Billie Joe Armstrong

Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is an American musician, songwriter and actor. He is best known for being the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt in 1987. He is also a guitarist and vocalist for the punk rock band Pinhead Gunpowder, and provides lead vocals for Green Day's side projects Foxboro Hot Tubs, the Network, the Longshot and the Coverups. Armstrong has been considered by critics as one of the greatest punk rock guitarists of all time, as well as one of the greatest punk rock singers of all time.

Armstrong developed an interest in music at a young age, and recorded his first song at the age of five. He met Dirnt while attending elementary school, and the two instantly bonded over their interest in music, forming the band Sweet Children when the two were 14 years old. The band later changed its name to Green Day. Armstrong has also pursued musical projects including numerous collaborations with other musicians.

Armstrong has acted in several films and TV series, including Like Sunday, Like Rain, Ordinary World, King of the Hill, Haunted, and Drunk History. In addition to co-writing the book and lyrics for American Idiot, a jukebox musical featuring several of Green Day's songs, Armstrong portrayed the role of St. Jimmy in the show for several weeks during its run on Broadway.

Armstrong's business ventures include founding Adeline Records to help support other bands in 1997, coinciding with the release of Nimrod. Adeline signed acts such as the Frustrators, AFI, and Dillinger Four. Armstrong also co-founded Punk Bunny Coffee (formerly Oakland Coffee Works) in 2015.

Armstrong was born in Oakland, California, on February 17, 1972, the youngest of six children of Ollie Jackson (born 1932) and Andrew Marsicano Armstrong (1928–1982). He was raised in Rodeo, California. His father, a jazz musician and truck driver for Safeway, died of esophageal cancer on September 10, 1982, when Armstrong was 10 years old. The song "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is a memorial to his father. Armstrong has five siblings, including three older sisters, Marci, Hollie, and Anna, and two older brothers, David and Alan. His mother worked as a waitress at Rod's Hickory Pit in El Cerrito, California, where he and Mike Dirnt later played their first gig in 1987. His great-great-grandparents Pietro Marsicano and Teresa Nigro were Italian immigrants from Viggiano, who settled in Boston prior to relocating to Berkeley, California, in 1869.

Armstrong attended Hillcrest Elementary School in Rodeo, where a teacher encouraged him to record a song titled "Look for Love" at the age of five on the Bay Area label Fiat Records. At the age of 10, he met future bandmate Mike Dirnt in the school cafeteria, and they immediately bonded over their love of music. He became interested in punk rock after being introduced to the genre by his brothers. He has cited Van Halen, Ramones, the Replacements, and Hüsker Dü as musical influences. The first concert he ever attended was Van Halen in 1984. After Hillcrest Elementary, Armstrong attended Carquinez Middle School and John Swett High School, both in Crockett, California, and later transferred to Pinole Valley High School in Pinole, California. On his 18th birthday, he dropped out to pursue a musical career.

In 1987, aged 15, Armstrong formed a band called Sweet Children with his childhood friend Mike Dirnt. In the beginning, Armstrong and Dirnt both played guitar, with Raj Punjabi on drums and Sean Hughes on bass. Punjabi was later replaced on drums by John Kiffmeyer, also known as Al Sobrante. After a few performances, Hughes left the band in 1988; Dirnt then began playing bass and they became a three-piece band. They changed their name to Green Day in April 1989, choosing the name because of their fondness for marijuana.

In 1989, Green Day released their debut EP, 1,000 Hours, through Lookout! Records. They recorded their debut studio album, 39/Smooth, and the extended play Slappy in 1990, which were later combined with 1,000 Hours into the compilation 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours in 1991.

In 1990, Armstrong provided lead guitar and backing vocals on three songs for the Lookouts' final EP, IV, which featured Tré Cool on drums. Tré became Green Day's drummer in late 1990 after Sobrante left to go to college. Cool made his debut on Green Day's second album, Kerplunk (1991).

In 1991, Armstrong joined the band Pinhead Gunpowder, consisting of bassist Bill Schneider, drummer Aaron Cometbus, and fellow vocalist/guitarist Sarah Kirsch. Kirsch left the group in 1992, and was replaced by Jason White. The group has released several extended plays and albums from 1991 to the present, and performs live shows on an intermittent basis.

In 1993, Armstrong played live several times with California punk band Rancid. Rancid's lead singer, Tim Armstrong (no relation), asked Billie Joe Armstrong to join his band, but he refused due to his progress with Green Day. However, Billie Joe Armstrong was credited as a co-writer on Rancid's 1993 song, Radio.

Armstrong also collaborated with the comedy hip hop group Lonely Island in their song "I Run NY" from The Wack Album released on June 7, 2013. He starred alongside Leighton Meester in the 2014 film Like Sunday, Like Rain. For his work in the film, Billie Joe won the Breakout Performance Award at the 2014 Williamsburg Independent Film Festival. Armstrong wrote songs for These Paper Bullets, a rock musical adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, which premiered at Yale Repertory Theater in March 2014.

In 2014, Armstrong joined the Replacements for a number of shows beginning on April 19 at Coachella. Frontman Paul Westerberg had been suffering with back problems and spent the majority of the gig lying on a sofa while Armstrong helped play his parts. Westerberg referred to Billie Joe as an "expansion of the band". Armstrong joined the Replacements on stage again at the Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta in May.

In November 2014, Armstrong moved with his son Joseph to New York and began working on another acting role, in the film Ordinary World. It was Armstrong's first lead acting role. The film centers on the mid-life crisis of a husband and father who attempts to revisit his punk past, and was released in 2016. It included new songs written and performed by Armstrong. The film got mixed reviews, although Armstrong's own performance was generally praised, with The Village Voice writing that he had "a low-key charm suggesting that, if he desired it, he could get more onscreen gigs in between albums."

In October 2016, Green Day released their album Revolution Radio. In July 2017, Armstrong formed a supergroup with Tim Armstrong of Rancid, named the Armstrongs.

In April 2018, Armstrong formed the rock band the Longshot, and on April 20, the band released their debut studio album, Love Is for Losers. Shortly after, Armstrong announced that he and the Longshot would embark on a summer tour. Aside from Armstrong, the band's lineup consists of Kevin Preston and David S. Field of the band Prima Donna on lead guitar and drums, respectively, and longtime Green Day live member Jeff Matika on bass.

Armstrong is known for his frequent use of palm-muted, power chord-driven guitar riffs, and melodic guitar solos. His strumming style makes use of techniques such as stubbing and fret hand muting, which allows him to strum power chords harder while attacking all six strings on the guitar. Armstrong usually sings in lower vocal ranges. According to Ilana Kaplan of Alternative Press: "[Armstrong] doesn't necessarily belt like some of the others [...] but that it's what's given many of the band's hits their palpable grit. Green Day's songs have more of a punk sheen than pop because of Armstrong."

Armstrong's first guitar was a Cherry Red Hohner acoustic, which his father bought for him. He received his first electric guitar, a Fernandes The Revival RST-50 Stratocaster that he named "Blue", when he was ten years old in 1982, the same year his father died. His mother got "Blue" from George Cole, who taught Armstrong to play guitar for 10 years. Armstrong says in a 1995 MTV interview, "Basically, it wasn't like guitar lessons because I never really learned how to read music. So he just taught me how to put my hands on the thing." Cole bought the guitar new from David Margen of the band Santana. Cole installed the Bill Lawrence L500XL Humbucker pickup in the bridge position at an angle, similar to Eddie Van Halen's guitar Frankenstrat, which caused Armstrong to be very influenced by Van Halen. The L500XL is the same pickup that was used by Dimebag Darrell of Pantera. Armstrong replaced the L500XL with a white Yamaha Pacifica humbucker at Woodstock '94.

Armstrong later reinstalled the Bill Lawrence L500XL pickup before recording Insomniac, although he switched to a black Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB in 1995. He toured with this guitar from the band's early days and still uses it to this day.

Marc Spitz writes that, "Armstrong fetishized his teacher's guitar, partly because the blue instrument had a sound quality and Van Halen-worthy fluidity he couldn't get from his little red Hohner. He prized it mostly, however, because of his relationship with Cole, another father figure after the death of Andy."

Both middle and neck pickups are disconnected and the pickup selector is locked in the bridge position. This also applies to his backup guitar and "Blue" copies, mainly Fender Stratocasters. "Blue" appears in a number of Green Day music videos such as "Longview", "Welcome to Paradise", "Basket Case", "Geek Stink Breath", "Stuck with Me", "Brain Stew/Jaded", "Hitchin' a Ride", and "Minority". "Blue" also appears on the album cover of Insomniac. The "BJ" on Blue stands for Billie Joe, inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose Stratocaster has his own initials ("SRV") on the pickguard.

Today, Armstrong mainly uses Gibson and Fender guitars. Twenty of his Gibson guitars are Les Paul Junior models from the mid- to late-1950s. His Fender collection includes Stratocasters, Jazzmasters, Telecasters, a Gretsch hollowbody, Rickenbacker 360 and his copies of "Blue" from Fender Custom Shop. Recently he has begun giving away guitars to audience members invited to play on stage with Green Day, usually during the songs "Knowledge" or "Longview". He states that his favorite guitar is a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Junior he calls "Floyd", which he bought in 2000 just before recording the album Warning.

In June 2018, Armstrong was given honorary citizenship of Viggiano, the Italian commune from where his paternal great-great-grandparents hailed, by Viggiano's mayor Amedeo Cicala.

He believes in a higher power, and prays.

In 1997, Armstrong co-founded Adeline Records, a rock and punk rock record label which had, in recent years, been managed by Pat Magnarella, Green Day's manager. Adeline Records closed in August 2017 following Magnarella's split from Green Day.

In April 2015, Armstrong opened Broken Guitars (now Oakland Guitars), a guitar shop in Oakland, California with fellow Pinhead Gunpowder member and longtime Green Day associate, Bill Schneider.

In December 2015, Armstrong and Mike Dirnt launched a coffee company, Oakland Coffee Works (which has since been rebranded to Punk Bunny Coffee). The company sells organic coffee beans and is said to be the first company to use mass-produced compostable bags and pods.

In 2025, Armstrong became part-owner of the Oakland Ballers in the Pioneer League, an independent baseball league.

Armstrong has been noted for his punk fashion style, which influenced his followers of previous and current generations to the point of being known as a "style icon". He also launched an eye liner with Kat Von D named "Basket Case", which is a cosmetic that he implemented as part of his singing character since his beginnings.

Armstrong supported Barack Obama during the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, and Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election. Following Sanders' defeat in the Democratic primaries, Armstrong declared his support for Hillary Clinton. He was critical of Donald Trump during the election and throughout Trump's presidency, calling him a "fascist" and a "puppet of the Illuminati", comparing him to Adolf Hitler, and blaming "uneducated white working-class people" for his rise to power. During Green Day's performance at ABC's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2024, Armstrong changed the lyrics of "American Idiot" to "I'm not a part of a MAGA agenda". In a 2017 Rolling Stone interview, he stated that he does not align himself with any political party and described himself as an independent. He again supported Sanders during the 2020 presidential election, later endorsing Joe Biden after Sanders lost the primary. Following the U.S. Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Armstrong announced his plans to renounce his United States citizenship. Armstrong endorsed Kamala Harris on the day of the 2024 election.

Armstrong has spoken out in support of transgender people. In a 2024 interview with the Times, Armstrong spoke to the ways that he is still weaving his sexuality into his songwriting. The newspaper asked him about Green Day's opinions on the moral panic surrounding transgender youth, to which the singer responded, "I just think they're fucking close-minded." "It's like people are afraid of their children," he told the newspaper. "Why would you be afraid? Why don't you let your kid just be the kid that they are?"

Throughout 2025, Armstrong spoke out in support of Palestine during appearances with Green Day. In February 2025 at the Malaysia National Hockey Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Armstrong displayed support for Palestine by draping a Palestinian flag from a fan over his shoulder while performing a song. During Green Day's April 2025 set at Coachella, Armstrong modified the lyrics to "Jesus of Suburbia" in reference to the Gaza war, changing the line "Runnin' away from pain when you've been victimized" to "Runnin' away from pain, like the kids from Palestine."