100 Amazing Green facts
No matter how much hardcore fan you are
I'm sure you'll find something here that you didn't know !
1: Billie Joe was born on the 17th of
February 1972. His real name is William Armstrong.
2: Mike Dirnt was born on the 4th of May
1972. His real name is Michael Pritchard.
3: Tre Cool was born on the 9th of
December 1972. His real name is Frank
Edwin Wright III.
4. Billie Joe is a vegetarian.
5: Billie Joe and his wife Adrienne Nesser
spent their honeymoon at Berkeley's
prestigious Claremont Hotel, only a few
minuttes walk from their home.
6: The first record Billie Joe ever
bought was the Elvis Presley album,
"The sun sessions" . . .
7: The song J.A.R (from the Angus soundtrack)
was written by Mike and is about a good friend
of the band, who was killed in a car crash.
His name was Jason Andrew Relva(J.A.R).
8: Before Tre Cool a guy named John
Kiftmeyer played the drums is Green
Day, but he left just before Kerplunk!
9: Billie and Mike was born in Rodeo CountyBerkeley, CA, and Tre was born
in Willits in the Mendocino Mountains.
10: The dog, on the front-picture of the
Slappy EP is called Mickey, and is a girl.
11: In November `95 Billie Joe was
arrested at a Milwaukee show for mooning the crowd.
12: Billie Joe once played in a metal
band called Blood Rage... Other bands he has
played in/for ? here they are:
Sweet Children, The Lookouts, Corrupted
Morals, Goodbye Harry, Pinhead Gunpowder and Blatz.
13: But what bands have Mike played in/for ?
Here they are: Sweet Children, Screeching
Weasel, Corrupted Morals and The Crummy Musicians.
14: When Green Day played at Tower Records in
New York to support their new album Nimrod,
they totally fucked up the place.
The damage included: Spray-painting of CD dispalys
With the words "Green Day", "Nimrod" and "Fuck
You".
Other stuff included almost breaking a window with
A mike stand, mooning the crowd and hurling drums
And monitors into the aisle. The band's planned
autograph session was cancelled by the store-management
and the cost of the damage was said to be around $30000.
15: Billie Joe is the youngest of six kids.
16: Tre calls himself "Horny Horse".
17: Mike met Billie for the first time
in the school cafeteria when they were
both 10 years old. The year was 1982.
18: In December 1997 Hitchin' a Ride was the third most played song on Tokyo
radio
19: Tre Cool played the violin in 2nd grade...
20: Billie Joe has a homestudio where
his friend's bands can record for free !
21: Billie Joe has a son named,
Joseph "Joey" Marcicano Armstrong.
Mike has a daughter named
Estelle-Desiree and Tre has a Daughter
called Ramona. (Maybe it has something
to do with the boys being big fans of
The Ramones ? Who knows ?)
22: Mike and Billie played their first
gig together as the Sweet Children.
The gig took place in the lounge of
Rod's Hickory Pit, a roadside cafe
in Vallejo where Billie's mum was
working at the time. They were both 15 years old.
23: The first record where Billie and
Mike played together is The Sweet Children
EP. It was released on the Skene Label.
The EP is featured on the Kerplunk album.
24: On the 2nd of december 1994 Green
Day played a gig at the 16000-seat
Nassau Coliseum. The gig was sold
out in a matter of minutes.
25: Green Day's biggest ever hit Basket
Case was released in August of 1994 and
it spent six weeks at #1 spot in the US
modern rock chart. It was also the
number one video on MTV in '94.
26: The CD 1,039 Smoothed out slappy
hours is a compilation of 1000 Hours EP,
The slappy EP and the
39/Smooth LP.
27: On Green Day's first tour they
drived in a compact-car that was so
small, they had to sit with their
instuments on their laps. Later they
had to beg for free gas because the
money had run out.
28: Green Day's smash hit Dookie
sold more that 9.7 million copies.
29: Billie Joe can be seen mooning at
many of the bands live shows. But as
he says: "I only moon at the boring shows,
to like you know, give the crowd
something to remember."
30: I heard lately that Mike has a small part in the movie Men in Black.
If the rumours are true he plays a gay-bartender, but he's only on for 2-3
seconds. I haven't seen the movie myself so I can't tell you if it's true...
But I'm working on it !
31: If you hear a Green Day song you
might think Billie Joe is english
because of his accent. But let him
explain himself: "I sound like an
Englishman impersonating an american
impersonating and englishman." Hmm got it ?
32: Billie Joe's favorite guitar
players are: The guy from Surf, Duanne
Eddy and "I love the way Brian Setzer
plays his guitar." Billie Joe told danish
magazine Mix on the bands visit to Denmark.
33: Green Day's first two records
1,039 SOSH and Kerplunk was released
by Lookout records started by Lawrence
Livemore, former leader of Tre Cool's
band The Lookouts.
34: When Mike moved away from home he
lived in a room he rented by
the Armstrong family.
35: Rob Cavallo has produced all
Green Day's albums at current label Reprise.
(Dookie, Insomniac and Nimrod)
36: Billie Joe's favorite music is
english. Just listen to Rob Cavallo:
"He loves english music. Probably most
of his favorite bands are english:
Beatles, Sex Pistols, Clash, Who . . ."
37: Mike once worked as a cook to
afford the amount of 250$ a month his room costed.
38: Green Day's personal slang
for joints is "Jurassic Monkeys".
39: When the band play live they
don't use set-lists.
They play their songs in random.
40: Billie's mum bought a guitar for him
when he was 11 years old.
It's now known as "Blue".
41: Mike used to answer all his fan-
mail with a handwritten letter...
42: Billie Joe drives a 1962 Ford Fairlane.
43: Mike plays on a Gibson bass.
44: Green Day was ready to breake up
just before Kerplunk came out.
John left and it took Billie, Tre and Mike a
while to learn to play with eachother.
45: The first song Billie Joe wrote
was a song called Why do you want him ?
He wrote it at the age of 14. It can be
found on the Smothed out slappy hours album.
46: Billie Joe never wanted to sing
in a band. He just wanted to play
guitar and sit in the back. "I think
Mike just at one point told me I didn't
have a choice or he'd kick my ass."
47: The first LP, 39/Smooth only
took one day to record.
48: Billie Joe's main inspiration as
far as his writing is concerned is
the places where he comes from.
49: Then Green Day has this thing about
Hippies. Sometimes at the live shows
they play this anthem: "All we are
saying, Is kill the Hippie !"
And on MTV Raw Tre said the following:
"How do you hide money from a Hippie ?
You put it under the soap... !"
50: When Billie married Adrienne in
July 1994 they pieced together speeches.
One catholic, one protestant and one
jewish. "Neither of us are any religion" said Billie.
51: When Mike was a kid he loved
to ride his Bicycle. "I used to ride
my bicycle alot. I was silly on bicycles."
52: Dookie was recorded at the Fantasy
Studios in Berkley. Green Day wanted
to be close to home so that they
could ride their bicykles to work.
53: Tre Cool is amongst the people
who think Pot should be legalized:
"I like to smoke pot a few hours
before the show to get in the right
mood. It should be legalized.
Do it, Do it !! But don't give the
control to the big tobacco companies."
54: Mike does the most of the interviews:
"Well, the other guys don't like to do
them as much. I'd rather do them and
see them done."
55: On a number of occasions Billie
has taken a crazy person from the
audience up onstage to spit a souvenir
ball of spittle into the fan's mouth...
56: Billie has produced albums for
"Dead and Gone", "Social Unrest"
and "Fetish and the criminals."
57: Billie dropped out of school
on february the 16th, 1990.
58: It was Tre's idea to shoot the
video for Basket Case at an Insane-asylium.
59: The first record Tre ever played
on was with "The Lookouts" on the album,
"One planet one people". He was the man
behind the lyrics for
"The Mushroom is exploding."
60: A Green day is a day where one
hour just slips into another and
you just sit around smokin' and
drinking six-packs.
61: Billie Joe writes all his songs
on an acoustic guitar !
62: Billie Joe's first real crush was in
his teens. The victim was a 2 year older
girl called Jennifer. The entire first
EP (1000 Hours) was about her. It includes the
lovesick songs; "Dry Ice", "1000 Hours", "only
of you" and "The one I want".
63: Billie Joe's dad was a jazz drummer
64: The plectrum you might have seen
hangin' around Billie's neck is a
"Ramones" plectrum.
65: Nimrod was recorded at the Image
Recording studios in Hollywood, California.
66: In an Interview with the HM magazine
Mike said "All my religious beliefs
are based on Star Wars."
67: The When I come around single was
released in the beginning of 1995.
It was number one on the Billboard's
modern rock chart for seven consecutive weeks !"
68: The first Alternative Rock show
Billie saw was R.E.M who played at a
gymnasium. His sister took him when
he was 13 years old. "It was like
a religious experience for me" he says.
69: On the US-Dookie tour Green Day
lost $15.000 because of the low
ticket prices and the cheap merchandise.
70: At the 1994 Lollapalooza festival
the girl grunge band L7 hijacked the
stage halfway through Green Day's set
holding up signs reading: "KaChing KaChing",
"Punk for sale" and simply "$". Billie
tried to choke his laughter as he
continued singing.
71: All three lads in Green Day are agnostics.
72: After the Woodstock performance
Billie got a hate-letter from his mother
calling him "Disrespectfull" and
"Indecent" for amongst many other
things, dropping his pants.
73: Once Mike got in a pillow fight
with his girlfriend. He broke both
his arms and had whiplash and six
stitches in his head...
74: Green Day have raised money for
charitys such as "Food not bombs" and
"The Homeless Coalition".
75: Mike Dirnt's natural mother was
a heroin-addict who gave him up for
adoption. The couple who took him was
a native american woman and her white
husband, but their irreconcilable
differences led them to split up when
Mike was seven. He first lived with his
father then his mother. His sister
left home when she was just 13. When Mike
was in the 5th grade his mother stayed
out all night and she came home the next
day with a guy. He moved in and all of a
sudden he was Mike's stepfather, despite
that Mike had never met the guy. When
Mike hit highschool his mother moved
away and Mike got real close to his stepdad.
But he past away when Mike was 17.
"The only thing my family did give me
was Blue-collar morals" says Mike.
76: The first album ( 39/Smooth )
only costed 600 dollars to record.
77: When Green Day played in Copenhagen
after the Kerplunk! Album Mike's bass
broke because the audience started
throwing beer on stage. Not because they
hated Green Day but because they were
injoying the show... So Green Day had
to borrow equipment for the rest of
the shows on that tour.
78: Tre prefer D/W drums.
79: Billie Joe has a brother that
is 21 years older than himself.
80: Tre prefer to play in Europe.
"I'd prefer to tour Europe any day
rather than the States."
81: When Tre was only 12 he joined
"The Lookouts". Their lead-singer,
Lawrence Livemore, was 30 years old.
82: Spain was the country were Dookie
was sold in most copies.
83: Billie Joe was a speed victim until he was 18.
84: When Rob Cavallo first tried to
convince Green Day to sign for
Reprise they went out and had ice cream
and hung out all day.
85: At the last show on the huge Dookie
tour Billie used the last couple of
minutes in his own way:
He got naked and played She.
86: In december 1994, on Hollywood's
Walk Of Fame some fan had scratched out
actress Doris Day's frontname and replaced
it with the word green so it said "Green Day".
87: In the spring of `95 the band
Creedle released a single called
"It's not cool to like Green Day anymore"...
88: Billie Joe still wets his bed just
like he did all the way through chilhood...
Atleast that's what he says.
89: Billie Joe uses a green Jim Dunlop
tortex plectrum, 88mm.
90: When Billie was 6 years old he
sang on a single called "Look for Love."
It was released on Fiat records.
The lyrics was written by James J. Fiatarone
and the music by Marie-Louise Fiatarone.
The price at the time ? $1.25 !
Click here to see a picture of the cover
91: Green Day believe that dogs will
take over the world and when that
happens they'll hit everyone with shit . . .
92: Billie once thought of writing a
totally sarcastic song called
"I'm so goddamn happy", just talking
about how happy he always is...
93: At the age of 5 Billie was dragged
to hospices to sing for the patients.
94: As a teenager Billie Joe sold joints
for two dollars each. That gave him the
name "2 dollar Bill"...
95: Green Day's former manager Elliot Cahn
was fired in July 1995. He was rumoured to
have leaked, at that time, new song J.A.R
to a radio station in Los Angeles.
96: All the lads are married. Billie Joe with
Adrienne Nesser, Mike with Anastasia and
Tre with Lisea Lyons.
97: In 1995 Green Day was nominated for 4 Grammy's
but only won one.
(Best alternative performance for Dookie)
98: The first thing Billie did when the money
started rollin' in was getting his car primered...
99: Green Day is in an episode of the cartoon
King of the Hill. They supply the voices for a
garage band called "Cane and the subborn stanes".
I think the name of the episode is
"The man who shot Cane Skretteburg."
100: After 52 weeks on the Billboard album chart
Dookie was still in the top 10 !!!
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