Billie Joe Armstrong is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is better known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the punk band Green Day. Armstrong was also a guitarist for The Longshot, The Network, Rancid, Foxboro Hot Tubs, Pinhead Gunpowder.
Punk music is essentially a rebellion, a challenge to the usual foundations. However, almost from the moment of its appearance, it turned into part of a giant business that entered the concert show industry, the production of discs, and the printing industry. The paradox is that rebellion has become a direction of business life. They make a lot of money on it, like on any other musical style.
Music forever
The musician was born in 1972 in the small town of Auckland. Armstrong was born on February 17th. Billy became the youngest in a large family. He has a sister and four older brothers. The father of a large family worked as a truck driver. He worked part-time in local clubs, played jazz.
Little Billy also liked to sing. He performed in front of patients in hospitals, which greatly entertained the adults. At the local studio "Fiat Records" the boy's first recording was also made. The composition was called "Look For Love". The cover bore the artist's name followed by a boy's photograph and the title of the song.
Mother worked as a waitress. The father died when the future celebrity was ten. His departure greatly shocked the boy. An even bigger blow was the fact that a couple of years later, the mother remarried.
In 1986, the teenager wrote his first creation, Why Do You Want Him? This was a kind of reproach to the parent. From that moment, author Billie Joe Armstrong appeared. The musician's biography began with his protest in his youth.
The teenager realized the pain of injustice in an accessible form. In one of the interviews, Bill clearly demonstrated his attitude to semi-officialdom by kicking a trash can with his foot. When a fan tried to repeat his act, Billy noticed that fashion is not rock.
Choice of direction
The singer hates bombast. He does not want to talk unnecessarily about famous people, celebrities. With a great deal of irony, the musician reports that he also dislikes himself, because he himself is a celebrity.
Eleven-year-old Billy was given an electric guitar. The boy named his first instrument Blue, sad. The guitar turned out to be of such high quality that the musician uses it to this day. The guitar even starred in several video clips for the most famous compositions of its owner.
By that time, Billy had already learned to play. He had a good command of the acoustic Cherry Red Hohner inherited from his father. Local guitarist George Cole taught him music for a long time. He put his hands to the boy himself. It was he who sold the boy's mother a guitar named with a sad name.
Previously, it was owned by Santana musician David Margen. Cole did not teach the guy's notes. The guitarist thought it was unnecessary. Armstrong himself was of the same opinion.
He reasoned that through study one achieves perfection. But for some reason, he has not yet seen perfect people. Therefore, even the school education got it.
The teacher's guitar has become the standard for the student. No matter how he pounded, he could not get the same impressively smooth sound from his instrument. Billy met his future companion Mike Dernt at ten.
The boys of the same age quickly found common interests. They both liked Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Def Leppard.
Successful take off
At that time, the Bay Area band thundered on the alternative scene. With obvious irony, the grown-up guys in 1987 named the new team "Sweet Children".
Very soon the group expanded to drummer John Kiffmeier, Al Sobrant on stage. In this composition, the team rushed to the heights of success. The guys started on the club scene “Rods Hickory Pit In Vallejo”. Billy liked the lesson so much that he happily left school.
He even managed to star in several film and television films. The critics did not consider them masterpieces, and the performer himself did not apply for awards at prestigious festivals. Basically, the musician had to play himself. Voice acting has become one of the areas of talent application. Armstrong's talent manifested itself in producing punk bands.
The musician admitted that not everyone likes his work, and he understands this very well. But he cannot justify a prejudiced attitude towards his direction. Billy Joe claims that he destroyed punk with his own hands.
The musician was a member of many groups. After Sweet Kids, Rancid, Foxboro Hot Tubs, The Lookouts, Blatz followed. In 1990 in Mankato the musician met his chosen one, Adrienne Nesser.
The family life of a rebel
Armstrong did not perceive the upcoming marriage as irresponsible. Lovers met for almost four years. Both approached the wedding quite deliberately in early July 1994. In 1995, the couple's first child, son Joseph, was born. 1998 was the time of the birth of Joseph's second son. Joseph Marciano became the drummer for the SWMRS group. His younger brother is the author of compositions and the guitarist of the band “Mt. Eddy.
In real life, punk Billy Joe turned out to be an exemplary family man. Together with his children and wife, he recorded in 2011 "The Boo", an album of Christmas songs. The head of the family took over the guitar part of the bass, the eldest child became the drummer, and the youngest took up the guitar solo. Adrienne's mom was the soloist.
Currently, the singer and composer has mastered the harmonica, mandolin, successfully copes with the drums and started playing the saxophone.
At its core, the biography of the Californian musician can claim to be the embodiment of the great American dream. The rebel, by nature, has become not a poor man at all. And he created a wonderful family.
