Green Day began as a grade school friendship between Billy Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, two working class kids from refinery towns near Oakland, Calif.
But between shows they lead relatively quiet lives. Mike Dirnt, who at one time supported himself as a cook, is now part owner of Rudie's Can't Fail Café, named for a song by The Clash.
"I grew up hanging out in coffee shops at one and two in the morning and I thought it'd be really cool to have a place open seven days a week where we could get a coffee or a beer and also bring a kid in and not have to wait an hour and a half for a waffle," he said.
Billy Joe Armstrong
Billy Joe Armstrong
Billy Joe Armstrong
Billy Joe Armstrong
Billy Joe Armstrong
Billy Joe Armstrong
Billy Joe Armstrong
Billy Joe Armstrong
Billy Joe Armstrong
Billy Joe Armstrong
Billy Joe Armstrong
Lead singer Billy Joe Armstrong - who, like all members of Green Day, still lives in the East Bay -
is also the father of two.
"I consider myself a conservative parent, believe it or not, in a lot of ways," he said. "There's different sides of everybody. I think I just worry like every other parent does. You worry about education; you worry about where they're getting their information from. You hear things you never thought you'd hear coming out of your baby's mouth. But it's a trip. It's all part of it, you know?"
"You mention education. You dropped out of high school. How do you explain that to your kid?" Smith asked. "What do you say about education?"
You know, my oldest son, I talked with him about it recently I never brought it up before. And what I told him was I'm the luckiest bastard on the planet for doing what I've been able to do. As a musician and get to the heights we've gone to or at least the level we've gone to and it's something I never take for granted and it doesn't happen to everybody and, you know, my kids like music too," Armstrong said.
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May 25th, 2009 02:10 AM
