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There was a common theme through his whole story of seeking to connect with other people. In past interviews he’s talked more about feeling lost but I really think it’s more about this connection he’s looking for. From that initial trauma of being forcibly separated from a parent and the panic disorder that ensued, to then wanting to connect over and over to his musical idols, girlfriends, punk scene friends, Mike and Tre, fans, etc. etc., (explaining the repeat trauma of being cut off by those same punk scene friends) everything he is is about connecting with others on a genuine meaningful level and that is so human and endearing. It’s what makes his songs so impactful because you feel that connection through his songs, like he’s reaching out to you to both express himself and hoping that you relate back.

Totally! He summed up the appeal of those songs perfectly, earnestly expressed feelings of love and friendship and nothing mean spirited. Edit: Wow interesting version of Good Riddance! Never heard it so upbeat Another edit: Really enjoyed that. Just cool to hear him talk candidly for a good hour and the songs were great

Finally I received my CD!

I guess I just don’t see what the solution is then if our goal is complete eradication. I think eventually we’ll just have to live with it, like we do the flu, or live without gatherings forever. Because people are too stupid to understand that the restrictions they’re complaining about could all be gone if they did their part.

Wow, I finally listened to it and holy hell was that good! Billie is such an amazing storyteller and has an incredible memory for details. He does a wonderful job of showing who he is as a person, whether that was intentional or not, because he speaks from his heart. There were so many things I wanted to know more about, though. He'd say something and then it would cut and move on and I'd just feel like shouting "Wait, Billie! I tell me more about that!" An hour and a half isn't nearly enough. I could listen to him tell stories about his life for hours. Myself and a couple of friends are going to my family's cabin east of the mountains and it's a 4 hours drive, so I reeeeeaaally want to play this for them. I feel like it would help them understand why I love Billie and Green Day so much and how amazing and sweet of a person he is. Instead of me trying to explain to them myself, hearing straight from Billie will give them a way better idea of who he is and why he's important to me. I just hope they will let me play it without begrudging me. I'm worried they might think it's boring because they don't really know anything about him (other than what I've told them) and aren't interested in learning. I'm hoping Billie's storytelling will be intriguing enough to draw them in, though.

Listening to this now. Love how he talks about playing 1000 Hours and his description of those early love songs

I realize this will probably make me sound like an ass, but at some point if people have access to a surplus of vaccine and refuse to take it due to ignorance or sheer stupidity, is it still the responsibility of the rest of the planet to keep them safe and continue taking precautions? Obviously not talking about people who don’t have transportation, access or availability, or can’t take it due to medical conditions. But if they’re just refusing because they think they’re going to get implanted with a microchip or something, I feel like it’s their own fault if they get sick at that point. And we’re never going to change their minds. I think the big variable will be children. Until they have access to a vaccine, I don’t see how we can resume fully normal life without putting them at risk. Even if they don’t typically get symptoms. That may change if the virus keeps mutating. And the time frame estimates aren’t till next year for vaccines for the youngest age groups. Then again, kids don’t vote or pay taxes, so nobody will probably care.

Well, yeah you're right. "nobody wanted to see it" was a pretty blanket statement and it's not true. I know I personally was never looking forward to sitting through three bands just to see Green Day play and a lot of other people weren't either. I can enjoy Weezer sometimes, but I could take or leave the others. I'd much rather have an exclusively Green Day tour. One short opener and then a kickass night with my boys.

Okay, I finally finished listening to this, I even wanted to wait a while to not finish it quickly cause it felt like the most precious thing in the world for me lol But I will definitely go back and listen to it at least a few more times throughout the year anyways. So, I don’t know how to explain my thoughts/feelings on this right now because it was really different for me. First of all, I wasn’t expected those accoustic arrengments would be that great, I mean when I first heard it, I couldn’t believe how phenomenal they were. Of course they were full of emotions, some of them were so soulful and sounded almost like a demo version (WMUWSE :’) Good riddance, Basket Case?? They were all so unexpectedly perfect for me. Okay now, his story telling was not like I expected either, it felt so different like it almost felt like a soul searching experience in a different atmosphere. I think he definitely showed us his most vulnerable self on this but the weird thing is that I didn’t feel like that I was listening to Billie Joe Armstrong himself in a way as a musician, artist or rock star whatever but like a simple human being that was taken aside from all those labels, roles, or the figure we’ve been imagining in our head for years. I don’t know if that makes any sense to you, I actually saw some other people felt similar feelings on the comments of the video I uploaded but I don’t know lol So, yes I burst into tears after finished it but it was weird because yeah I was expected that could happen (even though I’m not even really an emotional type) but not in that way at all, in the last chapters he talked about their induction to rrhof and the importance of the community/scene they came from for him and the last chapter about how he always tries to see things from his younger self’s perspective while writing songs got me actually into tears and I was not expecting that. Listening all his struggles as a song writer/artist throught his carrier was also heartrending but not really unexpected for me, even though his geniune honesty while openning us his every struggle was really striking part of it. So, yeah I basically felt a really powerful humanness connection at the end, and it was definetely one of the most different experiences for me, I can explain it like that I start listening to it by being totally aware of that I was listening to Billie Joe Armstrong, that rock star which I’m a fan of with thousands of other people and this totally started to change towards the end of the chapters and everything in my mind about Billie before suddenly disappeared. So, lastly I think that we all already feel close to Billie in different ways since first we met him (through his songs etc.) but after listening to this we might feel much closer to Billie’s actual soul as a total human being, because that’s what I felt.

I wonder if this is the first show he was talking about...

Yes, so unlike a typical teenage boy that is just out to get his own pleasure from a girl. He’s seeking to give, “to be good to somebody” and to be friends. I’ve never heard crushes and love expressed like that before in songs.

I think you’re right. Hopefully (like previous SARS viruses I think) they will combine it annually with your flu shot so one and done.

Yes, me too!

Yeah it’s not about that though because vaccine immunity isn’t absolute and only is really effective at wiping out a disease when you achieve herd immunity. It’s fine to say screw the people who don’t want shots, but those people will continue putting everyone else at risk when there are outbreaks just like when there are measles and mumps outbreaks despite vaccines. There will continue to be too much community spread for the vaccine to protect everyone fully (and we will continue to need boosters because protection is temporary) and it increases the likelihood of mutations the vaccine won’t protect from. Unfortunately we really are all in this together there’s no getting around that.

Big difference between having all the vaccine available and reaching herd immunity. If not enough people want it, we won't see the cases drop enough by the summer. Plus they are finding that there is a significant percentage of people skipping their second shots because they fear severe side effects. The pause on the J&J vaccine like with the AstraZeneca in Europe also caused more fear and reluctance. I hope we can vaccinate at least 50-60% of our total population by summer but I don't know. If we don't, it won't be for lack of supply.

Apparently my vinyl/CD are in the UK so hopefully will be with me soon. Just hoping somehow there's no customs charge (although that's probably where it is right now!)

I could be wrong but my understanding is that COVID is in the “will need annual shot” rather than “eradicate like Polio” bracket.

not sure if this was posted or not https://lifeisbeautiful.com/

Good to see you!

I can’t say I was looking forward to this tour before but I’m looking forward to any tour now. I just want to see a show (and especially one that at least includes Green Day)

True, that was another one that was talked about more in Broadway Idiot, the personal connections he made with the cast and crew, but he did talk a bit here about feeling he did a good job connecting with the audience through a character he created and in a sense became.

Nova Rock have their headliner for 2022 TBA assume that’ll be Green Day once the dates are confirmed for reschedule

I remember watching the reading 2013 performance years ago with my girlfriend and in a moment the camera points to his face during Let Yourself Go. When that happens, I felt he was kind of desperate trying to getting the crowd pumped (even if the crowd was pumped already), looking to connect with them. Call me crazy, but something in his sight gave me that impression. That's why he couldn't resist making Longshot and tour after Green Day took the break in 2018. I bet he felt that his "rockstar" lifestyle has lead him into feeling detached from people and his own past, and it shows in several songs. Is like an impostor syndrome.

well put @Beyza, also @pacejunkie punk and I think all that is partly why he got so much out of the staging of AI or at least, why it had so much impact on him.

I agree with you 💯. It's really just going to come down to reported cases. If they plummet bc of vax, things can change very fast. But if there really is no movement downward we won't see live music till 2022....which makes me sad. I just hope COVID becomes just a sad distant memory in the near future. I'm just desperately trying to be optimistic to see the guys live not really for me but for my daughter. I got the Hella Mega tickets for her birthday last year bc for some odd reason she has become a huge Green Day fan. (I may have played a small role in that 😅) I'm looking more forward to seeing her face when she sees Green Day step on stage live for the first time. Here's hoping..

This is possibly the best interview I've heard from Billie Joe Armstrong, and I've heard a lot of them.

I didn’t have to pay any duty on my CD @Rumpelstiltskin2000 but it took a week to get to me from arriving in London according to UPS, delivered by Royal Mail, same as t-shirt.

Not sure how to insert photos here but just bought a couple of Garbage Pail Kids/ Green Day cards. Never knew these existed, pretty funny. One of them says Barfin’ Billie and the other Green Dave. Same image, you can google them

Still waiting on my vinyl - but it looks like it has reached Canada as of yesterday, so hopefully this week!

No it's not, once everyone has been offered a vaccine, and everyone that wants one has one, then it's time to open up imo. The vaccine shouldn't be mandatory, if someone is really against it then they're entitled to not want it, equally they have to live with any potential consequences. Vaccine mutations etc are something that we have to take precautions against but also can't dominate the discussion once vaccinations are sorted, it's not a practical or sensible long-term strategy to keep heading in and out of lockdowns. I agree, that ship has sailed now. Total eradication is nearly impossible anyway, let alone over a year into the pandemic.

This version of Good Riddance is my favorite out of these acoustic songs. Just when I thought that song couldn't get any better... 🤗

Pretty cool song selection. Revolution Radio, Kerplunk, Dookie, Nimrod, American Idiot, 21st Century Breakdown and Father of All represented. All extremely popular songs, except for Graffitia which could be a hit at some point, maybe. Or at the very least a fan favorite like Light Years. Rev Rad 2000 Light Years Away Basketcase Good Riddance American Idiot Wake Me Up When September Ends Know Your Enemy Graffitia

Honestly really hope this entire tour gets postponed or totally put to rest. I'm living in the UK and I bought tickets for the New York show, hoping to take my girlfriend, dad and sister over for a fun little holiday in the US. The entire situation has now got me totally stressed out because I can see the NY show happening, but it's impossible for us to travel from the UK to the US, and I doubt we'd be able to get refunded by Ticketmaster. The whole thing is a shitshow and I wish Crush would just get their shit together and put people at ease.

I enjoyed this a lot. It felt very intimate and it was vulnerable. He shared a lot he never has before. It’s interesting to see how much of not only a method actor he was but also a method songwriter. Like he really gets into his head. And of course I throughly enjoyed the acoustic performances!

I was heading off for the weekend so I didn’t finish my thoughts here - there’s another aspect to this that I find interesting. He’s said he likes to go back to his younger self and reminisce, but when you look at FOAM, for the most part, there’s very little nostalgia. Maybe with the exception of Teenage Teenager, it’s kind of bleak rather than full of youthful wonder and excitement.

Yeah, I really hope they cancel these shows and just refund the money. It seems absolutely stupid to go ahead with it when not enough people will be vaccinated by then and there are going to be capacity limits anyway. That defeats the whole point of doing a stadium tour in the first place. Hella Mega just needs to be put to rest. It wasn't a good idea to begin with and it's an even worse one now given the current circumstances. The bands should just wait it out and do separate tours next year when things are hopefully a lot safer. No one really wanted to see Hella Mega anyway.

Look what I made.

I just need a GD MTV Unplugged right now

That's.... probably my best artwork so far in my life.

Hey guys, I'm uploading all these 8 fantastic acoustic songs in my channel, check below:

😡😡 Two things. First, I still don't have my CD I'm gonna break everything. Second, and that's the most angriest thing ever, someone from GDC came to my stream like 3 days ago and wrote Amyl Nitrate; Popper Punk in the chat and then just left. I want to know your GDC username right now.