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Showing posts with label Billie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Billie. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

SXSW 2013: Green Day Blast Back With a Supercharged Billie Joe Armstrong

Green Day perform at ACL Live in Austin, Texas on March 15th, 2013.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.comIn his recent Rolling Stone interview about addiction, meltdown and hard-won recovery, Green Day singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong recalled a show in Austin, Texas in the late Nineties when he decided to stop worrying about his punk credibility and finally act like a rock & roll star onstage: to give his band and songs the showmanship they deserved in concert. It took liquid courage, he admitted – a step with distant, ultimately disastrous consequences. On March 15th, a newly sober, supercharged Armstrong was back in Austin with bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool for a special SXSW appearance at the Moody Theater – a show that started with Armstrong bolting across the stage as if shot from a cannon, into the incendiary challenge of "99 Revolutions," then demanding that his audience respond in kind. "This is not a fucking party, this is not a first date, it's not a bar mitzvah – it's a celebration!" Armstrong yelled soon after, during an extended instrumental breakdown in "Letterbomb," accenting his impatience with rock-god action and comic relief: punctuating Cool's explosive downbeats with Pete Townshend-style leaps from a riser; playing part of his guitar solo in "Know Your Enemy" perched on one leg as if he'd suddenly become a member of Jethro Tull.

Billie Joe Armstrong Opens Up About Substance Abuse

But there was no missing the gratitude in that agitation, in those antics. "Ah, welcome back," Armstrong said in a deep, exhaling voice, at one point during the Big Country-style bagpipe-guitar charge of "Stay the Night." He was addressing the loving, frenzied crowd, mostly comprised of local fans and ticket-lottery winners. He could have just as easily been talking to himself.

Green Day were at SXSW – with guitarist Jason White, in sextet formation – to promote two documentaries that premiered at the festival earlier that day: Cuatro!, about the making of the group's recent trilogy of LPs, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré!; and Broadway Idiot, which follows the musical-theater production of the 2004 album, American Idiot. The band also had a point to prove at this media-saturated festival, after Armstrong's physical and emotional collapse onstage last fall at the I Heart Radio festival in Las Vegas: that Green Day still have a career and their frontman is healthy and energized.

green day sxsw Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at ACL Live in Austin, Texas on March 15th, 2013.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com They did that by opening and closing with a focus on songs from those three albums, which suffered from the loss of touring and promo during Armstrong's rehab. "Brutal Love," from ¡Tré!, was a surprising, effective final encore, minus the strings on the record but with a compensating pathos in the guitars and Armstrong's wrenched vocal.  "Stop When the Red Lights Flash," from ¡Dos!, was great hard-fuzz candy, played at avenging speed with a sweetly nagging chorus ("I'll make you surrender" – and you do).

The center of the show was loaded with hits that now double as allusions to peril and Armstrong's passage out of crisis, such as "Burnout" and "Basket Case" from 1994's Dookie. It was hard not to miss the fiction made real in "St. Jimmy" from American Idiot – and the extra irony in Armstrong's spell on Broadway playing the goth-imp dealer. And it was surely no accident that one of the cover fragments in the wind-out from "Coming Clean" was AC/DC's "Highway to Hell."

Q&A: Green Day's Mike Dirnt on Billie Joe Armstrong's Recovery

Another new song, "X-Kid," came next to last in the set. As Armstrong noted in the Rolling Stone interview, it is about someone who was very close to the band: an old punk comrade who never figured out how to grow old with the ideals forged in outlaw youth and died of the same bad habits that triggered Armstrong's crisis. But Green Day closed with a reliable, affirming antidote, "Minority," from 2000's Warning. The song has been a featured climax of the band's shows for years. There was something new, though – invigorating and determined – in the band's crisp strut and the way Armstrong sang the pride and refusal in the title lyric.

His healing and vigilance have just begun. But just seven months after he fell, spectacularly, into classic rock-star darkness, Armstrong is back onstage with the band that has been his life since he was a teenager – eager to prove that he still belongs there and will never take it for granted again.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here


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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

SXSW 2013: Green Day Blast Back With a Supercharged Billie Joe Armstrong

Green Day perform at ACL Live in Austin, Texas on March 15th, 2013.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.comIn his recent Rolling Stone interview about addiction, meltdown and hard-won recovery, Green Day singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong recalled a show in Austin, Texas in the late Nineties when he decided to stop worrying about his punk credibility and finally act like a rock & roll star onstage: to give his band and songs the showmanship they deserved in concert. It took liquid courage, he admitted – a step with distant, ultimately disastrous consequences. On March 15th, a newly sober, supercharged Armstrong was back in Austin with bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool for a special SXSW appearance at the Moody Theater – a show that started with Armstrong bolting across the stage as if shot from a cannon, into the incendiary challenge of "99 Revolutions," then demanding that his audience respond in kind. "This is not a fucking party, this is not a first date, it's not a bar mitzvah – it's a celebration!" Armstrong yelled soon after, during an extended instrumental breakdown in "Letterbomb," accenting his impatience with rock-god action and comic relief: punctuating Cool's explosive downbeats with Pete Townshend-style leaps from a riser; playing part of his guitar solo in "Know Your Enemy" perched on one leg as if he'd suddenly become a member of Jethro Tull.

Billie Joe Armstrong Opens Up About Substance Abuse

But there was no missing the gratitude in that agitation, in those antics. "Ah, welcome back," Armstrong said in a deep, exhaling voice, at one point during the Big Country-style bagpipe-guitar charge of "Stay the Night." He was addressing the loving, frenzied crowd, mostly comprised of local fans and ticket-lottery winners. He could have just as easily been talking to himself.

Green Day were at SXSW – with guitarist Jason White, in sextet formation – to promote two documentaries that premiered at the festival earlier that day: Cuatro!, about the making of the group's recent trilogy of LPs, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré!; and Broadway Idiot, which follows the musical-theater production of the 2004 album, American Idiot. The band also had a point to prove at this media-saturated festival, after Armstrong's physical and emotional collapse onstage last fall at the I Heart Radio festival in Las Vegas: that Green Day still have a career and their frontman is healthy and energized.

green day sxsw Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at ACL Live in Austin, Texas on March 15th, 2013.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com They did that by opening and closing with a focus on songs from those three albums, which suffered from the loss of touring and promo during Armstrong's rehab. "Brutal Love," from ¡Tré!, was a surprising, effective final encore, minus the strings on the record but with a compensating pathos in the guitars and Armstrong's wrenched vocal.  "Stop When the Red Lights Flash," from ¡Dos!, was great hard-fuzz candy, played at avenging speed with a sweetly nagging chorus ("I'll make you surrender" – and you do).

The center of the show was loaded with hits that now double as allusions to peril and Armstrong's passage out of crisis, such as "Burnout" and "Basket Case" from 1994's Dookie. It was hard not to miss the fiction made real in "St. Jimmy" from American Idiot – and the extra irony in Armstrong's spell on Broadway playing the goth-imp dealer. And it was surely no accident that one of the cover fragments in the wind-out from "Coming Clean" was AC/DC's "Highway to Hell."

Q&A: Green Day's Mike Dirnt on Billie Joe Armstrong's Recovery

Another new song, "X-Kid," came next to last in the set. As Armstrong noted in the Rolling Stone interview, it is about someone who was very close to the band: an old punk comrade who never figured out how to grow old with the ideals forged in outlaw youth and died of the same bad habits that triggered Armstrong's crisis. But Green Day closed with a reliable, affirming antidote, "Minority," from 2000's Warning. The song has been a featured climax of the band's shows for years. There was something new, though – invigorating and determined – in the band's crisp strut and the way Armstrong sang the pride and refusal in the title lyric.

His healing and vigilance have just begun. But just seven months after he fell, spectacularly, into classic rock-star darkness, Armstrong is back onstage with the band that has been his life since he was a teenager – eager to prove that he still belongs there and will never take it for granted again.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here


Electronics product reviews and advice for best reference

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Green Day Return to the Road After Billie Joe's Rehab

Green Day performs at the Fox Theater in Pomona, California.

"How many vintage Green Day fans are out there tonight?" asked singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong last night at the Fox Theater in Pomona, California, midway through the opening show of the band's U.S tour – the band's return from Armstrong's recent rehab. As if to get a closer look, he asked, "Who wants to join us onstage? Come on, let's go!"

The two-hour concert in the 2,000-capacity theater just outside Los Angeles was the first of four intimate warm-up shows (including a stop at SXSW) before heading out to arenas later this month. Just before their entrance, the Fox PA blasted both Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop," indicating the band's twin aspirations: classic rock scope with a DIY mentality.

Billie Joe Armstrong Opens Up About Substance Abuse

Many fans were certainly old enough to remember the band's sudden rise from oblivion with 1994's multi-platinum Dookie, but most of the 16 excited audience members who made it up to the stage were far younger, though one guy was big enough to carry Armstrong on his shoulders as the bandleader slashed at his guitar.

Green Day Green Day performs at The Fox Theater in Pomona, California on March 10th, 2013.

Drummer Tré Cool was the first to bound onto the stage, slamming a hard beat to begin the forceful pop of "99 Revolutions," the first song in an opening half-hour heavy with material from the band's trio of 2012 albums: ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tre!  Armstrong repeatedly shouted, "Let's go fucking crazy!"

There was a thunderous "Stop When the Red Lights Flash" (from ¡Dos!) and a tough, forlorn "Oh Love," set off with dueling guitar solos. Green Day also ripped through "Stay the Night" (from ¡Uno!), though the band stopped long enough to leave Armstrong one of the night's many moments of a cappella. They paused again for "Let Yourself Go," as the crowd bounced and sang the chorus without him: "Shut your mouth 'cause you're talking too much/ And I don't give a fuck anyway."

From 2009's 21st Century Breakdown was "Know Your Enemy, during which Armstrong pulled a young boy up from the front rows to sing a couple of lines from the song before being sent (maybe for the first time) airborne into the crowd. The breakdown between artist and fan is something Green Day has perfected over the years; on past tours, Green Day has even pulled young musicians up to riff along with the band.

Green Day Green Day performs at The Fox Theater in Pomona, California on March 10th, 2013.

At the Fox, there were no special effects and big production values, just a punk band with a mountain of amps and a pocketful of pop hooks. As in the past, Green Day's core trio were joined by three more players on guitar, keyboards and vocals. The 2005 hit "Holiday" rode a liquid bassline from Mike Dirnt, and the lights went down as Armstrong scanned the crowd with a searchlight. He grabbed the mike again, shouting, 'The representative from California has the floor!'"

Later, the band roared through a large chunk of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" (not for the first time), and fans shouted along like it was just another Green Day hit. Armstrong teased them that more metal was coming and began plucking a sloppy "Stairway to Heaven," but quickly shifted into his own "Brain Stew." That tune was stretched out long enough to allow the singer to bring out an arsenal of toys: a big water gun, a toilet paper gun and another that fired T-shirts deep into the crowd.

Near the end came an R&B medley, including the Isley Brothers' "Shout" and Green Day's own "King for a Day," with Armstrong on his knees drifting into a vocal of Ben E. King's standard "Stand By Me." It returned to a final blast of "Shout" and an accelerating beat with bleats of saxophone. The night was nearly done, but the band sounded charged up for the year of touring still ahead of them.

Set list:

"99 Revolutions"
"Know Your Enemy"
"Stay the Night"
"Stop When the Red Lights Flash"
"Let Yourself Go"
"Oh Love"
"Holiday"
"Letter Bomb"
"Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
"Hitchin' a Ride"
"Brain Stew" (with parts of "Highway to Hell," "Stairway to Heaven")
"St. Jimmy"
"2000 Light Years Away"
"Paper Lanterns"
"When I Come Around"
"Basketcase"
"F.O.D."
"She"
"King for a Day" (medley with parts of "Shout" and "Stand By Me")
"Wake Me Up When September Ends"
"Minority"
"American Idiot"
"Jesus of Suburbia"


To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here


Electronics Review Center

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Green Day Return to the Road After Billie Joe's Rehab

Green Day performs at the Fox Theater in Pomona, California.

"How many vintage Green Day fans are out there tonight?" asked singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong last night at the Fox Theater in Pomona, California, midway through the opening show of the band's U.S tour – the band's return from Armstrong's recent rehab. As if to get a closer look, he asked, "Who wants to join us onstage? Come on, let's go!"

The two-hour concert in the 2,000-capacity theater just outside Los Angeles was the first of four intimate warm-up shows (including a stop at SXSW) before heading out to arenas later this month. Just before their entrance, the Fox PA blasted both Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop," indicating the band's twin aspirations: classic rock scope with a DIY mentality.

Billie Joe Armstrong Opens Up About Substance Abuse

Many fans were certainly old enough to remember the band's sudden rise from oblivion with 1994's multi-platinum Dookie, but most of the 16 excited audience members who made it up to the stage were far younger, though one guy was big enough to carry Armstrong on his shoulders as the bandleader slashed at his guitar.

Green Day Green Day performs at The Fox Theater in Pomona, California on March 10th, 2013.

Drummer Tré Cool was the first to bound onto the stage, slamming a hard beat to begin the forceful pop of "99 Revolutions," the first song in an opening half-hour heavy with material from the band's trio of 2012 albums: ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tre!  Armstrong repeatedly shouted, "Let's go fucking crazy!"

There was a thunderous "Stop When the Red Lights Flash" (from ¡Dos!) and a tough, forlorn "Oh Love," set off with dueling guitar solos. Green Day also ripped through "Stay the Night" (from ¡Uno!), though the band stopped long enough to leave Armstrong one of the night's many moments of a cappella. They paused again for "Let Yourself Go," as the crowd bounced and sang the chorus without him: "Shut your mouth 'cause you're talking too much/ And I don't give a fuck anyway."

From 2009's 21st Century Breakdown was "Know Your Enemy, during which Armstrong pulled a young boy up from the front rows to sing a couple of lines from the song before being sent (maybe for the first time) airborne into the crowd. The breakdown between artist and fan is something Green Day has perfected over the years; on past tours, Green Day has even pulled young musicians up to riff along with the band.

Green Day Green Day performs at The Fox Theater in Pomona, California on March 10th, 2013.

At the Fox, there were no special effects and big production values, just a punk band with a mountain of amps and a pocketful of pop hooks. As in the past, Green Day's core trio were joined by three more players on guitar, keyboards and vocals. The 2005 hit "Holiday" rode a liquid bassline from Mike Dirnt, and the lights went down as Armstrong scanned the crowd with a searchlight. He grabbed the mike again, shouting, 'The representative from California has the floor!'"

Later, the band roared through a large chunk of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" (not for the first time), and fans shouted along like it was just another Green Day hit. Armstrong teased them that more metal was coming and began plucking a sloppy "Stairway to Heaven," but quickly shifted into his own "Brain Stew." That tune was stretched out long enough to allow the singer to bring out an arsenal of toys: a big water gun, a toilet paper gun and another that fired T-shirts deep into the crowd.

Near the end came an R&B medley, including the Isley Brothers' "Shout" and Green Day's own "King for a Day," with Armstrong on his knees drifting into a vocal of Ben E. King's standard "Stand By Me." It returned to a final blast of "Shout" and an accelerating beat with bleats of saxophone. The night was nearly done, but the band sounded charged up for the year of touring still ahead of them.

Set list:

"99 Revolutions"
"Know Your Enemy"
"Stay the Night"
"Stop When the Red Lights Flash"
"Let Yourself Go"
"Oh Love"
"Holiday"
"Letter Bomb"
"Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
"Hitchin' a Ride"
"Brain Stew" (with parts of "Highway to Hell," "Stairway to Heaven")
"St. Jimmy"
"2000 Light Years Away"
"Paper Lanterns"
"When I Come Around"
"Basketcase"
"F.O.D."
"She"
"King for a Day" (medley with parts of "Shout" and "Stand By Me")
"Wake Me Up When September Ends"
"Minority"
"American Idiot"
"Jesus of Suburbia"


To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here


Electronics Review Center

Friday, March 8, 2013

Punk Mogul Larry Livermore Recalls Meeting a Teen Billie Joe Armstrong in New Memoir

 'Spy Rock Memories' Larry Livermore 'Spy Rock Memories' by Larry Livermore

In 1988, Lookout! Records co-founder Larry Livermore walked into 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California and caught his first glimpse of Green Day. Billie Joe Armstrong was just 16 at the time and they were still playing under the name Sweet Children, but Livermore saw the potential and he added them to his label. The signing of Green Day is just one anecdote in Livermore's new book Spy Rock Memories, due out on June 4th via indie punk label Don Giovanni. It traces Livermore's whole life story, from battling hippies and rattlesnakes to putting Operation Ivy and Screeching Weasel on the map. Below is an exclusive preview of the book, in which Livermore describes his early days with Green Day.

Photos: Green Day Through the Years

In mid-January, David Hayes and I set up a table at the back of Gilman Street and put Lookout Records' first four seven-inch releases on sale.  I was amazed at how much excitement they generated, considering how reluctant punks are to show enthusiasm about anything, especially things they actually like.

I'd been hoping to sell a couple hundred copies of each release, which was how it had worked with the Lookouts LP.  In that case, we – I should say "I," since I was the one who'd put up the cash for this operation – wouldn't lose too much money.  My definition of success going into the project had been to break even; the idea of making even a small profit existed only in my wildest dreams.

****

I watched from the back, only half paying attention at first.  But before they'd finished even one song, I was absolutely riveted.  I'd seen this level of performance before, but only in giant, packed arenas or stadiums, delivered by bands at the peak of their careers.  16-year-old Billie Joe exuded the casual self-confidence of a superstar, offset slightly but not entirely by a shy, self-effacing humility. 

Stopping every few songs to thank his minuscule audience, he sang and played as though he'd been doing this all his life – which, I would learn, wasn't far from the truth.  Walking up to me afterward, he offhandedly asked, "What did you think?"

"I want to make a record with you guys," was all I could say.

They were barely getting started – this might have been their third or fourth show ever – but I'd seen and heard all I needed to.  They were like a modern, updated, punk rock version of the Beatles.  They could seriously be that big, I caught myself thinking.  Crazy talk?  Of course.  Yet at that moment it made perfect, undeniable sense.

The Lookouts never played that night; by the time Sweet Children finished, it was midnight and our "audience," worried they'd get in trouble with their parents, said goodbye and headed home.  On the long drive back to Spy Rock, twisting the radio dial in search of an audible signal and thankful for my aging truck's slightly more than adequate heater, I had barely an inkling of how the night's events were about to change my life forever.

And everything did change, not all at once, not in obvious, visible ways at first, but the wheels were in motion. Life on Spy Rock unfolded peacefully and quietly through the rest of 1988 and into 1989.  I barely noticed winter that year; spring was bright and full of promise. 

The Sweet Children record was nearly done.  They'd gone into the studio at the end of the year, and by March we had everything in place for a four-song EP.  Just as I was about to print the covers and labels, they casually informed me that they'd decided to change their name to Green Day. 

I blew a gasket.  It was too late, I told them; there was no time to redo all the artwork.  On top of that, I demanded, how was I supposed to sell a record by a band no one had heard of?  "Green Day?" I sneered.  "What's it even supposed to mean?"

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here


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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Punk Mogul Larry Livermore Recalls Meeting a Teen Billie Joe Armstrong in New Memoir

 'Spy Rock Memories' Larry Livermore 'Spy Rock Memories' by Larry Livermore

In 1988, Lookout! Records co-founder Larry Livermore walked into 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California and caught his first glimpse of Green Day. Billie Joe Armstrong was just 16 at the time and they were still playing under the name Sweet Children, but Livermore saw the potential and he added them to his label. The signing of Green Day is just one anecdote in Livermore's new book Spy Rock Memories, due out on June 4th via indie punk label Don Giovanni. It traces Livermore's whole life story, from battling hippies and rattlesnakes to putting Operation Ivy and Screeching Weasel on the map. Below is an exclusive preview of the book, in which Livermore describes his early days with Green Day.

Photos: Green Day Through the Years

In mid-January, David Hayes and I set up a table at the back of Gilman Street and put Lookout Records' first four seven-inch releases on sale.  I was amazed at how much excitement they generated, considering how reluctant punks are to show enthusiasm about anything, especially things they actually like.

I'd been hoping to sell a couple hundred copies of each release, which was how it had worked with the Lookouts LP.  In that case, we – I should say "I," since I was the one who'd put up the cash for this operation – wouldn't lose too much money.  My definition of success going into the project had been to break even; the idea of making even a small profit existed only in my wildest dreams.

****

I watched from the back, only half paying attention at first.  But before they'd finished even one song, I was absolutely riveted.  I'd seen this level of performance before, but only in giant, packed arenas or stadiums, delivered by bands at the peak of their careers.  16-year-old Billie Joe exuded the casual self-confidence of a superstar, offset slightly but not entirely by a shy, self-effacing humility. 

Stopping every few songs to thank his minuscule audience, he sang and played as though he'd been doing this all his life – which, I would learn, wasn't far from the truth.  Walking up to me afterward, he offhandedly asked, "What did you think?"

"I want to make a record with you guys," was all I could say.

They were barely getting started – this might have been their third or fourth show ever – but I'd seen and heard all I needed to.  They were like a modern, updated, punk rock version of the Beatles.  They could seriously be that big, I caught myself thinking.  Crazy talk?  Of course.  Yet at that moment it made perfect, undeniable sense.

The Lookouts never played that night; by the time Sweet Children finished, it was midnight and our "audience," worried they'd get in trouble with their parents, said goodbye and headed home.  On the long drive back to Spy Rock, twisting the radio dial in search of an audible signal and thankful for my aging truck's slightly more than adequate heater, I had barely an inkling of how the night's events were about to change my life forever.

And everything did change, not all at once, not in obvious, visible ways at first, but the wheels were in motion. Life on Spy Rock unfolded peacefully and quietly through the rest of 1988 and into 1989.  I barely noticed winter that year; spring was bright and full of promise. 

The Sweet Children record was nearly done.  They'd gone into the studio at the end of the year, and by March we had everything in place for a four-song EP.  Just as I was about to print the covers and labels, they casually informed me that they'd decided to change their name to Green Day. 

I blew a gasket.  It was too late, I told them; there was no time to redo all the artwork.  On top of that, I demanded, how was I supposed to sell a record by a band no one had heard of?  "Green Day?" I sneered.  "What's it even supposed to mean?"

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here


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Sunday, October 21, 2012

Green Day Bassist: Billie Joe Armstrong's Rehab Stint 'Killing Everyone'

Mike Dirnt and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day perform during the 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas.

After Billie Joe Armstrong's onstage tirade and subsequent decision to enter rehab last month, Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt has opened up about how difficult the situation has been for the band, according to MTV via Kerrang!. "Billie doesn't take things lightly and he wouldn't take rehab lightly, either," said Dirnt. "He's in the middle of some really big things, but we're going to pull through. It's killing everyone. Green Day has never been a band that sits still, but sometimes you have to step back and let life go on rather than try to control everything."

The band has pulled out of their October 27th headlining slot at the Voodoo Music and Arts Experience festival in New Orleans, but still plans to release the next album in their trilogy, ¡Dos!, on November 13th.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here


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Green Day Bassist: Billie Joe Armstrong's Rehab Stint 'Killing Everyone'

Mike Dirnt and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day perform during the 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas.

After Billie Joe Armstrong's onstage tirade and subsequent decision to enter rehab last month, Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt has opened up about how difficult the situation has been for the band, according to MTV via Kerrang!. "Billie doesn't take things lightly and he wouldn't take rehab lightly, either," said Dirnt. "He's in the middle of some really big things, but we're going to pull through. It's killing everyone. Green Day has never been a band that sits still, but sometimes you have to step back and let life go on rather than try to control everything."

The band has pulled out of their October 27th headlining slot at the Voodoo Music and Arts Experience festival in New Orleans, but still plans to release the next album in their trilogy, ¡Dos!, on November 13th.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here


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