Billie Joe Armstrong

Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is an American musician, songwriter and actor. He is best known for being the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt in 1987. He is also a guitarist and vocalist for the punk rock band Pinhead Gunpowder, and provides lead vocals for Green Day's side projects Foxboro Hot Tubs, the Network, the Longshot and the Coverups. Armstrong has been considered by critics as one of the greatest punk rock guitarists of all time, as well as one of the greatest punk rock singers of all time.

Armstrong developed an interest in music at a young age, and recorded his first song at the age of five. He met Dirnt while attending elementary school, and the two instantly bonded over their interest in music, forming the band Sweet Children when the two were 14 years old. The band later changed its name to Green Day. Armstrong has also pursued musical projects including numerous collaborations with other musicians.

Armstrong has acted in several films and TV series, including Like Sunday, Like Rain, Ordinary World, King of the Hill, Haunted, and Drunk History. In addition to co-writing the book and lyrics for American Idiot, a jukebox musical featuring several of Green Day's songs, Armstrong portrayed the role of St. Jimmy in the show for several weeks during its run on Broadway.

Armstrong's business ventures include founding Adeline Records to help support other bands in 1997, coinciding with the release of Nimrod. Adeline signed acts such as the Frustrators, AFI, and Dillinger Four. Armstrong also co-founded Punk Bunny Coffee (formerly Oakland Coffee Works) in 2015.

Armstrong was born in Oakland, California, on February 17, 1972, the youngest of six children of Ollie Jackson (born 1932) and Andrew Marsicano Armstrong (1928–1982). He was raised in Rodeo, California. His father, a jazz musician and truck driver for Safeway, died of esophageal cancer on September 10, 1982, when Armstrong was 10 years old. The song "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is a memorial to his father. Armstrong has five siblings, including three older sisters, Marci, Hollie, and Anna, and two older brothers, David and Alan. His mother worked as a waitress at Rod's Hickory Pit in El Cerrito, California, where he and Mike Dirnt later played their first gig in 1987. His great-great-grandparents Pietro Marsicano and Teresa Nigro were Italian immigrants from Viggiano, who settled in Boston prior to relocating to Berkeley, California, in 1869.

Armstrong 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. At the age of 10, he met future bandmate Mike Dirnt in the school cafeteria, and they immediately bonded over their love of music. He became interested in punk rock after being introduced to the genre by his brothers. He has cited Van Halen, Ramones, the Replacements, and Hüsker Dü as musical influences. The first concert he ever attended was Van Halen in 1984. After Hillcrest Elementary, Armstrong attended Carquinez Middle School and John Swett High School, both in Crockett, California, and later transferred to Pinole Valley High School in Pinole, California. On his 18th birthday, he dropped out to pursue a musical career.

In 1987, aged 15, Armstrong formed a band called Sweet Children with his childhood friend Mike Dirnt. In the beginning, Armstrong and Dirnt both played guitar, with Raj Punjabi on drums and Sean Hughes on bass. Punjabi was later replaced on drums by John Kiffmeyer, also known as Al Sobrante. After a few performances, Hughes left the band in 1988; Dirnt then began playing bass and they became a three-piece band. They changed their name to Green Day in April 1989, choosing the name because of their fondness for marijuana.

In 1989, Green Day released their debut EP, 1,000 Hours, through Lookout! Records. They recorded their debut studio album, 39/Smooth, and the extended play Slappy in 1990, which were later combined with 1,000 Hours into the compilation 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours in 1991.

In 1990, Armstrong provided lead guitar and backing vocals on three songs for the Lookouts' final EP, IV, which featured Tré Cool on drums. Tré became Green Day's drummer in late 1990 after Sobrante left to go to college. Cool made his debut on Green Day's second album, Kerplunk (1991).

In 1991, Armstrong joined the band Pinhead Gunpowder, consisting of bassist Bill Schneider, drummer Aaron Cometbus, and fellow vocalist/guitarist Sarah Kirsch. Kirsch left the group in 1992, and was replaced by Jason White. The group has released several extended plays and albums from 1991 to the present, and performs live shows on an intermittent basis.

In 1993, Armstrong played live several times with California punk band Rancid. Rancid's lead singer, Tim Armstrong (no relation), asked Billie Joe Armstrong to join his band, but he refused due to his progress with Green Day. However, Billie Joe Armstrong was credited as a co-writer on Rancid's 1993 song, Radio.

Armstrong is known for his frequent use of palm-muted, power chord-driven guitar riffs, and melodic guitar solos. His strumming style makes use of techniques such as stubbing and fret hand muting, which allows him to strum power chords harder while attacking all six strings on the guitar. Armstrong usually sings in lower vocal ranges. According to Ilana Kaplan of Alternative Press: "[Armstrong] doesn't necessarily belt like some of the others [...] but that it's what's given many of the band's hits their palpable grit. Green Day's songs have more of a punk sheen than pop because of Armstrong."

Armstrong's first guitar was a Cherry Red Hohner acoustic, which his father bought for him. He received his first electric guitar, a Fernandes The Revival RST-50 Stratocaster that he named "Blue", when he was ten years old in 1982, the same year his father died. His mother got "Blue" from George Cole, who taught Armstrong to play guitar for 10 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." Cole bought the guitar new from David Margen of the band Santana. Cole installed the Bill Lawrence L500XL Humbucker pickup in the bridge position at an angle, similar to Eddie Van Halen's guitar Frankenstrat, which caused Armstrong to be very influenced by Van Halen. The L500XL is the same pickup that was used by Dimebag Darrell of Pantera. Armstrong replaced the L500XL with a white Yamaha Pacifica humbucker at Woodstock '94.

Armstrong later reinstalled the Bill Lawrence L500XL pickup before recording Insomniac, although he switched to a black Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB in 1995. He toured with this guitar from the band's early days and still uses it to this day.

Marc Spitz writes that, "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."

Both middle and neck pickups are disconnected and the pickup selector is locked in the bridge position. This also applies to his backup guitar and "Blue" copies, mainly Fender Stratocasters. "Blue" appears in a number of Green Day music videos such as "Longview", "Welcome to Paradise", "Basket Case", "Geek Stink Breath", "Stuck with Me", "Brain Stew/Jaded", "Hitchin' a Ride", and "Minority". "Blue" also appears on the album cover of Insomniac. The "BJ" on Blue stands for Billie Joe, inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose Stratocaster has his own initials ("SRV") on the pickguard.

Today, Armstrong mainly uses Gibson and Fender guitars. Twenty of his Gibson guitars are Les Paul Junior models from the mid- to late-1950s. His Fender collection includes Stratocasters, Jazzmasters, Telecasters, a Gretsch hollowbody, Rickenbacker 360 and his copies of "Blue" from Fender Custom Shop. Recently he has begun giving away guitars to audience members invited to play on stage with Green Day, usually during the songs "Knowledge" or "Longview". He states that his favorite guitar is a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Junior he calls "Floyd", which he bought in 2000 just before recording the album Warning.

In June 2018, Armstrong was given honorary citizenship of Viggiano, the Italian commune from where his paternal great-great-grandparents hailed, by Viggiano's mayor Amedeo Cicala.

He believes in a higher power, and prays.