American Idiot

Green Day's seventh studio album was recorded April 2003 - March 2004 at Studio 880 in Oakland, CA, USA. Work on the album began after the master tapes were stolen for another album the band was working on titled Cigarettes and Valentines. American Idiot was released on September 21, 2004 and gave Green Day a resurgence of popularity as it sold over 15 million copies worldwide, making it Green Day's second most popular album. In 2009 the album was transformed into a musical.

“For the first time, we were separated from our pasts, from how we were supposed to behave as Green Day. For the first time, we fully accepted the fact that we’re rock stars. Not to sound arrogant, but it was like, ‘Hey, you’re only on this earth once, so you might as well enjoy it.’” — Billie Joe Armstrong (Spin, 2004)

"We always thought of American Idiot as being a big international record. We didn’t know how well it was going to go over in the States because we didn’t know what 'the good ol’ boys' would think of it. Outside the States, it was really big. American Idiot debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and on over ten international charts. I think a lot of people couldn’t wait to say, 'Don’t want to be an American idiot.' People get bombarded with American culture so much and it drives the media in such a way that people get sick of it." — Billie Joe Armstrong (Vulture, 2024)