Green Day Event Timeline

1972: Everyone is born: Billie Joe in February, Mike in May, and Tre in December.

1977: Billie, then an angelic kid with ringlets, records a seven-inch single called "Look For Love."

1979: Mike smokes his first joint, with a friend of his mom's.

1982: Billie's career as a flasher begins at a swim meet in Crockett. He takes off all his clothes and streaks around the swimming pool.

1982: Billie and Mike meet in the school cafeteria and discuss songwriting.

1983: Mike sleeps over at Billie's house. They learn to play "Ain't Talking About Love" by Van Halen, "Photograph" by Def Leppard, and "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne.

1985: Armed with screwdrivers, Mike and his friend Jason break into newly built houses and dismantle them.

1986: Billie's sister Anna buys the replacements Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. Then she pounds on Billie for scratching the record.

1987: Billie and Mike, as Sweet Children, play their first show at Rod's Hickory Pit, where Billie's mom works. Thirty friends show up.

1987: Billie sells joints at school for two dollars apiece. He is called Two-Dollar Bill.

1989: Billie and Mike tour for the first time in different bands. Billie plays guitar for Corrupted Morals. Mike sings for Crummy Musicians, since the real singer's mother won't let him go on tour.

1989: Billie writes an article on how to be a couch potato -- root beer, pizza, and TV -- for his friend Eggplant's fanzine, Absolutely Zippo.

1990: The band released "39/Smooth" to go along with their E.P.'s, "Sweet Children", "!,000 Hours", & "Slappy".

1990: Billie drops out of high school the day before his eighteenth birthday.

1990: First Green Day tour. The day after Mike graduates from high school, they hop into a van and do forty-five dates across the U.S.

1990: Original drummer John Kiftmeyer leaves for college. His drum teacher, Tre Cool, joins the band.

1990: Billie and Tre get a job selling newspaper subscriptions outside Safeway. They end up ditching the papers and smoking weed the rest of the day. They are fired.

1991: Billie has a peculiar speed experience, smashing beer bottles and screaming "God damn Van Damme!" He has never seen a Van Damme movie.

1992: The band released "Kerplunk" and begin to achieve minor fame.

1992: Tre's dad buys a disused bookmobile from the Phoenix library system. It becomes Green Day's new travelling home, with Mr. Cool Sr. as driver.

1993: Green Day decide to leave Lookout! Records and join a major label. There is a huge bidding war amongst the labels but Reprise Records comes out on top and signs the band to a 5 record deal.

1994: "Dookie" is released and thanks to MTV's heavy play of the first single "Longview", Green Day's popularity sky-rockets.

1994: During the coarse of the next two years, Green Day appear on several magazine covers but most notably Rolling Stone and Spin. They also appear on talk shows like "The Late Show with David Letterman", "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brian".

1994: At the Woodstock reunion festival, Green Day increase their popularity by starting a huge mud fight during their set.

1994: Green Day slips through MTV's no-drug-references policy by talking about burning Jurassic monkeys, their personal slang for joints.

1995: The bands "Insomniac" album is released and is loved by reviewers but fails to come close to the sales of "Dookie".

1995: During a European tour, Green Day packs up and heads home claiming exhaustion. During the next year, Billie Joe writes around 50 songs in preperation for Green Day's next release, "Nimrod".

1997: Green Day record their new album, "Nimrod", with very high expectations. No Doubt members help out with the music on two songs.

1997: Under the alias "The Nimrods" Green Day play a secret warm-up gig at Johnny Depp's "Viper Room" in LA. The band used the gig to warm up for the Mt. Fuji Rock Festival that they agreed to play. The Fuji Fest appearance is cancelled after a typhoon hits Japan. Green Day spend the day at an amusment park instead with members of Beck, Prodigy, the Foo Fighters, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Tre later shoots the Foo Fighters drummer with a BB-gun and Billie Joe has to step in and break-up the situation.

1997: Green Day make headlines for 'destroying' Tower Records when they trash the store and Billie writes "Fuck You" and "Nimrod" on the windows in black spray-paint. Later at KROQ's annual accoustic Christmas, the band agains makes headlines when they thow the stage Christmas tree into the crowd. Once again Billie wrote obscenities on the stage and apparently there was a fight backstage with KROQ workers. KROQ called the police but no charges where laid.

Awards

On 9/10/98, they won the MTV's award for best Alternative video for Good Riddance(Time of your life).
On 8/27/98, they won the "Best Internation Live Act" from Kerrang Magazine.
On MTV's "Top 100 Of 1996 Countdown" on New Years Eve, Green Day's Walking Contradiction video ranked #64, and their Brain Stew/Jaded video ranked #40.
On The 1996 American Music Awards, Green Day got the nomination for Best Alternative Group (lost to Pearl Jam), and Best Artist (lost to Garth Brooks).
On MTV's 1996 countdown of the best music videos of all-time, Green Day ranked #1 for "Geek Stink Breath".
On MTV's "Top 100 Of 1995 Countdown" - New Years Eve - ,  Green Day's Geek Stink Breath video ranked #48, and their When I Come Around video ranked #4.
On MTV's "All-Time Alternative Rock Countdown" in 1995, Green Day's Longview video ranked #35, their When I Come Around video ranked #13, and their famous Basket      Case video ranked #4.
The May 1995 Circus poll gave Green Day the following awards for:
   Best New Artist: Green Day
   Best CD: Dookie
   Best CD cover: Dookie
   Best Bassist: Mike Dirnt
   Best Drummer: Tre Cool
The Bay Area Music Awards were given out March 11, 1995 at San Francisco's Warfield Theatre. Here are some winners in the 18th annual Bammie Awards:
   Outstanding Album: Dookie - Green Day
   Outstanding Group: Green Day
   Outstanding Bassist: Mike Dirnt - Green Day
   Outstanding Drummer: Tre Cool - Green Day
Kerplunk spent 2 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Pop Catalog Album Chart in March 1995.
After 52 weeks on the Billboard album chart, Dookie was still in the top 10 (#2) in February '94. The album sold over twelve million copies worldwide, and finished as the #24 album of 1994 in Billboard's year-end chart. It was the fifth-best selling album of 1994, according to Spin, Feb 1995, with sales of 3.3 million. Also, the singles Longview and Basket Case logged in at #3 and #4 respectively on Billboard's 1994 year-end Modern Rock chart, and Green Day rank as Billboard's #2 Modern Rock artists of 1994.
Four 1995 Grammy Nominations:
   Best New Artist. (lost)
   Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal, Basket Case. (lost)
   Hard Rock Performance, Longview. (lost)
   Alternative Music Performance, Dookie. (WON)
Green Day was also nominated for a 1995 American Music Award (Best Alternative Artist), but they lost to the Counting Crows.
Green Day got MTV's #1 video of 1994 (Basket Case). They also have MTV's #18 (Longview) and #70 (When I Come Around - Woodstock version). The regular version of the When I Come Around video was #1 on MTV's video countdown for four non consecutive weeks.
Geen Day's Dookie was named the "Best Rock CD of the Year" by Time magazine (Dec 26, 1994 issue). Quote: "Do you like playing your car stereo so loud that cars in back of you flash their lights? If the answer is yes, then Green Day is for you. If no, then here's a gift you can give to your younger relations that will make them all think you're incredibly cool. While the raucous, cathartic songs of this Berkeley-based punk band are adolescent and snotty, they're always laughing with you, not at you... or are they?"
Rolling Stone magazine featured Green Day as a prominent band for the future in its Generation Next special issue. Then (January 26, 1995 cover story), Rolling Stone readers named: Green Day - Best New Band of 1994
   Green Day - Critics' Choice Best New Band of 1994
   Dookie - Best Album of 1994
   Dookie - Best Album Cover of 1994
   Billie Joe Armstrong - Best New Male Singer
   Billie Joe Armstrong - Critics' Choice Second Best New Male Singer
   Green Day - Third Best Artist of 1994
   Green Day - Fourth Best Band of 1994
   Basket Case - Fifth Best Single of 1994
   Basket Case - Fifth Best Video of 1994
   Longview - Critics' Choice Third Best Single of 1994
Spin magazine's readers poll (January, 1995) gives Green Day a number of accolades:    Best New Band or Artist
   #5 single of the year (Longview)
   #2 artist Spin should be covering
   #1 artist predicted to "make it big in '95".
Green Day log in KROQ's #1 single of 1994 (Longview), as well as scoring #8 with Basket Case, 17 with Welcome to Paradise, and 34 with When I Come Around.            An article in Entertainment Weekly declared Green Day to be "1994's hottest band", and that 1994 has been the "Year of Green Day" in an excellent cover story. EW also named them #3 rookie of the year in their Best of 1994 issue.