Tré Cool

Tré Cool

Tré Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright III; December 9, 1972) is a German-born American drummer for the pop punk band Green Day. He replaced the band's former drummer John Kiffmeyer in 1990.

Biography

Frank Edwin Wright III was born December 9, 1972 in Frankfurt, Germany, making him the youngest member of Green Day. He lived in Willits, California with his father and his older sister, Lori. His father, a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, decided to move the family there to insulate them upon his return to the United States.

roly poly, roly poly walking down the sidewalk dont get squished, dont get squished or youll die a horrible death ( . Y . )

Wright's closest neighbor was Larry Livermore, who at the time was the singer of the punk band The Lookouts. At age 11, Livermore recruited Wright to join The Lookouts and gave him the name of Tre Cool relying on both the French word très (meaning very) combined with the word cool. However, the silent "s" has been incorrectly dropped in the spelling.

When Green Day's drummer, John Kiffmeyer, left the band they recruited Cool to play drums. Cool decided to drop out of high school in his sophomore year. Instead, he passed an equivalency test and earned his GED, and began taking classes at a nearby community college. He had to drop out of college however, when the demands of Green Day's touring intensified.

Cool's father, who owned a small company, overhauled a bookmobile and even served as the driver on three separate tours. "I watched them go from a bunch of kids to a group of musicians with work ethic," he later recalled. "On their first tour or two, it was more of a party than anything else. I still scratch my head and say, 'How in the hell did they make it?' They used to practice in my living room here - a lot of the songs they did on Dookie. You hear it coming together, and you don't expect people are going to go out and buy it. But when it does, you just say, 'Wow that's so cool.'"

In 1998, after Green Day won a "Moon Man" Trophy at the MTV Music Awards, Tré Cool famously scaled the Universal globe at Universal studios, but escaped with no punishment - only compliments and cheers.

Tré was once notorious for burning his drum kit, on stage, upon completion of every set on the "Warning" tour. He has a tradition also that if he cracks a cymbal during a concert, he gives it away at the end.

Singing

Tré sings and plays guitar on the tracks "Dominated Love Slave" and "All by Myself", from Kerplunk! and Dookie, respectively. He wrote and sang the subtrack "Rock and Roll Girlfriend" from the medley "Homecoming" featured on the album American Idiot. He also sang and composed the track "DUI" ("Driving Under the Influence"), which was recorded during the Nimrod sessions and was due to be released on Shenanigans (a compilation of B-sides), but it was omitted and can only be found online.

During a radio interview at Washington DC's alternative station DC 101, Tré sang and played the guitar to a short song titled "Like a Rat does Cheese," a song about the pleasure of fellatio. This song was acoustic.

Several live tracks also exist, usually from early dates around 1993, such as "Food Around the Corner." a song from the 1943 Elmer Fudd cartoon "An Itch in Time." Another live track, "Billie Joe's Mom" was also recorded.

Tré had also recorded a version of Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain." It was posted on YouTube on August 1, 2007. His cover was mentioned in several news journals.

Personal life

Tré married his long-time girlfriend Lisea Lyons, a photographer, in March 1995 and had a child, Ramona Isabelle, born January 12, 1995. They divorced sometime in 1998. In May 2000, he married again to a woman named Claudia. They broke up in 2003 and had one son together, Frankito ("Little Frank"), born on February 14, 2001. He then started to date Torry Castellano, the drummer of The Donnas, in late 2003, but split up in mid-2005. Tre is now dating a woman named Ruri, who was an MTV DJ in Japan. She quit her job in 2008 to move to the United States, where she met Tre.

On July 12, 2009, Cool threw out the ceremonial first pitch for a Chicago Cubs baseball game, and on August 10, he threw for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Equipment

Tré has used the drums of different companies. He currently uses Leedy drums and Zildjian cymbals. In the past, he used DW, Ludwig and Slingerland drums. Currently, he is still listed as an endorser in Ludwig's website.

Drum kit: Leedy custom maple set in White Marine Nitron with Remo heads

• 18"×22" Bass drum
• 9"×13" Tom
• 16"×16" Floor Tom
• 16"×18" Floor Tom
• 6.5"×14" Leedy Broadway Standard Snare

Cymbals: Zildjian

• 14" K Constantinople/Z Special hi-hats
• 19" K Dark Crash Medium Thin
• 19" A Medium Thin Crash
• 22" A Deep Ride
• 21" A Sweet Ride
• 20" Oriental Classic China

Drumsticks: Zildjian Tré Cool Signature

External links

• Tré Cool at DrummerWorld.com
• Tré Cool at BehindTheDrums.com contains discography and equipment list
• Tré Cool at Zildjian.com
• Tre Cool biography on Green Day Authority
• YouTube Chocolate Rain as performed by Tré Cool