Rock

Green Day singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong has a herculean talent for taking the personal and making it universal. The 51-year-old pop-punk icon has spent more than three decades translating his fiery thoughts and emotions into anthems that make the band’s fans feel seen as they shout along.
On the group’s latest single, the punk bossa nova “Dilemma,” Armstrong tackles his alcohol addiction and trip to rehab in such clear-eyed lyrics as, “I was sober, now I’m drunk again/ I’m in trouble and in love again/ I don’t want to be a dead man walking… Welcome to my nightmare/ Where dreams go to disappear/ Sit around in rehab/ Feeling like a lab rat.”

“It definitely deals with mental health and addiction,” Armstrong told People magazine about the song from the band’s new album, Saviors, due out Friday (Jan. 19). “When I say, ‘I was sober, now I’m drunk again,’ that could be looked at two different ways. It could be someone going, ‘F-k, yeah. I was sober, now I’m drunk again,’ at a party, or it could be someone that’s fallen. That’s what it means to me, anyway.”

Armstrong went to rehab in 2012 in the wake of a bizarre onstage meltdown at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas during which he ranted about the group’s time being cut and smashed his guitar. On Howard Stern’s SiriusXm radio show on Wednesday morning (Jan. 17), Armstrong said he’d been sober for “five years and I thought that I could go back and be like a normal drinker again. And I think I was for a little bit and then it just escalated. It got to a point where I was physically and mentally drained and I just felt terrible. I got tired of feeling tired.”

The singer told Stern “Dilemma” was written while he was drinking and that it’s one of the most honest songs he’s ever penned. “There’s like no metaphor or anything like that,” he said. Armstrong has been detailing his struggles with anxiety and substance use since the earliest days of Green Day’s career as a snotty, snarling trio on the Berkeley, CA underground punk scene in the early 1990s. He most famously did so on their 1994 major label debut, Dookie on the hit “Basket Case,” in which the singer chronicled his crippling anxiety attacks, as well as on “Geek Stink Breath” from their 1995 follow-up, Insomniac, in which he detailed the harsh effects of methamphetamine use on his body.

Now sober, Armstrong said he no longer drinks and did not enter a program to deal with what appears to have been a relapse following his 2012 rehab stint. “I ended up being around a bunch of really good friends that don’t drink,” he told People. “There’s a lot more sober people — I’ve noticed that, and maybe because I was the only one that was hammered before, that now I notice that people are more sober now, and it was just something that I was unaware of, because I was s—tfaced or something.”

The married father of two sons — fellow musicians Joey, 28, and Jakob, 25 — said his sobriety is helping him feel more present for his family, which includes his wife of 29 years, Adrienne. “For me, alcohol gets in the way of everything, from my relationship with my family to just trying to get a good night’s sleep. It gets in the way of my happiness,” he told People. “So that’s why really I wanted to quit, and I was done. So with the friends that I have, I’m still able to go out and go listen to some music, see some band or go to a party — and it’s still a fun, sexy kind of evening, even though there’s no alcohol.”

The best part for Armstrong, he said, was that he can wake up the next day and he might be a bit tired, but “now there’s no shame and hangover and all that s–t. I feel really good.”

Green Day’s visit to Stern’s studio also included Armstrong laughing as he listened to a recording of him singing a sweet song as a five-year-old and the singer’s emotional backstage meet weird with Eddie Van Halen in 2007, during which the late Van Halen guitarist cried and shredded on his guitar as they spoke.

Watch Armstrong talk about “Dilemma” with Stern and watch the video for the song below.

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If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse or addiction, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 800-662-HELP (4357) is available 24/7.

One of Green Day’s fan-favorite hits was almost a 5 Seconds of Summer song.
In celebration of their upcoming 14th studio album, Saviors, out on Friday (Jan. 19), Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong looked back on some of the band’s biggest tracks with People this week, where he revealed the interesting origin story of “Still Breathing,” which is featured on the 2016 album, Revolution Radio.

“There’s a band called 5 Seconds of Summer who wanted me to write a song for them,” Armstrong shared. “All of a sudden I was writing the lyrics, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s no f—ing way I’m giving these guys this song.’ There’s all those [lyrics] where it’s the last moment of someone’s life — it’s so intense. It’s just a song about being a survivor.”

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“Cause I’m still breathing on my own / My head’s above the rain and roses / Making my way away / My way to you,” Armstong sings in the chorus of the song, which peaked at No. 11 on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart.

Saviors, which will be released via Reprise/Warner Records, is a follow-up to 2020’s Father of All Motherf–kers and was recorded by Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirt and drummer Tré Cool in London and Los Angeles, marking a reunion with longtime producer Rob Cavallo.

“Saviors is an invitation into Green Day’s brain, their collective spirit as a band, and an understanding of friendship, culture and legacy of the last 30 plus years. It’s raw and emotional. Funny and disturbing. It’s a laugh at the pain, weep in the happiness kind of record,” the group said in an Instagram announcing the project.

“Honesty and vulnerability,” they added, noting that the album is about, “Power pop, punk, rock, indie triumph. disease, war, inequality, influencers, yoga retreats, alt right, dating apps, masks, MENTAL HEALTH, climate change, oligarchs, social media division, free weed, fentanyl, fragility.”

The Smashing Pumpkins announced earlier this month that they were looking for a new guitarist after longtime third strummer Jeff Schroeder announced his departure after more than 16 years with the group. But, after putting out open call on Jan. 5 for a fresh face, according to a post from the Billy Corgan-led band on Tuesday night (Jan. 16) they’e been inundated with way more applicants than anyone could have anticipated.
“The band has received over 10,000 submissions for the position of additional guitarist,” read a tweet featuring a photo of three original members Corgan, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and guitarist James Iha. The pile of audition tapes are so voluminous, in fact, that the post noted that there are currently “8 people working full-time to review each and every one.”

The Pumpkins were formed in Chicago in 1988 by Corgan and Iha, who were later joined by bassist D’arcy Wretzky and jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin — who replaced their original drummer, a drum machine. After rising to global fame and releasing a series of iconic indie rock albums such as Siamese Dream and the multi-platinum, two-disc Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the band fired Chamberlin in 1996 due to the drummer’s arrest on drug charges — and then re-hired him in 1999 — before splitting with Wretzky that same year. The original group broke up in 2000, at which point Corgan said he would not perform the band’s songs again.

The Pumpkins came back together in 2007 with Corgan and Chamberlin serving as the only remaining original members, joined by guitarist Schroeder, though Chamberlin would take leave again just two years later. Corgan continued to release new music with a rotating cast of players, with Chamberlin and Iha returning to the fold in 2018, though Wretzky did not sign on to the nearly complete reunion.

On Jan. 5, the band announced it needed a new guitarist to replace Schroeder, writing, “The Smashing Pumpkins are in search of an additional guitarist. The application process is open to anyone who might be interested. Applicants may submit a resume and related material to SPGuitar@redlightmanagement.com.” Schroeder’s last show with the group was a run through Siamese Dream to celebrate the album’s 30th anniversary on Sept. 17, 2023 at Corgan’s Madame’s ZuZu’s Teahouse in Highland Park, IL.

In a note to fans at the time of his departure, Schroeder said, “It’s easy to say now that when I joined The Smashing Pumpkins in 2007 I had no idea what I was getting into. The opportunity seemed to have come out of nowhere. I was at UCLA working on my doctorate in comparative literature when a close friend messaged me and said The Smashing Pumpkins were looking for a guitar player. Being a huge fan of the band, the audition was something I threw myself into. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.”

He added, “The amount of incredible memories created over the last 16 years with the band are almost too numerous to quantify. Although it was a very difficult decision to make, I’ve decided to leave the band to make some space to explore a slightly different path. I want to thank Billy, Jimmy, James, and Jack for being both wonderful bandmates and even better friends. I will absolutely miss sharing the stage with you. I wish the band all the success in the future. I will be watching and listening.”

The Pumpkins are currently slated to hit the road for their The World is a Vampire European summer tour on June 7 in Birmingham, U.K. on a run that will feature support from Weezer, Interpol and Tom Morello. They will then move on to a support role on Green Day’s summer Saviors Tour, which will criss-cross North America with Rancid and the Linda Lindas.

See the Pumpkins post below.