Billie Joe Armstrong

Billie Joe Armstrong was born in Oakland, California on February 17th, 1972. He was the youngest of six children in a family of wide musical talent. His mother worked as a waitress in a local diner, Rod's Hickory Pitt, and his father worked as a jazz musician and Safeway truck driver.

Billie Joe always shone above his siblings with his clear musical ability. From a young age, he was cheering people up at local hospitals with his beautiful singing. He attended singing lessons and was always destined for greatness. The first clear sign of this was when at the age of only five; he recorded his very first song at a recording studio in Berkeley. The song was called "Look For Love" and found him an interview with a local radio station, a clip of which can be found as the introduction of one of Green Day's songs: "Maria."

At the age of 11, Billie Joe's father, Ollie, gave him his very first electric guitar, which he named Blue because of its pale blue color. Billie Joe treasured this guitar, a Fender Stratocaster; although little did he know, it was the beginning of a lifetime career in music. He continues to use the guitar today, and has had many replicas made.

Billie Joe formed a very strong relationship with his father, who died of cancer of the esophagus in 1982. His mother soon found herself a new husband whom none of the six children liked and caused Billie Joe to write his first song "Why Do You Want Him" which appears on Green Day's debut album, "1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours". He released a lot of his anger out on his guitar playing the hardcore punk rock songs he still sings today; unfortunately, he also released a lot of his anger with physical violence, both at school and at home, with his stepfather.

Billie Joe was 10 when he met Mike Dirnt in the school cafeteria in 1982. During sleepovers at each other's houses, they played songs by old heavy metal warhorses such as Ozzy Osbourne, Def Leppard, and Van Halen. At the young age of 15, Mike moved out of his own home due to disagreements with his adoptive parents and moved into a separated apartment in Billie Joe's house. This allowed the two to bond further, Billie Joe persuaded Mike to buy an electric guitar as well so that the two could practice together in the garage of his home. They were often laughed at at school for their dress sense and taste in music, but the two stayed true to their music and punk life-style and did not lose hope at any stage of their journey to get their message out there. The two young musicians where born to be rebellious and at no point did they even consider changing this.

By 1987, Billie Joe and Mike realized that two guitarists wasn't going to work. Mike switched to bass and they recruited a drummer. They found John Kiffmeyer also known as "Al Sobrante" (named after his hometown El Sobrante). They tried to play as many clubs and venues as possible, however big or small, they even frequently played at Rod's Hickory Pitt where the two also worked alongside Billie Joe's mum to earn their keep. After a while, they attempted to get a record deal with local studio Lookout Records. Eventually, they got their debut album record in 1990 (1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours.) However, John left the band that same year to return to college leaving the two without a drummer.

Another local band "The Lookouts" insisted that they had their drummer, as they had recently split up. The new drummer, Tre Cool, (born Frank Edwin Wright III) fit into the band very comfortably, being closer to the age of the other two, they formed a very strong relationship, which is still strong today.

In 1991, Billie Joe met Adrienne Nesser, a fellow punk rock enthusiast, who had seen many of Green Day's local performances through out the years. The two fell in love and married in 1994 in a 5 minute service, only to find the very next day that Adrienne was pregnant with their first child, Joseph Marciano (named after Joey Ramone), who was born in 1995, followed 3 years later by another son, Jakob Danger.

Green Day went on to produce many more records, especially impressive being "American Idiot", selling hundreds of millions of copies worldwide. After 22 years (2009) of entertaining the world with their rebellious and often humorous songs, the band are still going strong and still writing more and more songs to entertain and amuse us after already more than 10 albums worth of hardcore punk rock.


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