On Music & Songwriting

“There should be a law against lip syncing. Anybody who can't play live should be either strung up or have their musical talent revoked.”

“I tried my hand at two Sonic Youth records. I had one given to me and I bought two and... I'd be damed if they made more than one spin.”

“I never imagined that our music would be so widely accepted. The situation we’re in now all things we never even dreamed of. People ask me, ‘You dreamed of this, didn’t you?’ I tell them, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. I never dreamed of this.’”

“Music is all about sharing the power and love for music with others. If you don’t share it, you’re not having the full experience.”

“Music is something that everyone can enjoy, and it should never be divided into groups by ages or anything like that. With the kinds of records we’ve put out, isn’t it natural that all kinds of people come to see us?”

“The feeling I get when I work with Billie and Mike is something that can’t be put into words. For example, when we write a new song and perform it, I feel a sense of joy that I’m part of it, and the three of us are united in spirit. Even when we’re jamming with other people, I’m always thinking, ‘Ugh, give me a break.'”

“I’d like to study jazz, or Latin, salsa, other kinds of music. Not by playing it myself, but by listening and broadening my musical knowledge.”

“Even when I was homeless and starving, I didn’t sell my drums. I had no home, but I had my drums. Those drums kept me going.”

“Basically, our first drummer said, ‘Believe in music,’ but he didn’t really believe in it. He couldn’t even bring himself to tell his mom that he wasn’t going to college and that he wanted to pursue music professionally. Or maybe he really just didn’t believe in music that much. In the end, I guess he wanted a stable life. It had already been proven that punk music would never be popular with the general public anyway… and now he’s doing well for himself.”

“Music was always an escape for me. It was another world where I could just channel all my anger through the bass, and that would fit perfectly into the melodies that Billie wrote. ”

“I’ve always thought that writing songs and only playing them for yourself is half of the story. Performing those songs for others is the other half. Playing in front of people gives you that fear and adrenaline rush that makes you want to do it again. The first song you play live is always the scariest. And then there’s the fun of overcoming that fear. It’s incredible to overcome it every night.”

“Basket Case still reminds me so much of the Ashby house. That's the house we lived in, in Berkeley and our first video, Longview, was filmed there. We'd be cranking that song out in there, all of us playing in this one tiny room and our neighbours getting pissed because we'd play it five times in a row.”

“I didn't think I'd even be alive at 29, let alone be still making music and be in a band at this age.”

“When we recorded at RAK Studios, I wore the same clothes for every single song – including the same socks. I’d walk to the studio, and I genuinely would dress smart and wear a suit, because it’s London. But then I’d hang my stuff up and get changed, and put on my lucky socks, my lucky pants, and the same shirt. I wore the same shit for all those sessions.”

“I'm obsessed with music. I just am. If I wasn’t in a big band, I would be working at a record store or teaching guitar lessons or doing anything to support my musical habit.”

“We ask for what we think we deserve. With every album, I think our value increases a bit.”

“The worst thing you could ever do to music fans is give them what they want.”

“It was just time to go in a different direction when someone introduced us to Butch Vig. He's a really nice guy, a good boy – and we knew that he could handle the American Idiot follow-up. He had the courage to do it. He brought us calmness, self-confidence and class and helped us keep track of all the ideas. He loves music so much, it's amazing.”

“We're generally very impatient people and had to hold back a lot so we didn't throw out any quick shots straight after American Idiot – ten songs in three weeks. But we wanted to know how much we were capable of musically. Waiting for a song to develop is the hardest thing of all.”

“We weren't allowed to play 924 Gilman Street for a while because we signed with a major label with Dookie. They only support young bands, which is cool, you have to accept that. Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys once had both of his legs broken there because he was supposedly a sellout...”

“No matter what, there is always a repercussion with everything you do. If we put a record out that sounded like Dookie critics would say that we're a one-trick pony and thanks for another mediocre punk rock record. But now that we've changed, people think we're soft and going away from our punk rock roots.”

“Punk rock had already been proven that it couldn't be popular. We were playing punk shows and just doing our thing. We had no clue whatsoever that it could go as far as it did. But when it got to the point where we thought it could, we either had to get bigger or break up.”

“I was hitchhiking and I had everything I owned with me: clothes, drums, everything. A van with a hole in it stopped. They’d just fired the old drummer. For me it was a godsend: in a flash I had a job and two great friends to make music with and travel the world. So to all those idiots who tell you not to hitchhike... you don’t know anything!”

“We grew up in the same suburban town. If you wanted to hear music, you had to play it, because we didn't have a record store in town. We were little kids and we had no way to get money – our parents were counting every dime, you know – but we saved up ourselves and Billie Joe got a guitar and played stuff. Then I started savin' like crazy. It took me a while, but I learned to play guitar and then I finally got one... it was the funnest thing we ever could do.”

“I’m not exactly sure how many kids I have, but yes, I do miss them officially, for the record. In case any of them are listening, I love you.”

“Guitar wankers are a dime-a-dozen, but I think I have a guitar sound that people can recognise.”

“While we were off, I started to see some people and took some bass lessons. I like to play a lot of jazz. In fact, that’s how I came up with Longview, playing a jazz thing one day.”

“I think when I saw the American Idiot musical come to life onstage, on Broadway, to hear our album brought to life in a different way, that was probably one of my most moving musical moments.”

“I think my first musical memory was probably when I was about four and a half years old. I wanted to learn how to play guitar but my hands were a little too small… so I had to settle for the piano.”

“My mom had a roommate who was a guitar player, he’d show me how to play a couple of things here and there. Then lo and behold, I have a sleepover at Billie’s house, he says let’s learn some songs together and the next day we had a sort of band.”

“A lot of people thought I was being tongue-in-cheek when I wrote Basket Case, but it was no, this is pretty much a diary!”

“Sometimes if you’re ignorant about something it’s sort of a virtue, because it makes you curious about what’s going on. I think that’s what I do in my songs, just stay curious.”

“I met Mike in fifth grade, when we were ten. He was the class comedian and he would come round to make these funny tapes, where we would mess around and pretend to be on a radio station.”

“We wrote pop music, or real poppy sort of punk rock, and we kept doing it regardless of what anybody ever said in the punk scene, because that within itself is punk rock. There was all these people playing this aggresive music, and we were outcasts in the punk scene. People talked shit about us there because our music was too poppy and girls liked to come see us play. Which is ridiculous.”

“Right before Dookie came out, I was really at odds with myself. I was like, man, do I really want to do this? A lot of the time I was thinking about suicide, how it’s so easy to kill yourself, but so hard to stay alive. I was in a break-up with my then-girlfriend, a total, raving punk rocker who didn’t approve of me being on a major label. She moved down to Ecuador, saying she couldn’t live in a world with McDonald’s and such. It was fucking me up pretty bad.”

“Subjects in songs become more complex in time. What used to be one muse or subject can become many.”

“When our crowds were getting more mainstream, we didn’t want to represent the typical Mohawk stereotype. Pansy Division was truly challenging, and their songs are melodic and catchy. I got letters from teenagers saying, after seeing Pansy Division, they had the courage to come out. I saw certain idiots in the crowd yelling 'faggots' or throwing shit. But I also saw people dancing and having a good time. Homophobia has no place in the punk scene or the mainstream.”

“Billie dropped out halfway through his senior year. He gave a copy of our first album to his English teacher. She gave it back to him with red marks all over it. That record sold over a million copies. Fuck. You.”

“I came home one day when we were all living in a house in Richmond, California and Mike was sitting on the floor on LSD. He was sat there with his bass and he goes, ‘Listen to this bassline, doesn’t it sound funny?’ And yeah, it sounded pretty slappy.”

“We played anywhere and everywhere. Whether it’s a bar mitzvah or someone’s bathroom. Part of the beauty of punk was the same three bands borrowing one guy’s amp or the seven bands sharing one drum kit held together by tape. We played every gig. It made us a better band.”

“I’ve got my education through punk rock. It may not be the biggest education in the world but I formed opinions and views on the world and society, feminism and racism through it. I think it changes individuals.”

“All of my songs are dirty.”

“I think a record like Dookie is almost conceptual, because we were right in the middle of that time period.”

“Music is inspiring for me, it’s changed my life, so yeah, I absolutely think music can inspire people to change their lives.”

“Releasing albums is a cross between a panic attack and an orgasm at the same time. You should try it some time.”

“When I was a little kid doing air guitar to my favorite records I never thought I’d be doing it with an actual guitar in front of that many people.”

“I don’t think love songs are basic at all. I think the issue is writing things that have some personal or emotional value that people can connect to. Writing a love song is to write about something you believe or think you can believe.”

“We recorded like 10 songs in one night. Then we decided to do a tour and dress up in fur coats and act like total morons. It was great.”

“When we put out Kerplunk on Lookout Records, it was like ‘my drumming’s going to be on a CD!'”

“My ex-wife told me she was leaving me the day we finished American Idiot. It was a blessing but just an emotional drain. It was horrible and great. When we mastered the record, I cried through the whole thing.”

“My ex-wife told me she was leaving me the day we finished American Idiot. It was a blessing but just an emotional drain. It was horrible and great. When we mastered the record, I cried through the whole thing.”

“Admitting that we cared for each other was the big thing. We didn’t hold anything back. Before, Billie would write a song, get stoned and then say ‘fuck it.’ An imaginary Mike and Tré in his head would say, 'that song sucks, don’t waste your time on it.’ He stopped doing that and became totally fearless around me and Mike.”

“If you take a song and you get enough people singing it, it becomes an anthem, and an anthem becomes the national anthem, to a degree.”

“I learned show tunes as a kid. My dad was a jazz drummer, and I used to go to veterans’ hospitals and sing. I wanted to play guitar, but they said my hands were too small.”

“I learned show tunes as a kid. My dad was a jazz drummer, and I used to go to veterans’ hospitals and sing. I wanted to play guitar, but they said my hands were too small.”

“You just look for a melody to hit you over the head. You take your influences and try to sing your own song to them. It takes a long time and a lot of patience to wait for a melody to hit you, sometimes.”

“I always thought it would be cool if we could make a movie with Jesus of Suburbia, St. Jimmy, Whatsername, Gloria and Christian—like combining two records together.”

“We were on tour, you eat bad food all the time and you just end up getting bad stomach… you get the shits, basically. So we started calling it liquid dookie. Then we thought, 'wouldn’t it be fun if we named our record that?'”

“Being in a band, you have to be a fan first. So when you meet people who have something to say about how some song affected them, those are the people I connect with. I still am that person myself.”

“We still dream about music in the same way we did when we were 16.”

“I thought that calling the song Time of Your Life was just a little too levelheaded for me, so I had to come up with something different. It was like yeah, you’re getting away, but you’re not getting away that easy.”

“We honestly just fucking love playing music. I wake up every day and I think about the stage, I’m just dying to play drums. When we’re not playing music, we’re talking music. It’s what we live and breathe.”

“I discovered punk rock when I was 11. I jumped into an MDC pit and got beat up by skinheads and whoever else. But it’s how I was educated. I dropped out of school when I was 16, so I learned from driving to towns, booking shows, meeting people and figuring out maps. That’s how I was educated.”

“I wanted to call one song 'Everyone Has A Plan Until They Get Punched In The Face.'”

“A lot of punk rock bands are always trying to be so hard all of the time. Macho brutality doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a good songwriter. I think that some of The Beatles’ songs are way more punk rock than most punk songs written today.”

“I write on acoustic. I have a Silverine Harmony. But it sounds good. I just have it around the house, so I’ve written most of the songs on it.”

“I love watching Mike and Tré play Longview. I like to watch the musicianship, hearing Mike play that bass line.”

“About 20 years ago, I let a kid play my bass, and he thought it would be cool to smash it at the end. It took everything I had not to knock his fucking teeth out.”

“I didn't think I'd even be alive at 29... let alone still making music”

“The musical is amazing. I mean, I don't throw that word around very often unless I'm talking about myself. Being humble is one of my many fine qualities.”

“I'm a dirtbag rock and roller. I want to represent that before anything else”

“You never expect to write someone's fucking prom song. You never even got invited to your prom”

“We pulled out the harmonica and started singing prison songs...tattooing each other.”

“To me, it doesn't feel like it's just another rock record that somebody put out. It feels like we taped into the culture a little bit”

“I think the listener can expect multiple audio orgasms and they're gonna cum out of their earholes. I'm telling you, you won't need Viagra when 'Warning' hits the stands.”

“We write music for ourselves and if other people like it, that's great.”

“Don't blame me for the explosion of punk rock. I didn't know our music was going to get that big.”

“You want a drumstick? Like an ice cream cone or a chicken wing!?”

“This song's off our album. It's called Kerplunk. It's kind of in line with the shit thing, ya know, it's like you take a dookie and it kerplunks in the toilet.”

“I fucking hate Lynyrd Skynyrd, I've always hated Lynyrd Skynyrd. Fuckin' backwards ass hillbilly shit.”

“I sound like an Englishman impersonating an American impersonating an Englishman.”

“Punk rock is dead...and I fucking killed it.”

“Punk is dead to anyone who didn't get it in the first place”

“Music is the air that I breathe, it's the blood that pumps through my veins.”

“And for our fans, they're just crazy people anyway. I always look at people in a Green Day shirt, and I think, 'What's wrong with that person? What kind of hang-ups does that person have?' Obviously, it's not just the catchy songs, it goes deeper than that.”

“I can count to four and repeat. I'm a drummer”

“I like Fisher Price music, nursery rhymes, and the alphabet song”

“Stand the fuck up! This isn't a fucking Coldplay show!”

“I'm a songwriter — I'm obligated to keep pushing myself.”

“You have to search the absolute demons of your soul to make a great record.”

“Then all of a sudden we got introduced to punk music and it was the coolest fuckin' thing”