I’m feeling really emotional today about missing Green Day and that photo right there brought it all back. The inclusiveness, the generosity, the way they make every fan feel accepted and important. He gives us love we give it right back. It’s not something to take for granted, It’s not something every band does. It all comes from Billie and his desire to connect and create community, an extension of the community he came from. He wants people to love music and to get all the good feelings from it that he does. For outcast people lacking that kind of love and acceptance in their lives especially (I found it as an adult but did not have it for much of my life), being a part of Idiot Nation feels as necessary as breathing.
I was watching one of the many many videos where he brings a fan onstage to play guitar, in this case a young girl, and she can’t play the chords so he has to pick someone else, but after he calls her back and gives her the guitar and tells her to practice. She says “I’ll do it for you”. That’s a fan that could have walked away feeling rejected and bad about herself and instead he gave her this gift of kindness and her memory is a positive one and she will go to the ends of the earth for him (or walk through a wall of spiders!) I have never once seen or heard a story of a fan interaction when he was not kind and generous. If those stories existed they’d be out there and they’re just not.
That’s how special he is, I have rarely seen someone with such enormous empathy. It really matters to him that every person he comes into contact with have a positive experience. That feeling you come away with carries over into times when he’s not around and in ways he doesn’t even realize.
I’m feeling Green Day’s absence more and more as we go into year two of no shows and now months of no online interaction. I get that he may need to do this for his own well being and mental health and I support it but it’s only because of the person he is that his absence leaves such a void. The occasional merch drop just can’t make up for it. That would make them just like every other band and they’re not like every other band. Sorry for going off but the longer it goes the harder it gets and I just needed to vent. 🥺