Nimrods The Soundtrack
Basket Case
Song Meaning
Billie Joe Armstrong (The Zane Lowe Show, Apr 2016): "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!"
Billie Joe Armstrong (Guitar Legends, 2005): "I was going through a lot of panic attacks at the time and was experiencing a great deal of anxiety. I still have panic attacks! It's all in the lyrics."
Billie Joe Armstrong (1994): "Basket Case was just about depersonalization. I've suffered from anxiety my entire life - y'know, panic disorders. But I had no idea what it was. I thought I was just losing my mind. The only way I could know what the hell was going on was to write a song about it. It was years later I figured out that I had a panic disorder."
Billie Joe Armstrong (Kerrang, June 2005): "Some people thought this was a piss-take of grunge with the lyrics but it was never that - if anything it was a piss-take of myself."
Mike Dirnt (Kerrang, Aug 2013): "I remember practicing Basket Case in Billie's mom's living room, and I remember him writing the lyrics and flipping things around, such as, 'I went to a whore, he said my life's a bore.' I thought that was great; it takes people aback."
Billie Joe Armstrong (Guitar Legends, 2005): "I was going through a lot of panic attacks at the time and was experiencing a great deal of anxiety. I still have panic attacks! It's all in the lyrics."
Billie Joe Armstrong (1994): "Basket Case was just about depersonalization. I've suffered from anxiety my entire life - y'know, panic disorders. But I had no idea what it was. I thought I was just losing my mind. The only way I could know what the hell was going on was to write a song about it. It was years later I figured out that I had a panic disorder."
Billie Joe Armstrong (Kerrang, June 2005): "Some people thought this was a piss-take of grunge with the lyrics but it was never that - if anything it was a piss-take of myself."
Mike Dirnt (Kerrang, Aug 2013): "I remember practicing Basket Case in Billie's mom's living room, and I remember him writing the lyrics and flipping things around, such as, 'I went to a whore, he said my life's a bore.' I thought that was great; it takes people aback."
Have your own interpretation of "Basket Case"? Leave a comment below.
Lyrics
Do you have the time to listen to me whine
About NOTHING and EVERYTHING all at once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it
Sometimes I give myself the CREEPS
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm CRACKING UP
Am I just PARANOID?
I'm just STONED
I went to a shrink
To analyze my dreams
SHE says it's lack of sex that's bringing me down
I went to a whore
HE said my life's a bore
And quit my whining cause it's bringing HER down
Grasping to CONTROL
So you BETTER hold on
About NOTHING and EVERYTHING all at once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it
Sometimes I give myself the CREEPS
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm CRACKING UP
Am I just PARANOID?
I'm just STONED
I went to a shrink
To analyze my dreams
SHE says it's lack of sex that's bringing me down
I went to a whore
HE said my life's a bore
And quit my whining cause it's bringing HER down
Grasping to CONTROL
So you BETTER hold on
Live History
Live History
- Total Plays
- 1,066 times / #2 most played
- Most Recent
- February 6, 2026 San Francisco, CA
- Earliest Known
- November 18, 1992 Berkeley, CA
30 tracks
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Comments
Song Comments