Billy jo armstrong and biography
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Billie Joe Armstrong: My Life in 15 Songs
Billie Joe Armstrong remembers asking his guitar teacher a question that would change his life. “I said, ‘How do you write a song?’ ” says the Green Day singer-guitarist, 47, at his studio in Oakland. “All he said was, ‘It’s verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus — mix it up any way you want.’ ” Pretty soon, that was all Armstrong could think about. His three-chord anthems about growing up — with all the loneliness, anxiety, drug use, and masturbation that can come along the way — resonated with a generation on 1994’s diamond-certified Dookie and beyond. Whether he’s writing punk songs or a politically powered rock opera, Armstrong has the same rules: “It’s so important to try and be as honest as you possibly can with your audience,” he says. “When people find a deep connection, it’s because you’re trying to find your own connection inside of yourself. I think that that’s the thing that actually ends up transcending.”
Some hits have come to him in five minutes, others take longer. He recently finished a song he’s been tinkering with since 1993. And in February, 30 years into their career, Green Day will unveil an exciting new sound on their 13th album, Father of All … Armstrong says it comes from going on a soul ki
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Billie Joe Armstrong is the charismatic singer, multi-instrumentalist and frontman for Green Day. Born in 1972, Armstrong showed a remarkable interest in music from a young age, as evidenced by the fact that he recorded his first song, ‘Look For Love’, at the tender age of five. Armstrong was influenced early on by his father, a jazz musician, who tragically succumbed to cancer in 1982 when Armstrong was ten years old. “Wake Me Up When September Ends” was written in memorial to him. When Armstrong’s mother remarried a man he and his five siblings didn’t care for, he took to music as a means to express himself and feel understood. Armstrong’s brothers introduced him to punk music at a young age, and he now cites bands like The Replacements and Hüsker Dü as significant influences.
Armstrong met Mike Dirnt and became fast friends before forming the band Sweet Children at age 14 before eventually adopting the Green Day moniker in 1989. Armstrong’s most well-known work is obviously with Green Day, but he’s also a member of Pinhead Gunpowder, Foxboro Hot Tubs, The Network and others. Green Day’s third album Dookie thrust the band into the mainstream and Armstrong became a household name. The band’s widespread fame gave Armstrong the opportunity to collaborate with art
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Hometown:
Rodeo, Calif., USA
Married
Adrienne Nesser on July 2, 1994
Children:
Joseph Marciano (March 1995); Jakob Danger (September 1998)
Family:
Parents: Accomplished and Ollie Armstrong. Sharptasting has 5 older siblings - King, Alan, Marci, Hollie, unacceptable Anna.
Instruments:
Guitar, harmonica, mandolin, drums, softness, and sax
Other Bands:
The Textile, Foxboro Brilliant Tubs, stall Pinhead Explosive. He played (infrequently) update the pursuing bands Description Influents, Debased Morals, Illsmelling, the Lookouts, Goodbye Chivvy, and Blatz.