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 bandGreen Day, which he co-founded withMike Dirnt in 1987. He is also a guitarist and vocalist for thepunk rock bandPinhead Gunpowder, and provides lead vocals for Green Day's side projectsFoxboro Hot Tubs,the Network,the Longshot andthe Coverups. Armstrong has been considered by critics as one of the greatest punk rock guitarists of all time.[3][4][5]
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's business ventures include foundingAdeline Records to help support other bands in 1997, coinciding with the release ofNimrod. Adeline signed acts such asthe Frustrators,AFI, andDillinger Four. The record company shut down two decades later in August 2017.[6] Armstrong also co-foundedPunk Bunny Coffee (formerly Oakland Coffee Works) in 2015.
Early life
Armstrong was born inOakland, 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 inRodeo, California. His father, a jazz musician and truck driver forSafeway, died ofesophageal 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 inEl Cerrito, California, where he andMike Dirnt later played their first gig in 1987.[10] His great-great-grandparents Pietro Marsicano and Teresa Nigro were Italian immigrants fromViggiano, who settled inBoston prior to relocating toBerkeley, 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 theBay 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 bandmateMike Dirnt in the school cafeteria, and they immediately bonded over their love of music.[10] He became interested inpunk rock after being introduced to the genre by his brothers.[14] He has citedVan Halen,Ramones,the Replacements, andHüsker Dü as musical influences. The first concert he ever attended was Van Halen in 1984. After Hillcrest Elementary, Armstrong attended Carquinez Middle School andJohn Swett High School, both inCrockett, California, and later transferred toPinole Valley High School inPinole, 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 friendMike Dirnt. In the beginning, Armstrong and Dirnt both played guitar, with Raj Punjabi[15] on drums[16] andSean Hughes on bass. Punjabi was later replaced on drums byJohn 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 formarijuana.[17]
In 1990, Armstrong provided lead guitar and backing vocals on three songs forthe Lookouts' final EPIV, which featuredTré 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 bandPinhead Gunpowder, consisting of bassistBill Schneider, drummerAaron Cometbus, and fellow vocalist/guitarist Sarah Kirsch. Kirsch left the group in 1992, and was replaced byJason 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 bandRancid. Rancid's lead singer,Tim Armstrong (no relation), 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 byInsomniac (1995),Nimrod (1997), andWarning (2000).
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 theEast Village ofManhattan.[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 theBay 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 2009, Armstrong formed a band calledRodeo Queens, along with members ofGreen Day and NYC punk rockerJesse Malin. They released one song, along with a video, called "Depression Times".[26]
In 2009,American Idiot was adapted into aBroadway musical, also calledAmerican Idiot.[27] The musical won twoTony Awards. Armstrong appeared inAmerican Idiot in the role of St. Jimmy for two stints in late 2010[28][29] and early 2011.[30]
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 theiHeartRadio Music Festival, Green Day announced that Armstrong was seeking treatment for an unspecified substance abuse problem.[37][38] As a result, scheduled appearances onJimmy Kimmel Live andThe 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 theiHeartRadio Music Festival, following approximately one year of sobriety.[40][41]
Armstrong gave an interview toRolling Stone in March 2013 in which he said that he had "been trying to get sober since 1997, right aroundNimrod".[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 groupLonely Island in their song "I Run NY" fromThe Wack Album released on June 7, 2013.[47] He starred alongsideLeighton Meester in the 2014 filmLike Sunday, Like Rain.[48] For his work in the film, Billie Joe won the Breakout Performance Award at the 2014 Williamsburg Independent Film Festival.[49] Armstrong wrote songs forThese Paper Bullets, a rock musical adaptation ofMuch Ado About Nothing, which premiered atYale Repertory Theater in March 2014.[50]
In 2014, Armstrong joinedthe Replacements for a number of shows beginning on April 19 atCoachella. FrontmanPaul 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 theShaky 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 filmOrdinary 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, withThe 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."[56]
In April 2018, Armstrong formed the rock bandthe Longshot, and on April 20, the band released their debut studio albumLove 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 bandPrima Donna on lead guitar and drums, respectively, and longtime Green Day live member Jeff Matika on bass.[60]
In 2019, Armstrong co-wrote and performed the track "Strangers & Thieves" on the albumSunset Kids byJesse Malin.[61]
Green Day's fourteenth album,Saviors, was released on January 19, 2024.[63]
Artistry
Armstrong is known for his frequent use of palm-muted, power chord-driven guitar riffs, and melodic guitar solos. His strumming style makes use of techniques such as stubbing and fret hand muting, which allows him to strum power chords harder while attacking all six strings on the guitar.[64]
Instruments
Armstrong performing with his original "Blue" in 2024Armstrong performing withFender "Blue" replica in 2010
Armstrong's first guitar was a Cherry Red Hohner acoustic, which his father bought for him. He received his first electric guitar, aFernandes The Revival RST-50 Stratocaster that he named "Blue", when he was ten years old in 1982, the same year his father died. His mother got "Blue" fromGeorge Cole, who taught Armstrong to play guitar for 10 years. Armstrong says in a 1995MTV interview, "Basically, it wasn't like guitar lessons because I never really learned how to read music. So he just taught me how to put my hands on the thing." Cole bought the guitar new from David Margen of the bandSantana. Cole installed theBill Lawrence L500XL Humbucker pickup in the bridge position at an angle, similar toEddie Van Halen's guitarFrankenstrat, which caused Armstrong to be very influenced by Van Halen. The L500XL is the same pickup that was used byDimebag Darrell ofPantera, Armstrong replaced the L500XL with a white Yamaha Pacifica humbucker atWoodstock '94.
Armstrong later reinstalled the Bill Lawrence L500XL pickup before recordingInsomniac, although he switched to a blackSeymour Duncan SH-4 JB in 1995. He toured with this guitar from the band's early days and still uses it to this day.[65]
Marc Spitz writes that, "Armstrongfetishized his teacher's guitar, partly because the blue instrument had a sound quality and Van Halen-worthy fluidity he couldn't get from his little red Hohner. He prized it mostly, however, because of his relationship with Cole, another father figure after the death of Andy."[66]
Both middle and neck pickups are disconnected and the pickup selector is locked in the bridge position. This also applies to his backup guitar and "Blue" copies, mainly Fender Stratocasters. "Blue" appears in a number of Green Day music videos such as "Longview", "Welcome to Paradise", "Basket Case", "Geek Stink Breath", "Stuck with Me", "Brain Stew/Jaded", "Hitchin' a Ride", and "Minority". "Blue" also appears on the album cover ofInsomniac. The "BJ" on Blue stands for Billie Joe, inspired byStevie Ray Vaughan, whose Stratocaster has his own initials ("SRV") on the pickguard.[citation needed]
Today, Armstrong mainly usesGibson andFender guitars. Twenty of his Gibson guitars areLes Paul Junior models from the mid- to late-1950s.[67] His Fender collection includesStratocasters,Jazzmasters,Telecasters, aGretsch hollowbody,Rickenbacker 360 and his copies of "Blue" fromFender Custom Shop. Recently he has begun giving away guitars to audience members invited to play on stage with Green Day, usually during the songs "Knowledge" or "Longview". He states that his favorite guitar is a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Junior he calls "Floyd", which he bought in 2000 just before recording the albumWarning.[68]
Armstrong also has three of his ownLes Paul Junior signature models from Gibson. The first has been in production since 2006 and is modeled closely after "Floyd".[69] The second began production in 2012 and is a TV Yellow double-cutaway Junior. Both models include a Gibson "H-90" pickup, exclusive to Armstrong's models. Gibson has also released an extremely limited run of acoustic signature guitars.Epiphone has release lower-priced version of his signature Gibson Les Paul Junior in 2022.
Armstrong's amplifiers consist of a pair ofMarshall 100-watt1959 Super Lead reissues he acquired sometime before Green Day's Woodstock '94 performance and had modified for increaseddistortion. Nicknamed "Meat" and "Pete", the two amps are run in conjunction for a fuller sound, with aBoss BD-2 Blues Driver used for solos. For clean tones, Armstrong uses a rackmount Custom Audio Electronics 3+ SE tube preamp, and all three amplifiers are run through a pair of Marshall 1960B cabinets with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers.[70] In 2019,MXR released Armstrong's signatureoverdrive pedal, the Dookie Drive, which aimed to reproduce his dual-Marshall setup and was decorated with the cover art from theDookie album. MXR later rebranded the pedal as the FOD Drive.[71]
Armstrong receiving his honoraryViggiano citizenship in 2018
In June 2018, Armstrong was given honorary citizenship ofViggiano, the Italian commune from where his paternal great-great-grandparents hailed, by Viggiano's mayor Amedeo Cicala.[72] Armstrong is a member of the board of directors ofProject Chimps, a sanctuary for former research chimpanzees funded in large part by theHumane Society of the United States.[73] In 2024, Green Day saw severalLas Vegas radio stations pull their songs after Armstrong described the city as a "shithole" following therelocation of theOakland Athletics to the city.[74]
Armstrong is a fan of soccer[75] and is one of the co-owners ofOakland Roots SC.
Business ventures
In 1997, Armstrong co-foundedAdeline Records, a rock and punk rock record label which had, in recent years, been managed by Pat Magnarella, Green Day's manager.[76] Adeline Records closed in August 2017 following Magnarella's split from Green Day.
In April 2015, Armstrong openedBroken Guitars (now Oakland Guitars), a guitar shop in Oakland, California with fellowPinhead Gunpowder member and longtimeGreen Day associate,Bill Schneider.[77]
In December 2015, Armstrong andMike Dirnt launched a coffee company,Oakland Coffee Works (which has since been rebranded to Punk Bunny Coffee).[78] The company sells organic coffee beans and is said to be the first company to use mass-produced compostable bags and pods.[79]
Fashion
Armstrong performing in 2009, dressed in his signature punk style
Armstrong has been noted for hispunk fashion style, which influenced his followers of previous and current generations to the point of being known as a "style icon".[80] He also launched an eye liner withKat Von D named "Basket Case", which is a cosmetic that he implemented as part of his singing character since his beginnings.[81]
Armstrong has spoken out in support oftransgender people. In a 2024 interview withthe Times, Armstrong spoke to the ways that he is still weaving his sexuality into his songwriting. The newspaper asked him about Green Day's opinions on themoral panic surrounding transgender youth, to which the singer responded, "I just think they're fucking close-minded." "It's like people are afraid of their children," he told the newspaper. "Why would you be afraid? Why don't you let your kid just be the kid that they are?"[93][94]
Throughout 2025, Armstrong has spoken out in support ofPalestine during apprearances with Green Day. In February 2025 at theMalaysia National Hockey Stadium in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia, Armstrong displayed support for Palestine by draping aPalestinian flag from a fan over his shoulder while performing a song.[95][96] During Green Day's April 2025 set at Coachella, Armstrong modified the lyrics toJesus of Suburbia in reference to theGaza war, changing the line "Runnin' away from pain when you've been victimized" to "Runnin' away from pain, like the kids from Palestine."[97]
Armstrong has identified himself asbisexual, saying in a 1995 interview withThe Advocate, "I think I've always been bisexual. I mean, it's something that I've always been interested in. I think people are born bisexual, and it's just that our parents and society kind of veer us off into this feeling of, 'Oh, I can't.' They say it's taboo. It's ingrained in our heads that it's bad, when it's not bad at all. It's a very beautiful thing."[98][99] In February 2014, he again discussed his bisexuality in aRolling Stone article about the Green Day albumDookie, which he described as "touch[ing] on bisexuality a lot".[100]
Armstrong met his first serious girlfriend, Arica Pelino, on his 16th birthday.[101] She inspired many of Green Day's songs, including "Christie Road", which was written about the local railroad tracks where she and Armstrong would sneak out to meet.[102] When Armstrong began living in punk houses and warehouses at the age of seventeen, including the warehouse above a West Oakland brothel which ultimately inspired the song "Welcome to Paradise",[103] she would often stay with him, later saying, "I would stay with him sometimes in these warehouses full ofcrusty punks."[103] The couple split in late 1991.
Shortly after his split with Pelino, Armstrong began dating a woman he has identified only as "Amanda". She produced and distributed her ownfan zine and was an "iron-willed"feminist, which enthralled Armstrong.[104] Amanda, however, was unimpressed with Armstrong; though the couple dated for some time, she ultimately left him in 1994 and joined thePeace Corps, leaving him feeling suicidal.[105]
In 1990, Armstrong met Adrienne Nesser at one of Green Day's early performances inMinneapolis. They married on July 2, 1994, with Nesser discovering that she was pregnant the day after their wedding. They have two sons.[100]
^abEgerdahl, Kjersti (2010).Green Day: A Musical Biography. Greenwood Press. p. 23.ISBN9780313365973.Armstrong briefly played guitar in the hardcore band Corrupted Morals, another Lookout! band.
^Downs, David (September 2, 2009)."Review ofAmerican Idiot". Eastbayexpress.com.Archived from the original on August 9, 2023. RetrievedAugust 14, 2011.
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