Billie Joe Armstrong: “If Green Day Were A New Band, We’d Fit In Next To Taylor Swift”
Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day has spoken about the band’s new album Saviors, the 30th anniversary of their classic Dookie and timeless songwriting in a new interview with Guitar World.
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Armstrong suggested that were his band to form now, they’d be seen as a pop group thanks to their songwriting, “If Green Day were a new band in this era, I feel like we would fit right in next to Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift in a lot of ways. Because I just feel that if it’s good songs – if it’s great songs – you can bust through any genre or any sort of popularity contest. So I just always go to where I’m strongest, and that’s good lyrics, good melodies, good songwriting.”
The singer and guitarist also reflected on Green Day’s classic album Dookie‘s 30th anniversary, “We were just three dipshits that were along on this crazy ride. We made something we were really proud of, and we knew that we made something that we would love and people would love. We just didn’t know how many people would love it.”
“That record was just massive, and we were all, like, 21 years old. So it was such a crazy era for us. But the great thing about Dookie is when we were rehearsing it [for the Vegas show], it still felt fresh. It didn’t sound dated.
“And all our favourite records, whether it’s the Beatles’ Revolver or the Who albums or the first couple of Van Halen records, one of the things that makes them great is you’re like, ‘Oh, this feels like it was just made yesterday.’ And Dookie still feels like that.”
Armstrong also went on to talk about Green Day’s latest album, the recent hit Saviors, “You know, the intention kept changing. There were times where I just wanted to make a straight-up punk-rock record. And there were times where I wanted to do sort of stadium-rock, Britpop-sounding songs. And then there were a lot of false starts.
“So with all of it, I was almost kind of confused. But then we went into the studio with the songs we loved the most and everything seemed to come together. It was almost like the lightbulb went off as we were recording it. Like, ‘Oh, now I know what we’re doing!’”