Billie Joe Armstrong

Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is the main songwriter, lead vocalist, and guitarist for the Rock band Green Day.

Armstrong is the youngest of six children born in Oakland, California, and raised in Rodeo, California. His father, Andy, was a jazz musician and truck driver who died of cancer of the esophagus when Armstrong was ten. His mother, Ollie, was a waitress at Rod's Hickory Pit, where Billie and his friends Mike Dirnt and Brandon O'Lech worked during their teen year. Rod's Hickory Pit was where Armstrong and his band Sweet Children performed their first show. He insists that his name is spelled with an 'ie' because, according to the liner notes in 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, his mother was under the influence of drugs (painkillers) while giving birth to him. He is the only member of Green Day who uses his given name, as the other two members, Michael Ryan Pritchard (Mike Dirnt) and Frank Edwin Wright III (Tré Cool), have switched to shorter nicknames.

Together with his wife Adrienne Armstrong, they are co-founders and part owners of the independent label Adeline Records, to which he has a side band called Pinhead Gunpowder with Green Day second guitarist Jason White which is on Lookout! Records. Armstrong has also worked as a producer, most notably in a co-production with noted punk producer Mass Giorgini, legendary producer/owner of Sonic Iguana recording studio, and Lafayette pop-punk band Squirtgun. He is also a member of the band The Network, along with the rest of the members of Green Day.

Instruments

Armstrong received his first guitar at age 10, a Fernandes Stratocaster copy, "Blue" which he received from his dad before he died. Billie Joe still uses "Blue", as well as Fender replicas that have the same duct tape and sticker covered aesthetic with the initials "BJ" written with a red marker. He sometimes still uses replicas of "Blue" at concerts. "Blue" was used in these music videos, "When I Come Around", "Longview", "Welcome to Paradise" "Brain Stew/Jaded" "Basket Case", "Geek Stink Breath", "Stuck With Me", "Hitchin' A Ride" and "Minority", and can be seen getting covered with mud in the Woodstock '94 video, and their recent live CD/DVD Bullet In A Bible. In a few live videos he can be seen playing a red Gibson SG, and in the video for Redundant he uses an old, beat-up Gibson ES-175 that has been taped in a few places. He can also sometimes be seen playing a modified '72 black Fender Telecaster Custom with a white pick-guard. The bridge pickup has been replaced with a Seymour Duncan Jeff Beck Humbucker, similar to his Stratocasters. Armstrong can be seen playing the Telecaster in the video for "Nice Guys Finish Last". He now uses several customized Gibson Les Paul models, including a Les Paul Junior. The Telecaster and Les Paul's channel switch located on the top of the guitar has been removed and covered with tape so that it does not interfere with his strumming. Armstrong's custom models will be on sale starting in late 2006. Other instruments that Armstrong can play include the bass guitar, drums, harmonica, mandolin, piano and just recently the saxophone.

Green Day's Early Years

Armstrong recorded his first song (Look for Love) when he was five. In 1986, he wrote his first song entitled Why Do You Want Him. This song was written when he was fourteen years old, about his step-father, Brad, whom he did not like. The song appears on Green Day's debut album on Lookout! Records, 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours and SlappyE.P.

During his stay in school, he was nicknamed "Two Dollar Bill", because he was supplying the school with joints for two dollars. In 1988, Armstrong formed a band called Sweet Children with childhood friend Mike Dirnt, and Al Sobrante (b. John Kiffmeyer). They changed their name to "Green Day" in March 1989, prior to the release of their first EP, 1,000 Hours, on Lookout! Records. The name was their slang expression for a pot filled wasted day - they watched TV while being stoned and Ernie (from Sesame Street) used the term "Green Day", and it became an inside joke. In 1990, Sobrante left Green Day for college and was eventually replaced by Tré Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright III), who made his debut on Green Day's second album, Kerplunk!.

Collaborations

Apart from working with Green Day, 'The Network' and Pinhead Gunpowder, Armstrong has proved himself busy in the music world, collaborating with many artists over the years. In 2002, he and Green Day toured with their counterparts at the top of the pop-punk world, blink-182. He has co-written for the Go-gos ("Unforgiven"), former Avengers singer Penelope Houston ("The Angel and The Jerk" and "New Day"), written a song for Rancid ("Radio"), sung backing vocals with Melissa Auf Der Maur on Ryan Adams' "Do Miss America" and recorded lead guitar with Green Day for two tracks, where they acted as the backing band for Iggy Pop on his "Skull Ring" album ("Private Hell" and "Supermarket"). A duet with Elvis Costello is planned for a VH1 special.

Personal

As of 2006, Billie Joe Armstrong is 34 years of age and has been in his band for 18 years; most of his life. Armstrong married Adrienne Nesser (Natalie) on July 2, 1994. The ceremony itself lasted just five minutes. The day after their wedding Adrienne found out she was pregnant with her first son, Joseph Marciano (born March 1995). Three years later they had their second son, Jakob Danger (born September 1998).

Adrienne was born October 6, 1969 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her brother, Steve Nesser, is a professional skateboarder. While studying Sociology in Minnesota State University, Nesser met Armstrong and asked him where she could buy a copy of their album. Armstrong has remarked that he had spotted Nesser as he peered into the crowd from the stage during the gig and he was immediately taken by her beautiful long, black hair. The two kept in touch over the phone; often discussing Nesser's human sexuality class. Their first kiss inspired an old Green Day classic, 2,000 Light Years Away. The song 80 is also about Adrienne. Armstrong arranged two tours around Minnesota, simply for the purpose of seeing Nesser, but, after dating for a year-and-a-half, they resigned themselves to the fact that they couldn't be together due to distance.

During the next year, Nesser got engaged to Billy Bisson, the front man of a Minnesota band, The Libido Boyz. However, their relationship deteriorated, and, when Nesser finished college, Armstrong asked her to move out to California and marry him. She agreed, and Bisson claims that Armstrong stole her from him, saying "I helped that guy, and what does he do? He steals my fiancée." Armstrong and Nesser became engaged soon after, and planned their wedding in about two weeks.

In the documentary Behind the Music, Nesser says "We didn't think about it, we just did it." The ceremony took place in Armstrong's back yard and lasted five minutes; they wrote their own vows: one Protestant, one Catholic and one Jewish, because they were of no particular religion. The couple spent a week in the Claremont Hotel for their honeymoon (a ten minute walk away from their house). The day after the wedding, Adrienne discovered that she was pregnant.

Their son, Joseph Marciano Armstrong, was born in March 15, 1995. They had their second son, Jakob Danger, on September 12, 1998. The Armstrongs were prone to arguments during the recording of Green Day's albums, particularly during Nimrod. As Adrienne commented in VH1's Documentary Driven: "I think it challenged us to a new level. It pushed us pretty far. The farthest I ever want to go."

With these problems resolved, Adrienne is often seen backstage at Green Day's shows. She works at Adeline Records and co-owns Adeline clothing.

In a January 1995 interview with The Advocate, Armstrong stated that he is bisexual:

"I think I've always been bisexual. I mean, it's something that I've always been interested in. I think everybody kind of fantasizes about the same sex. 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."

In 2002 rumors had been circling that Armstrong had died in a tragic car accident, until a statement on Green Day.net cleared things up.

Armstrong and Green Day actively promoted the candidacy of John Kerry in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election, co-headlining the Vote For Change tour and lending a track to the Rock Against Bush benefit album.

Awards

Armstrong was given an "Esky" for Best Frontman in Esquire's 2006 Esky Music Awards in the April issue.
In 2005 Kerrang! magazine awarded him the Best Dressed Star and Hero of the Year.
Billie Joe Armstrong once aided Rancid on their album Let's Go.

External links