Green Day are finally, finally coming to Download. Which, as festival experts, is long overdue. Fresh from their spell at Coachella, Billie Joe Armstrong looks forward to making their mark at the home of rock, recalls the madness of their first Brit fest experiences, and how they’re ending Saviors soon to preserve it…
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.”
Once Coachella was conquered, the good vibes extended into May, when Billie escaped from under his rock to join Mike and Tré in celebrating the newly-unveiled Green Day star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
We’re catching up with him 24 hours after the occasion, and the frontman is – surprisingly but not undeservedly – still in bed, his tattooed wrist resting on his right shoulder as he reclines on an upright pillow. Calmly attempting to get his “shit together” for our interview, one of the busiest, most famous rock stars on the planet cuts a tranquil figure today, clearly still coming down from the whirlwind – a “surreal fever dream” is how he describes it.
Joined by colleagues, friends and family, it was an emotional celebration in cloudy Los Angeles, especially when, unbeknownst to the frontman, Mike gave a heart-warming shout-out to Billie’s 93-year-old mother Ollie and the rest of the Armstrong family, who were all in attendance.
“I’d like to start with thanking Ollie – thank you so much for giving us a safe place to have band practice, giving me a safe place to live when I was in high school,” the bassist announced in his speech. “I love your family. All my brothers and sisters on both sides.”
“I was really moved by what Mike said, and when he pointed out to my mom,” Billie tells us. “His mother ended up leaving for Louisiana, and it was right after the big earthquake that happened in ’89. We were desperately wanting to keep the band together and keep us together as friends, too. So my mom offered him to move in with us. And he did. We became roommates! When he talked about that it was one of the most touching parts of the whole thing, because I wasn’t expecting it.”
Now, some 36 years later, these roommates will tick off another first – there’s already been Coachella and the Walk Of Fame, but 2025 is still delivering bucket-list opps for a band who’ve done it all. Well, almost all. Soon, Green Day are going to finally descend on the UK’s spiritual home of rock, Download…
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.”
He notes that Green Day have been lucky enough to continue to pick up fans along the way, too, something that’ll undoubtedly happen at Donington – be it via the camping chair die-hards, or first-time festival-goers there to worship Sleep Token the following day.
“We keep getting a new generation of fans that come every single time – you’ve got people that go back to the ’90s and the 2000s, 2010s, and now the 2020s,” Billie enthuses. “And I think you get generations of families that end up coming to our shows – from people that are my age, down to people that are, like, 14 years old. It’s Gen X to Gen Z, and that’s really special. It’s something I definitely don’t ever take for granted.”
It means the demands are understandably wide-ranging when it comes to piecing together a setlist. Whether it’s older classics, deep cuts, old stuff or new, Billie insists that it’s “great that people want to hear more”.
“We’ll play something like Going To Pasalacqua [1990] or 2000 Light Years Away [1991], where it’s these Easter eggs that we put into the set,” he says. “The great thing about when you play some of the stuff that people aren’t expecting in the setlist, it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe they played that song! God, I wish I was there!’ That part’s really fun.”
Tearing through bigger staples Dookie and American Idiot on last year’s tour, Billie credits Green Day’s crew for helping them to put on one of the best shows of 2024. This team did a “phenomenal job”, he says, in bringing the band’s vision to life, from the iconic, real-life Bad Year blimp to the giant inflatable heart grenade, as well as the endless cannons of pyro, fireworks and confetti going off practically every single minute.
The pure endurance each night blew minds, too. They unleashed 30-plus songs across nearly three hours, barely taking a second to catch their breath. But perhaps it’s not all that surprising, really, for a man who once sang, ‘There’s a drought at the fountain of youth, and now I’m dehydrated,’ on 1997’s Hitchin’ A Ride…
“I mean, I try to take really good care of myself – which is a lot better than the days I didn’t take care of myself,” Billie laughs of how he manages to stay on top form. “I love going for long runs, which is good for my mental health. I like to work out, and I swim a lot. I think that puts me at ease, but I also think it contributes to my voice, which is the one thing I don’t ever want to lose. I try to take really good care of that at this stage of my life – keeping my chops up.
“And that’s why I do so many side-projects, honestly!” he adds. “When it comes to doing The Coverups, it’s a chance for me to just jam with my friends and then go play a show – it keeps me in vocal shape, you know? They’re really fun club shows, but they also serve a really good purpose.”
As if his gargantuan day job and other musical passions weren’t already enough, Billie’s got some other side-hustles keeping him going right now, too…
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.”
At the same time, the frontman is pretty much always writing new music. And when this year’s tour finally wraps up, it could potentially prove to be fruitful…
“It’s always fun when it’s right after a record cycle, that’s when ideas start to come along,” Billie says. “I still do a lot of songwriting – just gathering my melodies and lyrics, which never stops.”
Don’t hold your breath for an immediate follow-up to Saviors, however. The trio intend to take a well-earned rest, and wait for inspiration to really strike.
“We’ve been messing around with stuff here and there, but there’s nothing that’s gonna shove us back into the studio right away,” Billie explains. “Everyone likes to go back into their family lives and things like that. And I think if you don’t go away, people won’t miss you (laughs). It’s about taking our time making the next record, making sure everybody’s hungry to do it.”
So there’s no temptation to prolong the Saviors era – in which, pardon the expression, you’ve had the time of your life?
“I think we’ll be done by the end of this year,” he reveals. “It’s a good time, and we’re not gonna try to do anything like a victory lap or be overbearing, or cash in, in any way.”
Consider Download your final warning, then. At some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future, Green Day will take over the world once again. But first, Billie Joe Armstrong needs to get back to his rock for a bit.
“It’s like, ‘This has been a really great time for us, and so let’s leave it at a great time and then go home,’” he says. “And get back to being bored!”
Green Day headline Download Festival on June 13 – get your tickets now. Saviors (édition de luxe) is out now. This feature originally appeared in the summer 2025 issue of Kerrang!.
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