Original subtitles

Welcome back to part five of the history of Green Day. The year was 2004, the

year of the American Idiot, a masterpiece.

Let's wake the boys up and ask them a few questions, shall we?

Billy, is it fair to say the American Idiot was a concept record?

Well, when Led Zeppelin did Dark Side of the Moon, I was just

thinking, we have to be able to get on...

On that level, something more monumental.

Trey, what did you tell us about the song Holiday?

Um... Uh... I don't know.

Mike,

do you want to say something?

Josh?

Mike, can you tell us about the song Holiday?

Well... You're fired.

It is 20 years. I don't know, but what is it 20? Did it happen? It's a Ducati.

A Ducati.

They say the strongest shape is a triangle. And there's three of us. We're

strongest core of a band.

What is that, wallpaper?

Badass! Dude, that is sick!

Let me show you something.

Welcome to a new kind of tension, all across the alien nation, everything is

meant to be okay.

Don't be trying to change that tomorrow, we're not the ones to make a follow

-up, and that's enough to want you.

We've been a band now almost 17 years.

We really had no idea what our career was going to be like or if we were going

to have a career when we first started. All we knew is that we wrote some songs

that we really enjoyed and we loved and somewhere that we would enjoy playing

these songs when we're older, that they'd make sense.

In those days, you know, we might date ourselves a little bit, but, you know,

metal was the shit.

But, you know, when you're in high school, you've got to do anything you

be an outcast.

We never had these delusions of grandeur or anything, but we never limited

ourselves.

We might have been working really hard, booking our own tours, putting

everything in storage and going on tour. There's something about that

experience, just kept going and playing these crappy squats, and it made us be a

good band.

We'd come back, and we'd see all the other bands, and we'd go, what are you

doing? Well, we're booking a tour. We're going to do two weeks. I'm like, two

weeks? If you're going to do two weeks, do three months.

We come from a working -class town in California.

We're just going to write our really good songs, and we're not going to try

be anything different.

Through the years, I've never looked at it as work. It is just something that we

call our own.

When we put out the international super hit, that was kind of like taking our

flag on the ground and saying, okay, this is a mile marker.

Where do we go from here?

I've always wanted to be in the biggest rock and roll band in the world.

We're thinking, like, to try to get in that frame of mind the first time you

ever picked up a guitar.

And rocking out in front of the mirror for the first time, looking at your

heroes and saying, this is what I want to do, this is where I want to be.

Really try to recapture that feeling and not worry about whether or not it's

going to be successful or not.

I could tell you how we got in the frame of mind to do it. It was a series of a

lot of error.

We're going to play a brand new song.

ain't that brand new. This song's called Cigarettes and Valentine's. When

we went back in the studio, we

had a batch of songs we were recording every day and we showed up at the studio

and they were gone.

It

was

That, we think, because the hard drive was gone.

Or... Aliens, man.

Yeah. It was such a bummer. And we were so traumatized by it.

We either have to re -record this or just grab it and start over again.

He basically started the record from scratch and didn't take barely any ideas

across. That was a brave decision, because a lot of people would sort of

in their sadness about the fact that it was lost and get all stupid about it.

When Billy wrote American Idiot, It was kind of like no looking back at those

other songs anymore.

That was it. It was like, oh, this is a different bar.

So we kept writing songs and anything and everything and never stopping.

Once American Idiot was written, the floodgates would open and the ideas

bounce around.

Every day we would get into something different, whether it was go -karts or

mini -bikes.

But recording at the same time and doing all these different creative things

every day.

We set up a pirate radio station.

We were putting that thing on and play live jam to cut in all the radio

stations. They had no idea who it was or what was going on. We had a deal with

Guinness where we could tour around Guinness.

I don't know if that was the best idea in the world, but it sure was fun at the

time. Just try, try new things.

Come up with an idea somewhere.

It's all to inspire the next move. My fair lady, you know the word.

And then Mike had the 30 -second song.

Everyone in the studio had left, and Mike was the only one there.

Ken Butler on the way off to the... What are we supposed to do? Titty goes... I

don't know, write a 30 -second song.

Yeah.

It was almost sounding like Botville.

It was like, everybody left the studio, everybody left the studio, everybody

left the studio with me.

Everybody's off to studio.

And I was like, that was it. And I remember thinking, that sounds like the

beginning of something. I go, I'm going to write a 30 -second thing and attach

to it.

And Trey was like, I want to do something and attach a 30 -second thing

And we kept attaching this thing.

I remember waiting for like, what's the other guy going to do? I don't know if

it was like a competition, but it just kept getting better and better. And that

song ultimately ended up becoming Homecoming.

And then we sent that along with two of the songs to Rob Cavallo, our producer.

I was kind of mainly going, what do you think of these two songs that we did?

And I put the sort of mini punk rock, rock opera at the end. It was just

something that we were doing for fun. And he was like, this is it. This is

you got to do.

We said, okay, don't be afraid of failure.

Don't fear losing.

And fuck it. If it goes down in flames, then we're going to take the whole

goddamn genre with us.

It's good to have gold.

What the hell?

What's your plan? You said my thoughts never went out the same.

And Mom and Dad, I'm the ones you can blame.

She retired too late.

It was free time into the past.

And the state of mind is my own privacy.

Well, nobody cares.

Well, nobody cares.

Well, nobody cares. Well, nobody cares.

Well, nobody cares.

Well, nobody cares.

Everybody!

Best life by changing for me

... ...

...

... ... ...

Thank you. Thank

you.

Why should I fucking run if there's nothing to do?

We're back in the very out of the you and me, that single

town.

It's a great flight. It's a private charter.

I was in good condition.

Did you feel pretty comfortable?

Yeah, you know, at least you can stretch your legs on the flight.

I will hit you.

Once the American Idiot Tour started, it felt like sort of like a Viking ship or

a fucking pirate ship cruising around.

We just took the hotel flag down. We put Chase Washburn's underwear up there

instead. This is so beautiful.

We were all like shooting cannons at people.

Whoa! For no fucking reason but entertainment.

Yeah! Look at this. Ghoul on fire!

We were on that tour. We had a blast.

We had so much fun off stage.

Hey, Gandalf.

Yes, I put a level four spell on his brain. We are going to have an

journey of safe travels.

Oh, watch the candy, watch the candy.

This is the vehicle we have decided to travel in.

I remember Jason White passed out on his bed.

Oh, we have that footage?

Oh, my God.

Before the great toilet paper shortage of 2020.

The next morning, he goes, I woke up and I thought and I looked around and I

said, this looks really nice.

Hi, pretty illustrious Green Day duo, because Billy's not here.

I'm Mike Dern.

It was just great having a really good time, but it was also this other side of

it that was dead serious.

We made this record and it was like an immediate response.

We were just trying to figure out how to talk about it. How do you explain to

someone, not only like about the political side of the record, but the

narrative, the characters, all the emotional sides of it. Who do you think

American Idiot is?

I think you're looking at him right now.

One thing we had to do to convey what the record was about.

was played in its attiree somewhere.

And we put the show on it here. You have to kind of see it in its attiree in

order to get it to some degree.

You take one song out of context, a little video, is that, you know.

challenging ourselves to make that record and then play it live it was the

level one

of the first interviews that we did i think was with karang this guy from

flew all the way out to talk to us he had heard the album he's like so there

a lot of politics on this record it's about the war in iraq tell me about

that and i was like oh Fuck. And I go, well, I don't know. I mean, it's all

of like kind of a personal take on it. And he goes, well, you let your personal

go public.

And he held my feet to the fire. And then I was, I remember just going, fuck

George Bush.

Fuck this war. And it immediately sort of, I was like, I was so thankful,

grateful that someone challenged me on what this record was about.

This song's called Holiday.

This song can be anti -American.

It's anti -American.

We'll be right back.

The rest of our lives.

One call, they say.

Where does Tom have it all? I'm tired.

One of the perchants there at Sky's still alive. He finds the money's gone

other side.

What is it? Get to it. Get to it.

There's a flag left around us.

Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye.

The representative of California now has the floor.

Thank you.

Why don't we put it here?

When does it show up?

Oh, for the inspiration. Best traditional gospel album, 2003.

Go tell it on the mountain.

The Blind Boys of Alabama.

Hey, that's cool.

I want this to... Best rock album of the year. Everything was about setting the

goals of this record completely above anything else we'd ever done.

I'm ready to take that fucking message. Why wouldn't he say it now?

They're like, oh, I guess, oh, God, bongos. Maybe this record could actually

make a record worse than Warning.

Why does Billy Joon play all the nice guitars now, professional guitars now?

Yeah, and you're holding that guitar. I know, I'm like, fuck you.

Dude, Kerplunk is the only good record they have.

Did you read that one, too?

No, they just say shit like that all the time. You know, it's like, they're

fucking used to it.

I don't even know why I'm here right now.

And writing this. And writing this. And looking at all the pictures. By the way,

Draco rules!

Seriously.

God,

fucking, fucking warning, fucking, stop, man. That record was fucking terrible,

but fucking Billy Joe's so hot.

I check out his ass.

Seriously. It's like that, you're like, what did I just read?

We need to make a record like Dookie again.

After Warning.

While we loved that record, it was sort of the device of record where our fans

thought of it because it was like the sort of folk Americana kind of thing

we were doing.

And at that time, there was all these new pop -punk bands that were kind of

coming out, but we went in the opposite direction.

It was its own record and it needed to happen.

with Billy was a real turning point for him and for us as a band. That was where

he started becoming socially and politically aware in his lyrics.

Making warning read us up. They're like, okay, we aren't going to go down this

road and make the same kind of records all the time. And it's different and

diverse. Let's get more diverse.

Let's spread our wings.

Aliens.

Who is the American idiot? What is this person? Who is that guy?

What kind of character is going to come out of that? Who is it?

We kind of decided, well, if we're going to do the sort of mini -opera kind of

thing, then the whole record's got to have a theme and have a concept to it

a storyline to it. And it's got to be about American idiots.

We were trying to make something that was grandiose.

Vimple and Spies, Bowie, Ziggy Stardust, The Who, Tommy.

Rocky Horror.

Rocky Horror, Bad Outta Hell by Milos.

And there's that pull that you get from punk. It becomes so regimented, and

you're not supposed to expand. You do your punk thing, and that's it. So there

was that fear.

We knew we wanted to elevate and make a statement of some sort. It was just sort

of waiting for the right inspiration.

American Idiot is like a political record or whatnot, but it taps into the

personal aspect of politics and how it affects people.

It's not preaching at you. It's observing with you.

Coming down like an Armageddon flame.

The shame, the ones who died without a name.

Where warning was like, let's challenge our fans.

American Idiot was, let's take on the planet. Big fuck you to everything that

needs to be fucked.

Every song that we did, every time that we closed the chapter, it was like

looking at another mountain on top of that.

Where do you go after Jesus of Suburbia?

And then Holiday, and then...

Boulevard of Broken Dreams. And then came St. Jimmy.

When you crack that thong, you know, that's a scary guy.

It's like looking at your reflection in the mirror and you're holding a gun

right to your face.

If you're talking about those kind of things in a thong, then there's

that's definitely wrong with you.

You know.

There's something behind it.

See you next time.

Thank you.

Thank

you.

That's the problem.

And I'm trying, just trying to play

around my way.

I don't give

a...

Fucking wear it out!

Why do they walk really super slow?

We're not going slow.

We're going normal.

I

haven't gone

and bought weed at a Coffee shop.

Weird. Fucking weird.

I'm excited.

We were in Amsterdam, and we went to Hanky Panky to go get tattooed, and I

the butterfly.

And we were going, and all of a sudden we walked by, and all of a sudden there

was this fucking chick on display, and then we were like... And we walked by,

and we kind of looked, and all of a sudden we were like...

It kind of went backwards.

Hell yeah.

Because we kind of kept going blind shoes off.

Come on, come on. And we were like... I was like, nah.

How about the... Bam, bam, bam.

Thank you.

It's a little... It's more minty. More minty. Minty fresh.

Kind of like popcorn.

Multitasking. Let's see how that works.

Feels like I just mowed the lawn inside my brain.

I'm 33 years old, and this is the band I've always wanted to be in, more so

ever before.

The way we're playing now is better than we ever have. The songs are the best

we've ever written. There's something militant about it, there's something

spiritual about it, and there's something fun about it at the same time.

that you were saying.

I don't care if you don't. I don't care if you don't care.

And we'll include... I don't feel any shame. I won't apologize

when there ain't nowhere you can go.

Order today, 1 -800 -WE -RULE.

Smoke that boring room.

I'm not throwing up. I'm just breathing now.

And I stepped in line to walk amongst the...

I had the biggest piece of shit bike my parents bought me. It was a Montgomery

Wards. Yeah.

Fucking special.

It was the ugliest fucking bike ever made.

I swear to God. But were you old enough to know it?

I was stoked when I first got it, but then I started feeling like that.

So, but, but, but, but you couldn't afford it. I think my parents couldn't

afford to get me another bike. So what they did is they ended up going out and

getting like, I got a new set of handlebars and I got a seat.

A different kind of seat because it had a big old banana seat on it and shit

like that.

Nothing could disguise that frame.

Nothing could disguise that frame. It was a Montgomery POS, dude. And I was so

afraid. I would never ride my bike to school because I was just so scared.

Because I didn't want to be in kids' shoes. Because kids will fuck with you

the time.

So finally one day I rode my bike to school.

And then it was around lunchtime and everybody was looking at their bikes.

like all the kids, they got cheated on the bike rack.

They're sitting there and they fucking, this kid Pablo goes, whose piece of shit

is that?

And every kid is going, that fight sucks, man. That fight sucks.

I'm not saying anything.

I'm not saying anything.

I was so mortified that after school, I waited.

So we changed seats. I didn't walk home. I waited for everybody to leave. So

then I sat around and waited for like an hour after school. And this kid fucking

Pablo, the kid that was fucking with Mike for some reason.

Why did he use that for school? He wanted to talk to me. To talk and hang

He's like, yeah, what's up, baby?

I was like,

that's cool, man.

Man, I got to go home, man. I'm like, at this point, it's getting dark.

And I was like, I have to go home.

He's got to see me on my bike.

And so I pulled the bike. Even I, before,

when everyone was making fun of the bike, I was even going, yeah, bike's

You dare me to steal that bike?

Yeah.

And then I got on the bike, and he's like, Billy, is that your

bike? And I was like, yeah, man.

He's like, dude, don't ever bring that bike to school again. I won't say

anything to anybody.

I swear to God. That's cool.

No, it was cool.

I can't take this feeling anymore.

I can't take this feeling anymore. I can't take this feeling anymore.

Hey,

that's Mr. Jason Freese over there on the piano.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's just run the slow way.

These sensations don't go away.

Let me all catch good night and everything will be all right.

Tell me, Jimmy, I won't play all day.

Jimmy, no, but can't.

She's a rebel.

She's a saint.

She's a soul to be lived in. She's dangerous.

She's a rebel.

Vigilant and free. This man ain't gonna break your descent.

She's a rival.

She's a lord now.

She's the one that they call what you're getting.

She's a symbol of resistance.

Then she's holding on my arm like I have nothing.

I don't know.

She's a rebel.

She's a saint.

She's a soul to be.

She's a rebel. She's a rebel.

you don't change your love

That was a tough football slash lacrosse workout.

I'm tuckered.

Let's get a drink.

Where's the first stop?

The atopy house. The former residence of Green Day, which is now boarded up

because it was unsafe and unsuitable. Are we going to try to barge in?

Sure. Pull in right here and just park in the crosswalk.

It's just Berkeley.

I do like that in Berkeley.

When did you move in then?

92? Late 92?

Did you ever move in or did you just kind of... I kind of, yeah, I kind of

helped myself.

That ended up being big at one point.

It was a 2243 Ashby.

Yeah. So he rents out that section up there to the college kids, or he makes a

killing off it. That section right here, we had very bad.

That's our front door. Yeah.

You can tell it's low -ass ceilings and pipes from the real house.

It was just a basement.

Not really supposed to be living in it, but we had seven people in it.

Did I try to get up in there so many times to get food?

This is where we took our first... It's also where Longview was filmed.

Yeah, it's also where Longview was filmed. It's one of the first... It was

of the first films ever.

Right.

When were you moved in?

We had been in the wheel.

I'll sit around and watch the two, but nothing's on.

Who cooked? Nobody. We had burritos. We did melt the butter for the on occasion.

With all my bump dust for a bit, I'm sick of all the same old shit. Almost

everybody there was in a van, so there was one room that was dedicated to van

practice, which we, of course, dominated.

Bite my lips and go to bed.

Take me away to paradise.

I'm going on board, I'm going to wear a board, gonna fill a chair.

Oh, hey.

Anything in there?

Yeah, did you get that, dude?

What's the point of having a videographer?

Hey, let's go back. Do that again.

Come on, do that again. Put that shit back. Dude, that was some dumb shit. Do

again.

But a lot of this is broken too from like 1802 and broken and empty cases.

I bought this at Willy's in Minneapolis like

12 years ago.

This thing's fucking old.

Plays like shit.

Plays like shit, but cool.

For the long time to develop as a band, you would never stop learning from every

gig that you ever play and never stop experimenting.

That's one of those nylon string basses that throws more low end than you can

fucking in your bowels can handle. And expanding on the idea of what Green Day

is. Another exercise we did before we even came out on tour was along with

playing the album front to back We've learned 30 cover tunes just just as an

exercise of like how far can we push this band and then bring it back?

You know and make the core even that much tighter We used to be the kings of

27 minute set because we didn't have enough material and we're little kids,

know We've gotten to a high point now where we own this tour and we own this

set. I think the difference between

now in the tour of American Idiot, and then when we started, is that you get a

lot less of this.

At first, like this tour, we were playing Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and

knew it.

People were like, what the hell is this?

And as each single hit, as the record hit, it was pretty wild seeing the

diversity of the new fans and the old fans change.

That was the point where I knew that we were in a whole other place.

Around that time, we started hearing stories of our heroes getting back. It

like, Pete Townshend listens to this record, and James Gandolfini, and it was

really cool.

What got me was when Stephen King did a review of it and said it's his favorite

record. I remember thinking, oh shit, that shit's real.

My star of all hearts, she's all the things I've seen her.

First time I saw her, I wish someone who cared would have found me.

Dear heaven, did I wrong her too hard?

It's Maximum Green Day, and that was one of the key phrases we kept saying,

which kind of sounds silly to say, but it had a lot of meaning behind it. When

think Maximum Green Day, I think of a show like Milton Keynes.

There

was

a snowball thing on tour. The shows just got bigger and bigger and bigger.

We didn't know that was going to happen. You know, at that point, there was,

like, DJs and shit that were, like, the biggest musicians in the world.

I think we were part of the cultural conversation.

They were starting to play Holiday on pop stations.

The video and the song itself, it was like getting away with murder.

When we talked about doing a Milton Keynes gig, we were scared shitless. We

thought, 65 ,000 people, what if it's 10?

What if we put it on sale and sell, like, 100 tickets? You know, that would

little embarrassing.

Next thing we know, it's sold out, and we've had a second night.

Melton Keynes is kind of like playing your first show all over again. It kind

reminded me of the first time we played Gilman. It just wrapped up what we were

going for on our album. It was so meant to be played live and to the masses.

All this touring had been leading up to playing in stadiums for us, and these

were like our first two huge stadium shows.

I remember showing up and seeing a giant festival stage, heart hand grenade

flags everywhere, and it was like, wow.

Even when you know it's coming, you can't fully imagine what it's going to

like to see your stadium set up.

It's just beyond your wildest dreams.

I would definitely say that Put Up There is one of the biggest moments of our

career.

We've been a band now.

We've been a band now for the last 16 years.

Is this the best fucking tour we've ever had?

But in the past two days, we've played to over 130 ,000 people. Thank you.

That's the biggest we've ever had.

But remember one thing.

The second day is always better than the first.

I'm coming down over here.

Stuck in place, stuck in place in my head.

What we we are, what we we are, go in and

out. Just standing down and pointing down in

my dream.

Lost and found, sitting down in my dreams. Come on!

I'm dreaming of where we are, of where we are, of the way.

I'm dreaming of where we are, of where we are, of the

way.

Come on!

But because the champagne is alive, come on!

And cream!

middle school.

Yeah!

Oh, look at the little kids waiting for their classes. Oh, how cute!

Hey, your butt sucks!

Loser!

So we're starting at the middle school, or are we just flipping a unit?

You got a wooden microphone and a little guitar.

Hippie photoshoot, take one.

Then I had to take a shit.

Okay.

If the dead shall teach us to the teeth in the latest genocide, none

of these shall come and go.

um we just took the hotel flag down we put jay's washburns underwear up there

instead this is just so beautiful

Hey, that looks like an elbow.

That looks like a set of balls, actually.

That's a fucking head.

One bag ready to go. Yeah.

Pack her up. Let's go. All right.

So,

how

did the flag monitor...

Well, I gotta figure it out real fast here.

Uh -oh.

Hello.

So glad I went to 6th grade.

Yes. It looks fucking awesome from here.

That's to be fucking respected.

We fully fucking rule.

We own Norway.

I'm gonna take the only piece of that.

This is the back that we carry the flag back down in.

Jay

Walker.

Typical Canadian criminal.

The Jay Walker.

But that's why I'm here.

To stop stuff like that.

Jaywalking.

Right.

That's what I'm here for.

Jaywalking is a big problem here in Toronto.

But we're working on it.

You're jaywalking. You're jaywalking.

No jaywalking. Ma 'am?

Ma 'am. Yeah, we're making a new jail to lock up all the jaywalkers. Use the

crosswalk next time, all right?

All right.

Gee.

I need some donut.

Something here.

Pita.

All right, I'm jaywalking because I'm the law, man.

I can jaywalk. I can moonwalk.

Oh, I'm famished all this crime fighting.

There's got to be a donut shop around here somewhere.

Just got to be.

All right, this is a stick -up.

I'll take all your donuts.

How much for the whole thing?

All of those, all of those, all of those, all of those, all of those. None

the donut holes.

No fritters.

Anything with a hole in it.

Crime fighting makes you hungry.

You see all those jaywalkers out there? I got my work cut out for me.

So my day of crime fighting has nearly come to an end.

Now I do what every cop does at the end of the day, eat donuts with their

friends at the bar.

Right?

Thank you.

I was alone.

I was all on myself.

No one was looking.

I was thinking of you.

I had an erection.

All on myself.

All on myself.

I was all on myself.

All on myself.

I went to your house.

But no one was there.

That's a nice guitar.

I went to your room.

I was all on myself.

You and me had...

Such wonderful times when I'm all by myself.

I want to be your dominated love slave.

I want to be the one who takes your pain.

You can't thank me when I do not behave.

Mackie in the 40 with a chain.

I love feeling dirty.

I love feeling cheap.

And I love it when you hurt me.

So drive this staple deep.

I want to slap you, call me naughty.

Put a belt in your head, it's my thing.

I feel pain all over my body.

Can't wait to be punished for my sin.

And I love feeling dirty.

I love feeling cheap.

And I love...

I love it when you burn.

When I signed Green Day, okay, there were 10 people on the A &R staff.

How many people, and I was low man on the tone pole. How many of those people

wanted me to sign Green Day?

Probably nine.

Four.

All right, four.

So that's pretty high. Three and a half.

That's pretty high, actually, is what you're saying, right? No, what I'm

is that nobody really knows. It's hard.

It seems obvious to sign Green Day now, but back then... Well, if 40 % of the

whole A &R staff thinks that a band should be signed, isn't that a good

Because everybody's guessing, right?

I'm just trying to tell you how fucking hard... It's not obvious who to sign and

what to do and where to put the money if you're a record company. Did they have

to be a democracy?

Did you have to have votes? No, thank God.

But I'm telling you, that's how it works, though, sometimes.

The great thing was this band that I was just trying to sign.

Here's how it cuts words both ways.

I had support from my bosses when I was trying to sign Green Day and the Goo Goo

Dolls. The Goo Goo Dolls, by the way, I only had two people that wanted me to

sign it. Me and my direct boss, Michael Austin. Everybody else thought I was

signing The Poor Man's Replacement. That was the quote. Why do you want to sign

The Poor Man's Replacement?

How about the quote with Green Day?

You know, punk music was never really that big. It didn't sell at many

Why do you want to sign a punk band?

How about that fucking... The ones you say.

I said, this is fucking cool.

That's what I said.

I said, this is cool.

You know what? And I also said this. I said, I think there's probably about 100

,000 kids that will get this. It'll be worth it.

Have you thought at all about turning this into some kind of theatrical event

movie?

No. Is there such a thing as straight Broadway?

I don't think so.

God, I hope not.

There's one journalist that mentioned that we're taking it to Broadway.

Would it be still off -Broadway? It would be like on Serrano Avenue or

something.

The whole theater thing is really seductive and inspiring too.

I felt sort of validated as a songwriter. You know, people don't

about these things like that in the rock world so much that, you know, either a

good song or it's a bad song or it's, you know, does it rock? Is there a riff?

Where's the hook? Where's the blah, blah, blah, blah.

Without a doubt, he's the greatest songwriter on the planet.

One of the few people that's still putting everything out on the table. The

journal of his life is written in his songs. You want to get to know him, read

the songs. His marriage, his life, his good, his bad, his ugly, it's all out

there. I have never put so much emotion into any record that I have into every

song that's on American Idiot.

The record isn't necessarily about me, but everything comes from some emotional

place that I've experienced in my life, and it resurfaces every time that you

play the song.

Jesus of Suburbia, the part where it's on the Tales from Another Broken Home

part, it's, you know, at that moment where you, you know.

I don't know.

It's really a heavy, I don't know, it's a heavy experience. And you're not just

putting it out there in a way where it's your, it's your, it's you're performing

it, but you're living it at the same time.

A lot of bands, you know, they won't do that. It takes a lot of courage to be

that honest with yourself and stare your faults right down the barrel.

You know, I grew up in a town called Rodeo, California.

Which is, if you take the 80, you go out there, and you come across, you take

Willow Avenue, Rodeo exit right there.

The exit right before, like, what is it, Cummings Skyway or some shit like that?

There's a lot of inspiration that came from that song, that town. This next

is called Jesus Sub -Sub -Army.

It's Jesus of Siberia, the father of love, son of the apple, only standing

in love.

You're the popper of life.

It's another type of life changing now, as far as I can tell. It's the ones I

got away with. I've been trapped down all this year.

This is how I'm supposed to live.

You lined up everybody.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Get those fists in the air!

Get him up!

Get those fists in the air!

One more time!

Thank you.

Everyone tells all the kids, born and raised by a pack of crass, but can't

all the crap that's said, from the cradle till the grave.

We are the kids of war and peace, from Bristol to the Middle East.

We are the toys and the type of love, the Jesus of South Africa.

I'm the man, the man, I move out.

Thank you.

Get those hands off of me!

Oh, therapy, can you refill my void?

Am I retarded or am I just overjoyed?

Nobody's perfect and I stand accused.

All I know is that I'm aware that that's my past excuse.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't feel any shame, I won't apologize When there

ain't nowhere we can go Running away from pain

when we've been victimized Till someone knows I'm broken

At the end of the last tour, there's a feeling of like, oh my God, what are we

going to do now?

So we ended up booking the Warfield. I think it was kind of last minute.

We just played San Francisco Giants Stadium.

We're like, let's play Idiot in its entirety. Let's go full circle with it.

When the stagehands that were the local guys, they saw us pushing in pyro

and bombs and shit like that. They're like, these motherfuckers are about to

blow this shit up.

So sure enough, as soon as that first concussion hit, the dust from the

started like falling down. And that was like falling down from the last like 40

years of concerts that were there. Ashes from Jerry Garcia's old doobies

dropping down in our lives.

That Warfield show is like honeymoon sex.

You know, you just tell you're wrong.

But then afterward, it's like, then you start the marriage.

I've been sore ever since. I gotta say that.

Aliens. Aliens.

And you fucking, fucking, fuck.

Oh, man, who farted? I feel like...

Jason's fucking thing.

He's from Arkansas.

Hi, how are you doing?

Wait, what?

Who's from Arkansas?

That's right. You're the only person I knew from Arkansas. Yeah.

Really?

Seriously? Grandma's reading about us?

That's awesome.

She's like, she's kind of young now.

They're fucking punching each other, really.

Well, that's the same. That's almost, that's actually the same age as my mom.

Yeah.

Yeah. Jordan, where are you going?

Nowhere. All right.

These guys are wrestling right now.

Okay. Are you okay?

All right. Here's Jordan.

All right, bye.

Who won?

What is that?

I thought we had a breakfast this year. Yeah. Oh, wait. Sorry.

You drinkers. You fuckers.

This is not the place you want to say I love you snickers.

I love you.

Yeah, I can jump a bomb, dude.

Bomb fight.

Go fuck in the sky.

I got it.

I just did it.

I knew something was gonna happen, but we did not expect it from the first song

all the way to the end.

It was more of a fear of what's going to happen next.

I know what he's ever going to talk about.

I'm a short, merry girl in an ordinary world.

As you can see, they get away.

Me, like a carriage in his mind.

Like a child behind.

Like a bug that's in the rain.

This is all.

She's a little up and down And it makes me want to

drown

Do anyone want to buy it?

Do you still think I mentioned I can't? Well, we'll have to find

out.

Well, I don't know what's the name.

It's all wrong again.

Why don't you just shut up and hide?

Suddenly he feels like Godhead.

He tends to speak a cry.

She gets so sick of crying.

Love is driving every girl. Love is driving every kid.

The current's in their mind.

Love will rise above the rest.

Love is driving every girl.

Love is driving every kid.

Where are all the bastards gone?

When does the light touch up the light?

The jammies built by Christ got shut.

The lights at night have time to check.

The funkies on their arms for the ride.

Where are all the liars gone?

The blasted planet's mind doesn't hold the light.

Watch the whole of this now, it's just another type of day shit. It's like a

fucking match to life that's just shit.

Link down, bitch, I'm trying to charge your ass.

And you don't even know that you're dead.

Chance to win, to die.

You better run till you're fucking hurt.

It's not over till you're on the run.

Yes, I don't report to me.

Yes, it is my name.

Yes, you're my daddy.

Yes, I don't report to me.

There is nothing that you won't like.

All the more to throw when the light is just itself.

And when we all go there's still a way.

We'll see you next time.

Will she be right and take this place? I'm really

tired.

Will she be right and take this place?

so you're nominated for seven grammys what do you think about awards

nice to be recognized by your peers and everything but we don't read the press

and all that stuff for a reason because we believe in the power of this record

and rock and roll and what we do it was great that it went number one all over

the world um but we were figuring we'd either hit a home run or we'd fail

miserably

It's not about who wins.

Yeah.

The fact that we're nominated is cool enough for me, you know. Like, we're out

of them here. You think of, like, Ray Charles, Usher, Alicia Keys.

Read it. In Europe, they interview you when you lose. So, you lost.

How'd you feel?

Oh, I gotta go home!

Green Day.

Hooray for us. We're like a less queer Blink -182.

What's an effective day of pitch?

They're like the pilots, and then they count it off, and then we all burn.

We're definitely not used to winning anything. So, you know, just part.

K -Rock owes you one.

I'm saying it. I know it's fun to say it. You better give a fuck about Green

because it's saving you. All of the bullshit you play, you're wasting your

This is real.

Vanguard Lifetime Achievement Award. Yeah.

Whoa, did you get Stretch Mini?

Yeah. Stretch Limo Mini?

Yeah.

Welcome to Tellzak, this is the MTV Awards.

I hear you like Aussie theater.

Is that right?

Aussie theater.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. And the award

goes to... Green Day!

Green Day!

Green Day!

One to one, you can't attention.

One cross the heavy and the shadow.

And the things that men can't pay are planned.

Hey, Brian, if we were backstage and we were talking to Bono, do you know what

he said about you? What did he say? Nothing.

Rock and roll can be dangerous and fun at the same time. What's happened to

hair, man? I haven't had hair like that since I pissed on an electric fence.

Actually, I did that one, though. I bet you did.

Definitely took a while to come down.

It always does off of any tour, but that tour in particular.

I'm still coming down.

It's kind of like we won the Super Bowl, and then the next day you go, well,

shit, we've got to start working out tomorrow.

There's no going to Disneyland. You've just got to get back to work. We went

back into 880 at Jingle Town, and we're like, let's just pick up where we left

off. And so it became a really daunting task.

So one day, there was all of this old gear that we put in a circle.

Instead of, like, trying to make an extension of Idiot, let's just start

and, like, get into the old garage rock that we really love. So that's how

Foxborough Hotshot started.

It was like, let's be a different band.

Let's not even be green. Let's be a different band.

And we made Stop, Drop, and Roll, and we did it in, I think, like a week.

That was a really inspired record. We were able to take that

swagger back into Green Day.

Get out from under the giant green monster and start writing with some more

confidence.

I think of Idiot as being a monumental moment for us.

There's no denying it. But we're never content with one thing.

We're always looking for the next thing, the next challenge. I love that about

this band, that when you have that fear of something that's in front of you, and

then you kill it, and you go, why the hell was I so scared?

We had tapped into a new style of writing.

It felt like we'd figured out a different way to mold clay.

It just goes to show you, with work effort, inspiration, and heart, you can

long way.

That's what I always say.

If you can dream it.

You're asleep.

I don't know. I'm a daydreamer.

I'm not without this last sentiment.

I've paid my dues.

Time after time.

I've done my sentence.

But committed no crime.

And I'm safe.

I'm made of you.

Well, I've had my steps and kicked in my face and I've pulled through.

We are the Damned

Young Mum Friends.

Let's chat.

My curtain calls.

You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it.

Thank you.

Take a birth.

Ready for you. I slice my finger on a cymbal.

Can I start an act again at work?

Yes. I just need you to strap your pants. I'll leave them either.

Don't worry, it's nothing they haven't seen before.

I'd like to present you with a... Yeah!

It's an opening band of initiation.

Thank you.

When we finish the record, we are proud of it. Don't read any press. We don't

care what anyone else in the world thinks.

Probably the wrong time to quit reading press.

The double Windsor.

I feel like a man.

The double Windsor is the hardest one to do.

The single Windsor, also known as the Slab Knot.

Okay,

it's a tie, right? You let me in the club, damn it.

Some people just don't care.