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In April 2007, Armstrong and his wife Adrienne sent photos of their spring break working with [[Habitat For Humanity]] and a diary to GreenDay.net.<ref>[http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17162460/billie_joe_armstrong Billie Joe Armstrong: Rolling Stone]</ref>
In April 2007, Armstrong and his wife Adrienne sent photos of their spring break working with [[Habitat For Humanity]] and a diary to GreenDay.net.<ref>[http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17162460/billie_joe_armstrong Billie Joe Armstrong: Rolling Stone]</ref>


Armstrong supported [[Barack Obama]] during the [[United States presidential election, 2008|2008 presidential election]].<ref>[http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/21472095/artists_lend_voices_to_obama_campaign Artists Lend Voices to Obama Campaign : Rolling Stone<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> He then had an anti-obama rant at a show in Peru towards the end of the [[21st Century Breakdown Tour]]<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHPagGYDWiI</ref>.
Armstrong supported [[Barack Obama]] during the [[United States presidential election, 2008|2008 presidential election]].<ref>[http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/21472095/artists_lend_voices_to_obama_campaign Artists Lend Voices to Obama Campaign : Rolling Stone<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>


==Discography==
==Discography==

Revision as of 02:32, 4 November 2010

Billie Joe Armstrong

Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is the lead vocalist, chief songwriter, and lead guitarist for the American punk rock band Green Day. He is also a guitarist and vocalist for the rock band Pinhead Gunpowder and sings for garage rock band Foxboro Hot Tubs when not working with Green Day.

Early life

Billie Joe Armstrong was born in Piedmont, California, a small town surrounded by the city of Oakland, and was raised in Rodeo, California, as the youngest of six children to Andrew "Andy" Armstrong[1] and Ollie Jackson.[1] His father worked as a jazz musician and truck driver for Safeway Inc. to support his family. He died of esophageal cancer on September 10, 1982, when Billie was just ten years old.[1] The song "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is a memorial to his father. He has five older siblings: David, Alan, Marci, Hollie, and Anna. His mother worked at Rod's Hickory Pit[1] restaurant (now closed, with a Target store taking its place) in El Cerrito. Armstrong and Mike Dirnt got one of their first gigs at Rod's Hickory Pit during their early years; their first gig was in Davis, a college town approximately an hour's drive northeast of the Bay.

Armstrong's interest in music started at a young age. He attended Hillcrest Elementary School in Rodeo, where a teacher encouraged him to record a song titled "Look For Love" at the age of five on the Bay Area label "Fiat Records".[1][2] After his father died, his mother married a man whom her children disliked, which made Armstrong retreat further into music. Armstrong dedicated a song to him called "Why Do You Want Him".[1] At the age of 10, Mike Dirnt and Billie Joe met in the school cafeteria and they immediately bonded over their love of music.[1] He became interested in punk rock after being introduced to punk rock by his brothers.[3] Armstrong has also cited Minneapolis-based bands The Replacements and Hüsker Dü as major musical influences.

Armstrong attended John Swett High School, also in Crockett, and later Pinole Valley High School, in Pinole, California, but then dropped out to pursue his musical career.

Career

In 1987, Armstrong formed a band called Sweet Children with childhood friend Mike Dirnt at the age of 15. In the beginning, Dirnt and Armstrong were both on guitar, with John Kiffmeyer, also known as Al Sobrante, on drums,[4] and Sean Hughes on bass. After a few gigs, Hughes left the band in 1988; Dirnt switched to bass and they became a three-piece band. They changed their name to Green Day in April 1989, allegedly choosing the name because of their fondness for marijuana.[5] That same year, they recorded the EPs 39/Smooth, 1,000 Hours, and Slappy, later combined into the LP 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, on Lookout! Records. Tré Cool eventually became Green Day's drummer in late 1990 when Sobrante left Green Day in order to go to college. California punk band Rancid's lead singer Tim Armstrong asked Billie Joe to join Rancid, but he refused due to the progress with Green Day. Cool made his debut on Green Day's second album, Kerplunk!. With their next album, Dookie (1994), the band 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.[6] In 2009, their hit American Idiot became an opera.[7]

Apart from working with Green Day and side-band Pinhead Gunpowder, Armstrong has proved himself busy in the music world, collaborating with many artists over the years. He has co-written for The Go-Go's ("Unforgiven") and former Avengers singer Penelope Houston ("The Angel and The Jerk" and "New Day"), co-written a song with Rancid ("Radio"), and sung backing vocals with Melissa Auf der Maur on Ryan Adams' "Do Miss America" (where they acted as the backing band for Iggy Pop on his Skull Ring album ("Private Hell" and "Supermarket"). Armstrong has produced an album for The Riverdales. He has also been confirmed to be part of a side project called The Network, which released an album called Money Money 2020. Money Money 2020 was released on Adeline Records, a record label co-owned by Armstrong.[8]

In 2010, Armstrong joined the cast of the Tony award winning musical, American Idiot, for one week in the role of St. Jimmy. He replaced the original Broadway cast member Tony Vincent from September 28 to October 3. American Idiot is an adaption of Green Day's concept album of the same name.[9][10]

Instruments

Armstrong performing in 2009 with copy of "Blue".

Armstrong's first guitar was a Cherry Red Hohner acoustic, which his father bought for him. He then received his first electric guitar, a Fender Stratocaster copy that he named "Blue", when he was ten. His mother got "Blue" from George Cole who taught Armstrong electric guitar for ten years. Armstrong says in a 1995 MTV 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". George Cole bought the guitar new from David Margen of the band Santana. Cole gave Armstrong a Bill Lawrence Humbucking pickup and told him to install the pickup in the bridge position. After the pickup was destroyed at Woodstock '94, Armstrong then switched to the Duncan JB model. "Armstrong fetishized 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."[11] He toured with this guitar from the band's early days and still uses it to this day.[12] "Blue" also appears in several of their music videos starting with "Longview", "Basket Case", "Brain Stew/Jaded", "Hitchin' a Ride", and most recently in "Minority".

Today, Armstrong mainly uses Gibson and Fender guitars. Twenty of his Gibson guitars are Les Paul Junior models from the mid- to late-1950s.[13] His Fender collection includes: Stratocaster, Jazzmaster, Telecaster, a Gretsch hollowbody and his copies of "Blue". He states that his favorite guitar is a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Junior he calls "Floyd". He bought this guitar in 2000 just before recording their album Warning.[14]

Armstrong also has his own line of Les Paul Junior guitars from Gibson.[citation needed]

Personal life

In 1990, Armstrong met Adrienne Nesser at one of Green Day's early shows in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They married on July 2, 1994, and the day after their wedding, Adrienne discovered she was pregnant. Their first child, Joseph Marcicano Armstrong, who was born on February 28, 1995, plays drums in a Berkeley based band. Their second child, Jakob Danger Armstrong, was born on September 12, 1998.[citation needed] Billie Joe is the co-owner of Adeline Records, along with his wife.[8]

Armstrong has identified himself as bisexual, saying in a 1995 interview with The 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."[15] In a later interview for Out magazine's April 2010 issue, Armstrong stated: "There were a lot of people who didn't accept it, who were homophobic." Armstrong continued, saying, "The fact that it's an issue is kind of phobic within itself. At some point, you gotta think, this should be something that's just accepted." Armstrong added: "I don't really classify myself as anything. And when it comes to sex, there are parts of me that are very shy and conservative. I want to respect my wife.[16]

Armstrong was arrested in January 2003 for drinking and driving after being pulled over for speeding.[17] He received a breathalyzer reading of 0.17%, more than twice the nation-wide legal limit of 0.08%.[18]

In April 2007, Armstrong and his wife Adrienne sent photos of their spring break working with Habitat For Humanity and a diary to GreenDay.net.[19]

Armstrong supported Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election.[20]

Discography

Awards

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Green Day

Green Day

Pinhead Gunpowder

Vocals and guitar on all

The Network

Foxboro Hot Tubs

Other media appearances

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Colapinto, John (2005-11-17), "Working Class Heroes". Rolling Stone. (987):50–56
  2. ^ Record Mecca
  3. ^ Armstrong, Billie Joe (2005). "The Sex Pistols". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 28, 2006.
  4. ^ Metropolis – Music and Concerts: Green Day
  5. ^ "10 Questions for Billie Joe Armstrong". Time. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
  6. ^ Myers, Ben. "Green Day: American Idiot and the New Punk Explosion" April, 2006.
  7. ^ eastbayexpress.com review of American Idiot
  8. ^ a b "About Adeline Records". punknews.org. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
  9. ^ Lipshutz, Jason (September 29, 2010). "Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong Makes American Idiot Debut". Billboard.com. Retrieved September 30, 2010.
  10. ^ Blank, Matthew (September 29, 2010). "Billie Joe Armstrong Debuts in Broadway's American Idiot". Playbill.com. Retrieved September 30, 2010.
  11. ^ Spitz, Marc (2006). Nobody Likes You: inside the turbulent life, times, and music of Green Day. Hyperion. p. 11.
  12. ^ WDR 1Live "Cologne Concert 2009-05-09" April, 2006.
  13. ^ Gibson USA & Green Day present
  14. ^ Gibson USA & Green Day present
  15. ^ "Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong Says Bisexuality Shouldn't Be an Issue". spinner.com. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
  16. ^ http://www.out.com/detail.asp?id=26574
  17. ^ January 7, 2003 Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong Arrested For Drunk Driving MTV.com
  18. ^ TSG Mug Shot: Billie Joe Armstrong
  19. ^ Billie Joe Armstrong: Rolling Stone
  20. ^ Artists Lend Voices to Obama Campaign : Rolling Stone
  21. ^ "Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop and Roll!!!". punknews.org. Retrieved 2010-10-19.

External links

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