Green Day: “This has been one of my favourite eras that we’ve ever had”

When Billie Joe Armstrong isn’t on the road for months on end, living out of hotels and on tour buses, you can probably find him residing somewhere underneath a rock. He finds it quite “comforting” there, apparently.

Okay, so maybe there’s no literal boulder, but the Green Day frontman does like to figuratively spend his time in that place – particularly when it pertains to social media. It’s why, when the Oakland punk rock legends made their Coachella debut this past April, it completely passed him by that the internet had concocted a fake war between the band and Charli XCX, who was appearing directly before them on the line-up.

“I had no idea what was going on – I just wasn’t paying attention!” Billie laughs today, a couple of weeks after the dust has settled on this viral but non-existent feud. “I had no idea. None whatsoever. The next day is when I was looking into it, and people were talking about it. I had no clue. And I’m glad I had no clue about it…”

If, like Billie, you too are one of the lucky ones who avoids doom-scrolling, here’s the gist: Charli donned a sash reading ‘Miss Should Be Headliner’ at an afterparty on the first weekend of the festival, with some interpreting that as ajibe at Green Day. Seven dayslater, drummer Tré Cool did the same thing in return – only his was made out of loo roll, and said ‘Actual Headliner’.

“It’s funny because [side-project] The Coverups played this place called Pappy & Harriet’s a couple days before the second weekend of Coachella, and our guitar player Kevin Preston had a sash on that said ‘DJ Should Be Headliner’,” continues Billie. “And I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then all of a sudden I see Tré with the sash that was made out of toilet paper that said, ‘Actual Headliner’. I was like, ‘What is up with this sash thing?!’”

To be clear: Billie’s a fan of the hyperpop megastar, and was stoked to be sharing a bill with her. During Green Day’s April 19 set at the Colorado Desert fest, he even wore a neon-green Brat cap at one point, which had been thrown up to him onstage by someone in the crowd.

“I was really happy to play with Charli XCX – I have so much respect for her, and what she does as an artist,” he says. “It goes beyond pop music and she’s just this independent, strong woman. I actually thought we had the best [day’s line-up] out of everybody, out of all three nights.”

That’s one online incident out the way. But Green Day also got folks talking for an altogether different reason: while performing Jesus Of Suburbia towards the same set’s end, Billie tweaked the lyrics from, ‘Running away from pain when you’ve been victimised,’ to, ‘Running away from pain like kids in Palestine.’ Not to mention opening the whole thing by singing that, ‘I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda,’ during American Idiot, which he’s done plenty of times before. Cue more discourse.

“It’s just something where you get onstage, and things that are in the back of your mind [come out],” Billie explains. “Sometimes I pop off – I don’t know when I’m gonna do things or when I’m gonna say things, you know? Like renouncing my citizenship from the United States [at London Stadium in 2022] after they overturned Roe v. Wade. I never plan it. And so I did it, and I thought it was something subtle. For us, if you can do it in a way that is subtle, it gets people to think, but it’s in the music, and it’s from the heart, that’s the more effective way that we like to do things.”

In spite of these talking points, the singer enthuses that Green Day had a “ball”. Sandwiched between fellow 2025 headliners Lady Gaga and Post Malone across two toasty weekends, the trio – completed by bassist Mike Dirnt – firmly established themselves as one of the few giant rock bands up to the tricky task of winning over the notorious Coachella crowd. (Rage Against The Machine were due to play in 2020 and 2021 but ultimately didn’t due to the pandemic; before that, Guns N’ Roses were the last major K!-friendly headliner nearly a decade ago.)

“It’s such a different type of festival,” Billie says. “I guess the only thing that you can really compare it to is Glastonbury, but it’s two weekends. It’s like the Super Bowl for influencers (laughs). It was like playing for a huge crowd and playing for YouTube at the same time, with the way they had the whole thing set up and the crowd being very far back. But it was really exciting.”

For all the hundreds of festivals Green Day have played over the years, Billie Joe Armstrong reckons the UK does them best. Hey – we’re not ones to question that.

He casts his mind to the summer of 1995, when they performed on the main stage at Reading. The trio were in the midst of a “crazy” explosion courtesy of breakout album Dookie the year prior, and it was just a few months before they released its follow-up, Insomniac.

“I go back to the first time that we played Reading,” Billie begins. “Smashing Pumpkins were headlining, and then it was Hole [before Green Day], and then there was us. Looking at that weekend, I think the Foo Fighters were there also. It was just like, ‘Wow!’”

While the likes of Reading & Leeds – plus now-defunct fests such as T In The Park and V Festival – have been monumental building blocks for Green Day on these shores, playing Donington Park will be just as significant for Billie when it rolls around on June 13. Growing up in Rodeo, the young Californian gravitated to hair metal and hard rock bands such as Mötley Crüe, Van Halen and AC/DC in his pre-teen years. Even now, he’ll chuck a cover of KISS’ Rock And Roll All Nite into setlists every once in a while, and he’s shown off his shredding prowess by doing a note-perfect rendition of Randy Rhoads’ epic solo when covering Ozzy’s Crazy Train.

There has, though, been less space for old school metal renditions in Green Day’s more recent gigs – with their victorious Saviors Tour predominantly celebrating Dookie, 2004’s American Idiot, and 2024’s 13th album Saviors. Billie happily calls this latest stint one of their greatest-ever, particularly last summer’s return to the UK.

“God, I can’t even explain it, really,” he smiles. “It’s been so great. Playing Wembley Stadium was really special. When you see that many people in front of you, and everyone is just having a great time… I think that show [stands out]. But really, there’s been no lows of any kind. It’s all been in good fun, and the spirits have been pretty high.”

The Saviors era actually began a couple of months before the record’s release, with an unforgettable surprise set at London’s tiny Marquis pub in Covent Garden – quite possibly the smallest show Green Day have ever done. Since then, they’ve been everywhere, from Mumbai and Mexico to Malaysia and Montreal, and even a grimy New York subway station, busking in disguise with Jimmy Fallon for an episode of The Tonight Show.

“It’s been so organic,” Billie explains, the pride palpable in his voice. “When we played the acoustic set at the Marquis and then we did the subway concert and acoustic set on Jimmy Fallon – that’s how it all started, and it just felt very real. It was a great start, and it keeps going. It’s been a great ride, this last year-and-a-half. It’s been really special – it’s been one of my favourite eras that we’ve ever had.”

When Billie Joe Armstrong steps off the stage and removes himself from the chaos of being in Green Day mode, something he quite likes to do is just… be bored.

“I think boredom is something that suits me sometimes, you know?” he ponders. “I just like hanging out. I love spending time with my family. I live pretty close to the ocean, so I like to go swimming. It’s pretty boring, really!”

He won’t be enjoying this Zen state of being quite yet, though. After Download, Green Day will be destroying a bunch more European festivals in the way that only they can. Their current tour dates run up to September 28, when they’ll appear at Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Festival. At the time of writing, that’s the final thing they’ve got in their calendar.

If that’s not enough, the band are also working on an actual movie. Entitled New Years Rev, the film – a comedy – was written and directed by Lee Kirk, and stars the likes of The Office’s Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, comedian Fred Armisen, and the band themselves.

“It’s been great – it’s in editing right now,” Billie reveals. “The actors were great. I’ve been seeing a little bit of footage. It’s based on some of our early adventures – of course it’s been tweaked a little bit, but it’s gonna be really fun. It’s kind of a holiday movie because it’s set on New Year’s Eve. It’s got a lot of heart and it’s also really funny. It’s about three young kids that are following their dream to be in a band, and do whatever it takes to travel the country. That’s something that we definitely can relate to.”

There’s yet more extra-curricular goings-on, too. As well as investing in local sports teams, Billie’s been getting a kick out of Green Day’s Punk Bunny Coffee brand. Their most recent venture saw them launch a sought-after Slurpee in American convenience chain 7-Eleven in the flavour – wait for it – Kerplunk Kandy Grape.

“All of that stuff has been fun,” he grins. “I love anything with my hometown, whether it’s our soccer club, the Roots, or our minor league baseball team, the Ballers. It’s all been fun to do, contributing to the East Bay culture. Oakland has its problems, but the culture is still very strong and it’s vibrant and it’s very unique and one-of-a-kind.

“And then doing the coffee stuff is something that me and Mike have always wanted to do, and it just keeps growing. We have fun with it and make it irreverent – making these silly sort of little commercials for it in a way that’s very in the spirit of Green Day.”