Green Day and Their Rise to Fame

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The Rise to Fame

8 min readNov 11, 2020

Green Day, also known as Sweet Children, is an American punk rock band formed in 1987 by Billie Joe Armstrong (lead vocalist and guitarist) and Mike Dirnt (backing vocalist and bassist) with Tre Cool (drummer) initiated as an official band member in 1990, performing with the band for most of their career. As the winners of six Grammys, eleven MTV Video Music Awards, seven Billboard Music Awards, two Brit Awards, and countless others, there is no doubt that the pop culture phenomenon that is Green Day is one of the most successful bands of all time and a staple in the hearts and playlists of their millions of fans and even critiques.

Band History

The Formation/ Big Break
Album History
Awards
Current Status

Band Mates

Billie Joe Armstrong
Tre Cool
Mike Dirnt
Jason White

Reviews and References

Best Albums/ Best Songs
Best Music Videos
Best Interviews
Sources/References

Band History

“I think it’s your own choice if you turn from an angry, young man to a bitter, old bastard.” ~Billie Joe Armstrong

The Story

From the early beginnings of Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt’s childhood, music was their native language. When they were ten, the young boys met in their school cafeteria and bonded over their role as outcasts and love of their favorite musicians and genres. Britannica specifically names bands such as the Ramones and the Dead Kennedys. Armstrong has cited that The Replacements and Husker Du were also potent inspirations in his childhood after being introduced to punk rock by his brothers.

Later, IMDB states that “In 1987, aged 15, Armstrong formed a band called Sweet Children with his childhood friend Mike Dirnt.” Around this time, while both the original members sang and played guitar, they also recruited John Kiffmeyer (drums) and Sean Hughes (bass) to help inch along their progress as a band. Their first show was on October 17, 1987 at Rod’s Hickory Pit in Vallejo, California. However, Sean Hughes was a short-lived band member and only performed for a handful of times alongside his bandmates. Dirnt took the role of bass player and they became what IMDB states as “a three-piece band,” also known as a trio. It wasn’t until 1989 that they changed their name to Green Day as Wikipedia cites that the name was dropped “to avoid confusion with another local band Sweet Baby” and because of “the members’ fondness for cannabis,” or what most know as marijuana.

Because of the recent name swap, Green Day performed an album called 39/ Smooth under their new title for the local label Lookout Records in 1989; they soon became a highly popular band in the San Francisco Bay Area with an avid fan base. In the following weeks, Sobrante, who had replaced John Kiffmeyer was replaced by Tre Cool. Britannica writes that Cool was “a drummer from the mountains around Mendocino, California who had been playing in the punk band the Lookouts since age 12.”

Throughout the following years, Lookout Records produced Kerplunk (1992) before a more prestigious record label, Reprise, signed Green Day and released their Grammy award winning album Dookie (1994). Three years later, Insomniac and Nimrod (1997) were also released, but they never became as popular as Dookie. The band’s next album, Warning, (2000) “marked a waning in the band’s popularity,” says Britannica, as Green Day was not as favored as many of the newer punk and rock bands arising; however, later in 2004, the 2005 Grammy award winning American Idiot album was released and it became a huge success with its powerful political messages embedded within the songs. From this album, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” also won a Grammy Award in 2006.

American Idiot was then morphed into a play with scores from the album and roughly depicted the life of the trio of musicians- Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool, and Mike Dirnt. It received two Tony Awards.

In the years following, the band won yet another Grammy Award for their album for 21st Century Breakdown (2009). In 2012, Greenday produced a trilogy of consecutively (but separately) released albums that basically combined into one and the same — ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré!.

In 2015, Greenday was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Their latest two albums, Revolution Radio (2016,) and Father of All Motherfuckers (2020) are two beloved additions and show that age has no place in the music industry as Billie Joe, Tre Cool, and Mike Dirnt all age near fifty.

Band Mates

“I’m the greatest rock and roll drummer on the planet and you suck.” ~Tre Cool

Billie Joe Armstrong

On February 17, 1972, Billie Joe Armstrong was born in Oakland, California to Ollie Jackson and Andrew Armstrong as the youngest of six children. His father died of esophageal cancer when he was ten on September 1, 1982. He later wrote a song that appeared in American Idiot titled “When September Ends” that recounted the death and mourning of his father. Around this time, Billie met Mike Dirnt in his grade school cafeteria. Throughout his teenage years, Billie kept referring back to music for his therapy and life’s purpose. He later dropped out of his high school as Wikipedia writes, “on his 18th birthday (February 17, 1990)…to pursue his musical career.”

Currently, Armstrong resides in California with his wife Adrienne Armstrong, the sister of professional skateboarder Steve Nesser, who he married, and has stayed married to since the date of their wedding on July 2, 1994. They have two children together- Joseph (Joey) and Jakob, which both followed in their father’s footsteps towards the stage. Joey, born in 1995, is a drummer for the band SWMRS (pronounced ‘swimmers’) and Jakob is a guitarist and singer-songwriter for the band Mt. Eddy.

Tre Cool

Frank Edwin Wright III, or more commonly known by his stage name, Tre Cool, the name bestowed to him by Larry Livermore, the founder of Lookout Records, was born on December 9, 1972 in Frankfurt, West Germany. Although his father is of a German heritage, his parents (Frank Edwin Wright Jr. and Linda Wright) are American. His nickname is derived from the French word ‘Tre,’ which translates to ‘very’, and the American word ‘cool’ to combine to form ‘very cool.’ In 1990, drummer John Kiffmeyer took a break from Green Day to focus on his studies at Humboldt State University and Tre Cool was his replacement. Cool’s father is said to have been a strong supporter of the band’s ambition and watched the boys grow into wildly successful and talented musicians; although, during the trade-off of drummers, the transition was so difficult that the band actually discussed breaking up, but they never followed through.

Cool has been married twice, once to Lisea Lyons (1995–1996,) and once to Claudia Wright (2001–2003,) whom he had two children with- Frankito Wright and Ramona Isabel Wright. He currently lives in Oakland, California.

Mike Dirnt

Michael Ryan Pritchard, or more commonly known by his stage name, Mike Dirnt, was born on May 4, 1972 to Patrick Pritchard and Cheryl Nasser in Berkley, California. His nickname sprang from a habit he had while in adolescence. Wikipedia writes, “he constantly played ‘air bass/guitar’ and made a ‘dirnt, dirnt, dirnt’ noise while pretending to pluck the strings.” Dirnt was often described as a bright child, but because of his mother’s heroin addiction, he frequently missed school because of illnesses associated with his mother’s drug abuse. His mother and father later divorced and although he started the transition living with his father, he later moved to be with his mother.

Mike is the co-founder of Green Day that was formed with Billie Joe Armstrong in the late 1980s after being friends since they met in their school’s cafeteria and bonded over their love of music. Wikipedia also writes that, “he is best known as the co-founder, bassist, backing and occasional lead vocalist and former guitarist of Green Day.”

He has been married three times, once to Anastasia Serman (1996–1999,) once to Sarah Garrity (2003–2004,) and once to Brittney Cade (2009). He also has two daughters- Ryan Ruby Mae and Estelle Desiree- and one son- Brixton Michael. He currently resides in Berkley, California.

Jason White

Jason White was born on November 11, 1973 in North Little Rock, Arkansas. He is a friend and touring member of Green Day that first appeared in the Dookie song “When I Come Around” music video. You can see him and his actual girlfriend (at the time) making out in the latter half of the video. He has been an official touring rhythm and lead guitarist member since 1997.

He currently lives with his wife, Janna Rollins, and resides in Little Rock, Arkansas.