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FULL NAME : Billie Joe Armstrong
AGE/BIRTHDATE : 33; born February 17, 1972
HOMETOWN
: Rodeo, California, USA
EYE COLOR : Green
NATURAL HAIR COLOR : Reddish Brown
HEIGHT :
5'7
MARTIAL STATUS : Married Adrienne Nesser (July 2, 1994)
CHILDREN : Joseph Marciano; born in March
of 1995, and Jakob Danger; born September of 1998.
FAMILY : Billie's father, Andy, died of cancer when he was 10
years old (September 1982). His mom, Ollie, raised him from then on. He has 5 older siblings (David, Allen, Marcy, Holly,
and Anna).
WHEELS : A black BMW convertible.
INSTRUMENTS : Guitar, harmonica, mandolin, drums, piano,
and most recently, the saxophone.
RECORD COMPANY : Billie and Adrienne have co-ownership of Adeline records.
OTHER
BANDS : Billie still plays with Pinhead gunpowder. He has also played with The Influent, Corrupted Morals, Rancid, the
Lookouts, Goodbye Harry, and Blatz.
Billie Joe Armstrong was
brought into this world on February 17, 1972, the youngest of six children. His father, Andy, was a part time jazz musician
and a truck driver for Safeway, while his mother was a waitress at a local resturant named Rod's Hickory Pit. Billie started
singing when he was just 5 years old. He would go around to hospitals and sing to the patients to make them feel better. Then
he got to record his first song, "Look for Love" at a local recording company named Fiat Records. Billie got his first electric
guitar, the infamous "Blue" (a Fernandes Stratocaster), when he was 11. Billie still uses Blue to this day and has several
replicas of it. At the age of 10, Billie's father died of cancer to the esophagus which spread throughout his body. His mother
continued to work at Rod's Hickory Pit (a barbecue joint owned by Richard and Alice Cotton) in Vallejo, California, to support
herself and her six kids. Billie Joe and Mike later worked there as busboys. Two years after the death of his father, his
mother remarried to a man that Billie and his siblings detested.
Billie was 10 when he met Mike Dirnt in the school cafeteria in
1982. During sleepovers at each other's houses, they played songs by old heavy metal warhorses such as Ozzy Osbourne, Def
Leppard, and Van Halen. Other influences would be the "thrash and drang" of the Bay Area's alternative music culture percolating
throughout the eighties. Clubs such as Mabuhay Gardens and Berkeley's 924 Gilman Street regularly showcased local groups like
the Dead Kennedys and Buck Naked. He wrote his first song, "Why Do You Want Him", a song about his mother and his step father,
when he was 14. At the age of 15, Billie, Mike, and a drummer named John formed a punk band and named themselves Sweet Children.
Their first gig was actually at Rod's Hickory Pit. One day before his 18th birthday, and halfway through his senior year of
high school, Billie dropped out of high school (Pinole Valley High School) to devote all his time to Sweet Children. He knew
what he wanted to do -- play music, and school was just getting in the way. At this point, Billie had the nickname "Two Dollar
Bill", referring to the price of the joints he sold.
In 1990, John left the band to attend college. Billie and Mike were faced
with the task of finding a new drummer. They knew the perfect fit, Tre Cool, a Gilman Street vetran, who was then playing
in the Lookouts. Later, Sweet Children was renamed Green Day. Before they knew it, they were traveling all over the country
in an old bookmobile with Tre's dad at the wheel. They did all this with little money and staying at fan's houses. It was
in Minneapolis in 1990 when Billie first laid eyes on his future wife, a girl named Adrienne Nesser. They dated awhile and
then were married on July 2, 1994, a 5 minute ceremony. The day after their wedding, Adrienne found out she was pregnant.
Their son, Joseph Marcicano Armstrong, was born in March of 1995. Three years later on September 12, 1998, another boy, Jakob
Danger was added to the Armstrong family. Today, Billie, Adrienne, Joseph, and Jakob reside in Berkeley, California.
Quotes :
- "You think your life is tough? Try being a parent!"
- "They have bad taste. I am not a good-looking guy."
- "Well, you know, I look at myself in the morning and yes, yeah I-I
am a God."
- "It's my fucking life and you know what nobody invited you...so there's
the door...see ya!"
- "Just about 99% of the population masturbates while the other 1%,
lie about it."
- "'Welcome to Montreal-- fuck you', would be a good sign at your highways."
- "Yeah fuck me! I wish all of you could fuck me!"
- "A lot of people, when they talk to me, I can't wait for them to
shut up. Like, shut up. you're a moron. I have nothing to say, you know?"
- "I actually have less friends now than I ever had."
- "I'm still wearing the pants I had in the eleventh grade."
- "One thing I want to teach my son is sensitivity to other people.
I want to teach him not to be this macho freak."
- "You're the fucking leaders, you have the power. Don't let these
bastards dictate the rest of the world, or dictate you fucking life!" (at Live 8 concert on July 2, 2005 in Berlin, Germany)
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