Billie Joe - "Datebook" interview - 7/29

[TrillieGD]

https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/billie-joe-armstrong-green-day-is-first-band-actually-from-the-bay-area-to-headline-outside-lands

[pacejunkie punk]

Good interview. There haven’t been enough of these lately.  Reference to the “unannounced project” they were in the studio working on. 

[Beerjeezus]

Can someone copypaste this? It’s unavailable in my region and I need to know what’s up with my Blorbo 🥺

[Liam]

49 minutes ago, Beerjeezus said:

Can someone copypaste this? It’s unavailable in my region and I need to know what’s up with my Blorbo 🥺

The last time Green Day played at Golden Gate Park, front man Billie Joe Armstrong wasn’t even old enough to drink. It was June 30, 1991, and as Armstrong recalls, “we set up right there in the park — us and a bunch of other, more hard-core bands — and while we were playing, the cops showed up and started arresting a bunch of kids. That was our last ‘official’ Golden Gate Park show.”

Armstrong expects Green Day’s second concert at the park headlining the 2022 Outside Lands Festival for the first time will have better results.

From such scrappy origins, the East Bay punk group has blossomed into a major mainstream draw. Over three decades later, it’s hard to find a milestone Green Day hasn’t reached. In 2015, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The following year, Mayor Libby Schaaf proclaimed Feb. 19 as “Green Day Day” in its hometown city of Oakland, part of a special tribute concert in honor of the band’s 1994 breakthrough album, “Dookie.”

Along the way, the band has managed to revitalize the rock opera and adapt it for Broadway, and even found a way to give Homer and his friends a concert in Springfield for “The Simpsons Movie.” For the trio of Armstrong (lead vocals, guitar), bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool, it all remains massively surreal. But one achievement that has thus far eluded Green Day is getting the proper chance to play Golden Gate Park again.

Speaking from Los Angeles, where he and his bandmates are in the studio working on an unannounced project, the 50-year-old Armstrong chatted with The Chronicle about his group’s “freakishly long” career, his fears for where America is heading, and why Green Day is the first true Bay Area-born act to headline Outside Lands.

Q: Green Day just finished a run of shows in Europe. How did it feel to finally bring the Hella Mega Tour to fans? Any nerves after a pandemic-forced hiatus from touring?

A: I’m always nervous and freaked out before any tour starts. Even before any show, but then as soon as we hit the stage, it’s like we were born to be there. It was great to get back onstage. The tour was amazing. It was postponed from 2020, so it was like living in the past but preparing for the future at the same time. It was a bit topsy-turvy, but the shows were big and people were losing their minds. 

Everybody’s had to deal with the pandemic, and now people have a new gratitude and appreciation for just being together. That was really noticeable when we toured the U.S. last year, too. We were the first big tour to head back out. I think maybe there’s a certain sort of urgency for people to have a good time because the world is in such disarray right now. 

Q: In response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, you said you felt like renouncing your U.S. citizenship during a show last month in the U.K.  Would you like to see more musicians speak up at this moment?

A: Yeah, but then it can almost be used against you. People will say something like, “Oh, you’re just another California liberal.” It’s like,” No, f— you. I’m an American and I’m practicing my freedom of speech right now.” 

It’s just so frustrating to see what’s going on in America when there are very simple — not easy, but simple — solutions. It’s crazy that we have this liberal, progressive government and yet we can’t get anything done. Especially with the Supreme Court being a bunch of religious fanatics who are pretty much governing the country right now. It’s just a really scary time.

Q: As a band, Green Day is an Oakland-born hometown hero. Outside Lands started back in 2008. Are you excited to finally be checking this one off the band’s bucket list?

A: Yes. We’ve always intended to play it, but every time we’ve been asked to do it, we were already booked or in the middle of making a record or on a tour. I’m psyched. I don’t know if there’s been a band that’s essentially, actually from the Bay Area that’s headlined there.

Q: The only one I could make a case for is Metallica.

A: Eh, they’re not really from the Bay Area. They’re all Los Angeles dudes, pretty much, except for Kirk Hammett. But for us? I mean, God, it’s our backyard. We’re just psyched to get to play in front of all our homies.

Q: Does it feel fitting that Green Day is headlining a local festival that now offers attendees the ability to legally purchase cannabis on-site? Did you ever see that happening?

A: I knew it was going to happen, eventually, because allowing people to buy marijuana legally was a no-brainer issue. But it’s crazy. There’s a generational thing about weed. Back when we were kids smoking weed, we always had to hide somewhere. I had a Datsun B210 and one of my favorite things that we used to do to smoke weed is we would drive it through the car wash and hotbox it inside there. That was one of the safest places you could smoke weed: driving your car through a car wash and smoking a bowl. 

That part of it — the mischief part of it — was really fun, and that spirit is gone now. I walk around Oakland, or wherever I’m at, and you can smell it everywhere, all the time. Los Angeles too. My reaction is always the same. I’ve got like a neuro reaction to it, which is: “Oh f—! S—! I hope the cops don’t come.” But for people who are Millennials and Gen Z, it’s just like smoking a cigarette or buying a Big Gulp. It is what it is now.

Q: Many big bands claim to love where they’re from, but very few of them open local guitar shops and coffee joints or play small dives around the region regularly. What keeps Green Day in love with Oakland and the East Bay?

 A: I love playing live. I don’t like to shut everything down after we get done with a record cycle. I love to go and get onstage, whether it’s at the Ivy Room or the Golden Bull or even Eli’s Mile High Club. Those are all great clubs. Now there’s Crybaby as well, which used to be the Uptown. I’d love to play there. It’s weird because we have the option to play any size venue that we want, but you get stuck into a corner if you’re only playing giant shows where you have to have this massive crew. I still like to put my amp in the back of the car and just cruise down and play some intimate venue. I just show up, play covers and have a really good time. That’s a whole different way of playing live. I think you learn more from it. 

A big comedian, like Dave Chappelle, goes and plays small shows and tries out new material to see what sticks. For me, being onstage teaches me how to relax, and really, it’s all just for fun. I just feel like it’s something I was born to do, so I might as well do it.

Q: I’m sure you can feel how much the folks who manage to catch those shows love the experience, too?

A: It’s great when people have stories to tell about it. There will be someone who was at a show, and I’ll look up their Instagram posts and see the experience they had where it’s like: “I was right there. I was up front, I danced with my friends, I got drunk on PBR and it was amazing.” That’s the stuff that I love. It’s not just about the big lights and the big stages.

Q: The recent reissues of Pinhead Gunpowder’s catalog on vinyl strike me as another valid portal to the past.

A: Absolutely. I’m very proud of the Pinhead stuff. Aaron (Cometbus) is one of my favorite humans. It’s funny. I think we’ve always been able to bond because we’ve always been old souls — even when we were teenagers and in our 20s. We were also always both able to appreciate other people’s past work, whether we were talking about the Lemonheads or the first five Ramones records. With that thought in mind, I think Aaron was able to honor his own work and the work we’ve done with Pinhead Gunpowder with the reissues.

Q: Green Day’s first record was released in 1990. Thanks to the unprecedented length of your career, you’ve now reached a point where the band is still fully active but also being written about in punk history books and being honored with tribute concerts. Is that somewhat surreal?

A: It’s a trip because I’m always writing songs, just moving forward. I think a little nostalgia is good for the soul. It keeps you grounded. There are times when it makes you feel old, but that’s OK because it can also reinvigorate you for the future. In terms of evolving as an artist, I think it’s important to look at things in your past and go, “What about this did I get right? How can I think about my past as a way of staying grounded as an artist while, at the same time, also getting into some deep waters without drowning?”’ 

It’s great to be able to look back, but the view is freakishly long. We were a high school band, and now we’re middle-aged.

[Beerjeezus]

Thank you!!!

[GreenDayItaly]

I really loved this one!! Thank you for sharing it!!!

[Stewe]

17 minutes ago, GreenDayItaly said:

I really loved this one!! Thank you for sharing it!!!

Is available in Italy?

I'm in UK and when I try to open it, says not available in your region 

[GreenDayItaly]

5 minutes ago, Stewe said:

Is available in Italy?

I'm in UK and when I try to open it, says not available in your region 

Unfortunately not. Thanks GDC, Liam posted it above so everyone can read it

[mao]

It is available in Japan. Wonder why not Europe?

[Stewe]

44 minutes ago, GreenDayItaly said:

Unfortunately not. Thanks GDC, Liam posted it above so everyone can read it

I didn't see the post above.

Thank you and thanks Liam 

[desertrose]

Thank You!!!

[Vintage Disciple]

"There will be someone who was at a show, and I’ll look up their Instagram posts and see the experience they had where it’s like: “I was right there. I was up front, I danced with my friends, I got drunk on PBR and it was amazing.” That’s the stuff that I love. It’s not just about the big lights and the big stages."

He loves seeing our reaction to the shows...if he looks up people's IG posts then he definitely checks in at GDC to see our reaction to shows, etc...  🥰

What would be really awesome is if he would interact with us just a bit...💚

 

[Liam]

14 hours ago, Stewe said:

Is available in Italy?

I'm in UK and when I try to open it, says not available in your region 

This is weird because I'm in Australia (and not using VPN) and it opened fine

[GDFan2019]

On 7/29/2022 at 8:27 PM, pacejunkie punk said:

Good interview. There haven’t been enough of these lately.  Reference to the “unannounced project” they were in the studio working on. 

 

21 hours ago, Liam said:

The last time Green Day played at Golden Gate Park, front man Billie Joe Armstrong wasn’t even old enough to drink. It was June 30, 1991, and as Armstrong recalls, “we set up right there in the park — us and a bunch of other, more hard-core bands — and while we were playing, the cops showed up and started arresting a bunch of kids. That was our last ‘official’ Golden Gate Park show.”

Armstrong expects Green Day’s second concert at the park headlining the 2022 Outside Lands Festival for the first time will have better results.

From such scrappy origins, the East Bay punk group has blossomed into a major mainstream draw. Over three decades later, it’s hard to find a milestone Green Day hasn’t reached. In 2015, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The following year, Mayor Libby Schaaf proclaimed Feb. 19 as “Green Day Day” in its hometown city of Oakland, part of a special tribute concert in honor of the band’s 1994 breakthrough album, “Dookie.”

Along the way, the band has managed to revitalize the rock opera and adapt it for Broadway, and even found a way to give Homer and his friends a concert in Springfield for “The Simpsons Movie.” For the trio of Armstrong (lead vocals, guitar), bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool, it all remains massively surreal. But one achievement that has thus far eluded Green Day is getting the proper chance to play Golden Gate Park again.

Speaking from Los Angeles, where he and his bandmates are in the studio working on an unannounced project, the 50-year-old Armstrong chatted with The Chronicle about his group’s “freakishly long” career, his fears for where America is heading, and why Green Day is the first true Bay Area-born act to headline Outside Lands.

Q: Green Day just finished a run of shows in Europe. How did it feel to finally bring the Hella Mega Tour to fans? Any nerves after a pandemic-forced hiatus from touring?

A: I’m always nervous and freaked out before any tour starts. Even before any show, but then as soon as we hit the stage, it’s like we were born to be there. It was great to get back onstage. The tour was amazing. It was postponed from 2020, so it was like living in the past but preparing for the future at the same time. It was a bit topsy-turvy, but the shows were big and people were losing their minds. 

Everybody’s had to deal with the pandemic, and now people have a new gratitude and appreciation for just being together. That was really noticeable when we toured the U.S. last year, too. We were the first big tour to head back out. I think maybe there’s a certain sort of urgency for people to have a good time because the world is in such disarray right now. 

Q: In response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, you said you felt like renouncing your U.S. citizenship during a show last month in the U.K.  Would you like to see more musicians speak up at this moment?

A: Yeah, but then it can almost be used against you. People will say something like, “Oh, you’re just another California liberal.” It’s like,” No, f— you. I’m an American and I’m practicing my freedom of speech right now.” 

It’s just so frustrating to see what’s going on in America when there are very simple — not easy, but simple — solutions. It’s crazy that we have this liberal, progressive government and yet we can’t get anything done. Especially with the Supreme Court being a bunch of religious fanatics who are pretty much governing the country right now. It’s just a really scary time.

Q: As a band, Green Day is an Oakland-born hometown hero. Outside Lands started back in 2008. Are you excited to finally be checking this one off the band’s bucket list?

A: Yes. We’ve always intended to play it, but every time we’ve been asked to do it, we were already booked or in the middle of making a record or on a tour. I’m psyched. I don’t know if there’s been a band that’s essentially, actually from the Bay Area that’s headlined there.

Q: The only one I could make a case for is Metallica.

A: Eh, they’re not really from the Bay Area. They’re all Los Angeles dudes, pretty much, except for Kirk Hammett. But for us? I mean, God, it’s our backyard. We’re just psyched to get to play in front of all our homies.

Q: Does it feel fitting that Green Day is headlining a local festival that now offers attendees the ability to legally purchase cannabis on-site? Did you ever see that happening?

A: I knew it was going to happen, eventually, because allowing people to buy marijuana legally was a no-brainer issue. But it’s crazy. There’s a generational thing about weed. Back when we were kids smoking weed, we always had to hide somewhere. I had a Datsun B210 and one of my favorite things that we used to do to smoke weed is we would drive it through the car wash and hotbox it inside there. That was one of the safest places you could smoke weed: driving your car through a car wash and smoking a bowl. 

That part of it — the mischief part of it — was really fun, and that spirit is gone now. I walk around Oakland, or wherever I’m at, and you can smell it everywhere, all the time. Los Angeles too. My reaction is always the same. I’ve got like a neuro reaction to it, which is: “Oh f—! S—! I hope the cops don’t come.” But for people who are Millennials and Gen Z, it’s just like smoking a cigarette or buying a Big Gulp. It is what it is now.

Q: Many big bands claim to love where they’re from, but very few of them open local guitar shops and coffee joints or play small dives around the region regularly. What keeps Green Day in love with Oakland and the East Bay?

 A: I love playing live. I don’t like to shut everything down after we get done with a record cycle. I love to go and get onstage, whether it’s at the Ivy Room or the Golden Bull or even Eli’s Mile High Club. Those are all great clubs. Now there’s Crybaby as well, which used to be the Uptown. I’d love to play there. It’s weird because we have the option to play any size venue that we want, but you get stuck into a corner if you’re only playing giant shows where you have to have this massive crew. I still like to put my amp in the back of the car and just cruise down and play some intimate venue. I just show up, play covers and have a really good time. That’s a whole different way of playing live. I think you learn more from it. 

A big comedian, like Dave Chappelle, goes and plays small shows and tries out new material to see what sticks. For me, being onstage teaches me how to relax, and really, it’s all just for fun. I just feel like it’s something I was born to do, so I might as well do it.

Q: I’m sure you can feel how much the folks who manage to catch those shows love the experience, too?

A: It’s great when people have stories to tell about it. There will be someone who was at a show, and I’ll look up their Instagram posts and see the experience they had where it’s like: “I was right there. I was up front, I danced with my friends, I got drunk on PBR and it was amazing.” That’s the stuff that I love. It’s not just about the big lights and the big stages.

Q: The recent reissues of Pinhead Gunpowder’s catalog on vinyl strike me as another valid portal to the past.

A: Absolutely. I’m very proud of the Pinhead stuff. Aaron (Cometbus) is one of my favorite humans. It’s funny. I think we’ve always been able to bond because we’ve always been old souls — even when we were teenagers and in our 20s. We were also always both able to appreciate other people’s past work, whether we were talking about the Lemonheads or the first five Ramones records. With that thought in mind, I think Aaron was able to honor his own work and the work we’ve done with Pinhead Gunpowder with the reissues.

Q: Green Day’s first record was released in 1990. Thanks to the unprecedented length of your career, you’ve now reached a point where the band is still fully active but also being written about in punk history books and being honored with tribute concerts. Is that somewhat surreal?

A: It’s a trip because I’m always writing songs, just moving forward. I think a little nostalgia is good for the soul. It keeps you grounded. There are times when it makes you feel old, but that’s OK because it can also reinvigorate you for the future. In terms of evolving as an artist, I think it’s important to look at things in your past and go, “What about this did I get right? How can I think about my past as a way of staying grounded as an artist while, at the same time, also getting into some deep waters without drowning?”’ 

It’s great to be able to look back, but the view is freakishly long. We were a high school band, and now we’re middle-aged.

I'm surprised they didn't mention 1972 as the name of the project. It says unannounced project but we all know an album is coming!!!

[Slave To The Network]

Really cool interview! I've missed those.