Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong doesn’t want a pity party now he’s clean and sober after rehab
GREEN Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong is clean and sober and talking about the band’s new album, which is the angriest since American Idiot.
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THERE was one tiny hiccup when Green Day were last on the promotional trail.
The million-selling US rock trio were launching three new albums, Uno, Dos, Tre; their release dates staggered one a month from September 2012.
That glitch? A week before Uno was unleashed, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong unleashed his own inner monster with a rant at a Las Vegas corporate radio event.
Laced with F-bombs and complaining about having their time cut, the classic rock star moment went viral, but the instant publicity was outweighed by the sad reality that prompted it.
Days later, Armstrong was admitted to rehab — later revealing he’d returned to heavy drinking after a year of sobriety and had “drank my body weight in alcohol” the day of the radio show.
Pills were also in the mix, with the singer admitting to self medication issues around anxiety and insomnia.
Four years on, Armstrong is clean and sober with another new album to promote, but shies away from discussing his rehab stint — aware it’s now as much of a cliche as being a wasted rock star.
“I just don’t want a pity party,” Armstrong, 44, says. “It’s all been said before with other artists in the past. For me, I just needed to get my shit together. People around me were affected by hard drug and alcohol abuse.
“Now I feel great. I feel focused. I feel grateful. I feel like I got my sense of humour back. I try not to take myself too seriously. I’m stoked I have amazing people around me, I love my band and my family, everything’s pretty cool.”
Post rehab, Armstrong faced an array of challenges — personal and professional.
In 2014 Green Day released Demolicious — early versions of the Uno, Dos, Tre songs.
“The thing about those records is they had absolutely no direction,” Armstrong says now about his trilogy. “And that was the good thing about them. But that’s something average listener doesn’t relate to so much. I’m really proud of a lot of the songs that are on there. We put out the demos, which I love a lot more. The records could have been more raw, but for me personally it ended up sounding a bit flat.”
Everyone from fan forums to music magazines were debating about what Green Day should do next, with the trilogy scoring them their lowest sales in years.
The band began in 1986 but exploded in the mainstream in 1994 with Dookie, spawning subversive radio hits When I Come Around, Longview and Basket Case and joining the club of albums that sold 10 million copies in the US alone — another 10 million worldwide.
Ballad Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) became a global hit in 1997 but in 2004 the trio enjoyed a major resurgence with American Idiot, a politically-charged look at the Bush era. The album sold 15 million worldwide and even spawned a hit musical — which is being made into a feature film.
“The first thing we did was take a break,” Armstrong said of life after rehab.
“It was a conscious effort, let’s just relax for a little bit. We had four years (off), (drummer) Tre (Cool) got married, which was an amazing thing for him, he’s met an incredible woman. (Bassist) Mike (Dirnt)’s wife got really sick, which was scary, we had to rally behind each other. That came first, before the band.
“Then Jason White our guitar player got sick. Once again there was no time to do Green Day. It would have been absurd to even consider it. But as time went on and people got nursed back to health I had the songs, I presented them to the band, and it was the right time. Everything had a happy ending.”
Coming out of that period, Revolution Radio, the 12th Green Day album, had a suitably low-key beginning.
Whereas previous records were made in a professional studio with an A-list producer, Armstrong began work in his new home studio (christened Otis) with just the band and engineer Chris Dugan.
“We haven’t done something like that since (second album) Kerplunk, which recorded in 1991. I’m dating myself there!
“It was trial by fire. I had a handful of songs. We didn’t know if were making demos or an album. It was the least pressure we’ve ever had in a recording studio. I don’t know if that’s had to do with how many years we’ve been around and the experience we have.”
The album is Green Day’s most socially aware statement since American Idiot. Armstrong said any references to the divisive Trump era is coincidental.
“A lot of the songs were written a few years ago. But the way things evolved was it went from metaphor to becoming literal. (First single) Bang Bang is about mass shootings and the psychosis that goes behind it. The line ‘I want to be a celebrity martyr’, well you can definitely put Trump in that category.”
Armstrong wrote Bang Bang about the gun culture in America and how killers get instant fame — but sings it in the first person.
“We live in a really violent society. There’s the narcissism that comes along with it from the media coverage they get. Bang Bang is about a kid who put a manifesto on his Facebook page and went on a shooting spree and killed all these people. It freaked me out, people are fed up. How many people are capable of doing something like that? Maybe it’s more than we think, I have no idea.”
The album’s title track was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement; Armstrong had joined in protest marches himself in New York.
“From observing those protests it’s obvious we have to become better listeners. Everyone is just throwing bullsh--- into the wind. With the Black Lives Matter movement it’s not a time to voice your opinion, it’s time to listen. We have to get to this new consciousness. We’ve done We Shall Overcome and Kumbaya, now we have to listen to what’s fair, up and down the chain of command. With Black Lives Matter I feel my job is to listen, and to keep my f!@#ing mouth shut.”
Troubled Times is as literal as the title suggests — Armstrong sings “What good is love and peace when it’s exclusive?”
“That song is almost like a series of questions and it has no solution because there is no solution. I watched the Paris (Bataclan) attacks, sometimes you just have to thank God you’re still alive. After that happened I wrote the song. But I don’t want to come across as a know it all, so as time went on I didn’t know if I wanted it on the record. Then the Orlando massacre happened and it just made sense. It’s the culture, it’s what’s going on.”
In their new live shows Armstrong has already updated the lyric to American Idiot’s Holiday to slam Donald Trump. Unsurprisingly, he’s not a fan.
“I feel really bad for people. The Trump campaign just preyed on desperate people, the working class, drug-addicted white society, the working class that aren’t working. You get people that are desperate and angry and you throw fear into that mix. You can’t be reasonable if you feel that way.
“What Trump does is he throws Mexicans and Muslims literally under the bus. Everybody wants to feel like they’re making great American progress, everyone’s pushing themselves towards exceptionalism. But then you get racism and people trying to step on top of the next person, whether it’s ‘Mexicans are coming for your job’, or ‘They’re shipping your jobs to China’. It’s fed up and it’s just not true. I hope that Trump loses. And I hope that this neofascist thing just goes to bed and never wakes up again.”
American Idiot demonstrated to Armstrong he can use his position for good.
“There were a lot of young people that listened to American Idiot and maybe they wanted to get informed, the same way I listened to the Dead Kennedys and a song like Holiday In Cambodia. First thing was ‘Where the hell is Cambodia?’ I wasn’t learning about it in school, but I was learning about it through punk rock. It made me open my eyes and it opened my mind more.”
He also touches on the epidemic of prescription pain medication being abused on the album — something he’s no stranger to.
“It’s really bad. I think there are a lot of Trump supporters in that epidemic. It’s crazy. Hillbilly Heroin they call it here. It’s scary. Still Breathing has that vibe, it’s about how people are connected in feeling they’re a little bit lost. I don’t think of this record as being doom and gloom, it’s more about confusion and feeling a bit lost.”
Armstrong has found a second career in the last five years — acting.
In 2014 he played a cheating musician in indie film Like Sunday, Like Rain alongside Debra Messing and Leighton Meester. This year he’s in another indie film, Ordinary World, playing the lead role of Perry, a punk rocker whose band is on hiatus forcing him to adjust to real life. The film, also starring Selma Blair and Fred Armisen, was originally called Geezer, until Armstrong gave the film Ordinary World (also from Revolution Radio) to use on the soundtrack.
“I loved doing an independent film, it was a great thing to sink my teeth into,” Armstrong said of his first lead role. “I just love that spirit, it’s more done on the fly, there’s less ego.
“All I really had to do was act naturally, as Ringo Starr once said. I loved playing that character. I had a lot in common with him, having small kids. I’d go from playing a freaking stadium and I’d come home and it would turn into baby bottles and sleeplessness.”
Armstrong’s sons are now grown up and both in bands. Joey Armstrong the drummer in SWMRS playing punk (his dad has produced their early albums), Jakob Danger (18) has just released an EP last year inspired by the Strokes.
“I’m super proud,” Armstrong said. “I learn something new about that kid (Joey) all the time, his friends I’ve known since they were kids. I feel like that record they put out was great. So good. And I mean that from a level of not only a proud dad but artistically, it’s a good record. They’re getting a great response from it.”
Armstrong played the Saint Jimmy role in the American Idiot musical on Broadway. He’s set to reprise the key role in a HBO movie version of the musical, which is scheduled for production next year.
“I’m one of the writers, it’s a very slow moving process, it moves at snail pace. I’m open for anything with acting. I think it’d be fun to play the Riddler in the next Suicide Squad, that would kick ass”.
This year Armstrong got attention when he Tweeted that he wanted to kill off the term ‘pop punk’ ahead of the release of their new album.
“It was tongue in cheek,” he says, “but I’ve never liked that term. When I hear ‘Green Day pop punk’, ugh. People make these blanket statements about sub genres. It feels like it’s a substitute for thinking.”
Last April Green Day were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — “a great moment to reflect and be grateful for everything we’ve ever had”.
Having seen countless contemporaries come and go — or get freeze-framed in the past — Armstrong is aware how lucky the band are to still have fans excited about the fact they’re making new music.
“You never know what people will think when you put out a new record and you’ve been around for getting close to 30 years. It’s insane. The fact people are not only interested but excited, I think we’re in a really rare place. I can’t think of another band on this level where people are still stoked to hear something new. And they’re listening for serious reasons. man, I’m humbled by it.”
The band have commenced the world tour for Revolution Radio — Armstrong said working out a setlist was a tough call.
“You have to consider eras. There’ll be people stoked to hear their favourite song and there’ll always be people who don’t hear their favourite song. Sorry. We have about 300 songs to go through now.
“I think a little nostalgia is healthy for the soul, especially if it’s coming from a place of gratitude. I don’t think I could be that guy who hangs his hat on it, ‘OK, let’s go through the motions and play Basket Case for the 2000th time’.
“The thing that I feel that happens with us, back with Dookie there were 17 or 18 year olds who loved that record. With Nimrod it was the same thing. Same with American Idiot. Right now it feels like we keep generating young fans that are discovering Kerplunk or Insomniac or Dookie for the first time. It feels brand new to them. And that renews my interest in it also.”
When the tour visits Australia (Armstrong is still working on getting the American Idiot musical here) he may be sober, but backstage won’t be an alcohol and fun-free zone.
“Everyone’s different. There’s still a bit of a party going on back there. It’s not going to be a teetotal affair. What a bum out! I’d rather people be loose and have a good time. I just want to put on a really fun show that people walk away from feeling they want to start a revolution.”
Revolution Radio (Warner) out tomorrow.
Green Day, Perth Arena April 30, Adelaide Entertainment Centre May 3, Rod Laver Arena Melbourne May 5, Brisbane Entertainment Centre May 8, Qudos Bank Arena Sydney May 10. On sale October 18, 10am, Ticketek
Originally published as Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong doesn’t want a pity party now he’s clean and sober after rehab
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