to a lot of Bob Dylan songs, Tom Waits and Springsteen. I always thought it was important to keep your mind open, to be interested to what happened in the past, but still keep an eye on what's happening today. A lot of people just saw us as some three-riff punk band who couldn't really play. I don't mind what they say about us. I know that we always tried out new things. One thing they can't pin on us is that we never experimented or that we recorded the same album over and over again.
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"Fashion Victim" sounds a bit harsh, apart from the fact that I'm surprised you bothered with fashion....
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I think what is going on in America is extreme, more than extreme. The youth cult, they worship youth so much it's almost paranoid. And LA is the Mecca of it all; it's where they're taking it to the hilt. People are so damned afraid that one day they might wake up and discover that they've grown old. I don't like LA. I'm sure there are some great people there but the majority just seem to be so artificial. Look at how they worship everything they think is fashionable. Isn't it sick? Nothing is stupid enough as long as it's fashion and a sign of youth. If Britney would paint her ass green, I'm sure you could spot green asses all over LA as soon as the word was out.
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It sounds like you're becoming almost political....
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We're not a political band and we don't want to tell people what to do or what to think. We just want to tell them to think. If they're not happy they should get up and do something, even if it turns out that they did the wrong thing. At least they know they've tried and making mistakes is a lot better than not doing anything.
October 2000
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