2020-03-01 Total Guitar

MARCH 2020 TOTAL GUITAR

down and these small towns that are

losing their identity. It’s about trying to

have an understanding of what’s going

on in this country and how we’re in the

middle of a sort of cultural civil war.

Things can feel pretty dire.

Yeah.It’slike,Devowasright,you

know?We’redevolving.We’regoing

tobe dragging our knuckles in the next

10 yearsif wekeepat thispace.So it’sa

reallyscarytime.Butat thesametime,

Ican’t help but see that there’s so much

more enthusiasm for trying to create

change, whether it’s talking about the

issue of climate change or about having

real equality. It’s not just a slogan, and

it’s going to happen with young people.

Speaking of young people, Green Day

has to be one of the fewr k

bands these days tha

show up at an award

show or festival and

play alongside pop

acts and in front of

audiences that, on

average, maybe

weren’t even alive

when Dookie came

out, and still manage

to make a meaningful

connection. You seem

welcome the challeng

putting yourselves into those

sorts of non-rock environments.

Yeah, that’s true. I always feel like an

outsider at those things, but I think

Green Day will always be sort of the

class clowns of whatever thing we’re at.

We’re the kids that are going to set off

firecrackers at the talent show. And so

those things are fun because we’re not

tryingto be likeanybodyelseandwe’re

nottryingto be modern.I mean,for

God’ssake,westillplaywooden

instruments,youknow?[Laughs]

That’salmostaliento kidsnow.So

Idon’tknowwhytheseyoungkids

stilllikeit. I thinkit’sjustthatthey

seeit as ‘real’.

As far as being the kids setting off

the firecrackers, last year, for Record

Store Day, you released a vinyl

version of your Woodstock ’94 set to

commemorate the 25th anniversary

of the festival. That show, which

endedwitha mudfightbetweenyou

andthecrowd,seemedtofuelyour

risetofameduringtheDookiedays.

Doyoufeelthatmomentaltered

theband’strajectory?

WhenI lookbackonit now,absolutely.

Butat thetime,I mean,I thinkthe

firstthingwewerethinkingwas,

Woodstock,thissoundsso...Dumb!

Like,whywouldtheymakeanother

Woodstock?So wewentupthereand

wewere like, ‘Well, let’s just have fun,

just be ourselves.' And it was a strange

showbecausewestartedplaying,and

Ithinkwestartedoutprettyblazing.

Butthen there was sort of a dip in the

energy somewhere. So it went from

goodto,like,‘Oh,shit...Wemightbe

playingbad!’[laughs].Then,when

acoupleof mudballsstartedcoming

atus,basicallywhatyou’reseeingis

abunch of mischievous kids onstage

just having a good time with the people

in the audience. Because we were the

same age as the people in the crowd.

GREEN DAY

“It drives me crazy when people say rock and roll is dead”

basket case

BillieJoeArmstrong:still

“settingofffirecrackers

atthe talent show”

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