How Much Money Does Billie Joe Armstrong Have

What Fans Don't Know About Billie Joe Armstrong

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There'southward no doubt that Billie Joe Armstrong is one of the biggest modernistic-day rock stars. When he founded California punk band Dark-green 24-hour interval in the late '80s, he was just a scrappy teen with a guitar and a dream. At present he's in his forties, and he's yet going strong. He never goes too long without touring, and he's e'er cooking up new music with bandmates Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt. His itemize of hits is vast, spanning several decades: "Basket Case" and "When I Come up Around" are remembered as some of the greatest hits of the '90s, while "Good Riddance" has long been a favorite choice for graduation slideshows. "American Idiot," "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," and "Holiday" went down in history for capturing the grim ethos of Bush-era America and accept connected to stay meaningful to rightfully angst-ridden listeners years later on their release.

Y'all might love Green Day'southward songs, only how much practice really yous know about the homo behind the music? Cheque out these facts to brush up on your expertise.

Billie Joe Armstrong recorded his first song at five years old

Billie Joe Armstrong was born to rock. No, really — he recorded his starting time single in 1977, when he was a mere five years onetime. Co-ordinate to Loudwire, James J. Fiatarone, the owner of a music shop and the characterization Fiat Records, spotted immature Armstrong'southward talent and made his mother an offer: If he would record a few songs for his label, Fiatarone would requite Armstrong and his siblings free music lessons. She agreed, and "Look for Love," a cheery ditty about finding positivity even in the darkest of times, was born.

Fiatarone's wife recorded an interview with Armstrong to accompany the single release. When she inquired as to how long he had been singing, the tiny vocalist answered, "For many years." When she asked him, "How do you like being a recording creative person now?" he joyfully replied, "I dearest information technology!"

In 2017, via Instagram, Armstrong shared a photo of himself recording "Look for Love," along with a fun fact: sixteen years later on that formative moment, he returned to the same studio to record Green Day's 1994 anthologyDookie.Talk about coming full circle.

Billie Joe Armstrong predicted his future at age nine

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At the age of nine, Armstrong even so had his sights attack becoming a musician. In an essay that is now preserved at the Stone and Whorl Hall of Fame (and digitally archived on fan site GreenDay.fm), he wrote at length about his lofty aspirations for his career. "When I abound upwards I want to take a band that tin can play rock and roll. We volition beginning out at the age of fifteen. Then it volition [get] bigger and bigger," he wrote in cursive on loose-leaf paper.

In his second paragraph, Armstrong continued to describe his future in great item. "At the age of 20 we will have great large amplifiers and guitars. At the age of 29 we will get to big time [...] Nosotros volition make a lot of people happy. And we'll have a lot of money."

Armstrong was even more than successful than he could take e'er predicted. According to Light-green Solar day'south AllMusic biography, he started his commencement band, Sugariness Children, at age fourteen. By the fourth dimension Armstrong was 20, Green Twenty-four hour period had already signed to indie characterization Picket Records. Past 29, he was already an international superstar due to the success of Dookie, his band'due south major characterization debut. And no one would deny that Greenish Twenty-four hours has brought joy to thousands of fans — and raked in a lot of cash along the way.

Billie Joe Armstrong's backup programme was to become a football player

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Even though he knew he actually wanted to be a rock star, footling Billie Joe was pragmatic plenty to recognize that his dream might not work out. The same essay from his grade school years reveals that he was equipped with a backup plan: become a famous football player. " [...] If I don't become a ring and so I am going to accept to practice something else. I could go a football player?" he mused. He answered his own question in the following sentences: "That's what I'll be. Nosotros will travel all over [...] We volition win all of our games. And we volition exist the champs."

In his final paragraph, Armstrong reconsidered his choices again: "But what if I don't play football game," he wrote. He admitted that he couldn't foresee the time to come, only he finished on a positive annotation: "I know I'll exist something." At the bottom of the folio, his teacher left an encouraging comment: "I'd bet on that!"

Obviously, Armstrong did non abound up to become an NFL player. Still, he still keeps football game close to his centre. In a Yahoo feature, he disclosed that he "binge-watched all of Friday Dark Lights." According to a Sports Illustrated interview, he's too friends with former NFL fullback John Ritchie: After meeting him in a jewelry shop, Ritchie came to a few of Armstrong's shows, and Armstrong went to meet Ritchie in the Super Bowl when he was with the Raiders.

Billie Joe Armstrong is fond of the Not bad American Pastime

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Armstrong likes to watch a multifariousness of sports, merely baseball only might be his favorite. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, he revealed that his passion for the Great American Pastime runs in the family unit: His father used to be a Minor League catcher. If Armstrong could play on a professional person squad, he would want to exist a catcher, too. "I would love to exist a catcher and throw out somebody attempting to steal second base," he told reporter Richard Deitsch. "Throwing someone out at second base is just a ability move. It's so fast and furious and only a challenge, the all-time play in sports."

Armstrong enjoys baseball then much that he decided to share it with his sons Jakob and Joey. Co-ordinate to Yahoo, he coached their Little League team when they were immature, aslope his wife Adrienne. Although those days are behind him, his beloved for baseball will exist forever immortalized on YouTube after he led a crowd of Cubs fans in a rousing rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

Billie Joe Armstrong is a big fan of Austin Powers

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Armstrong might already be an international superstar, but plainly, he still fantasizes most being an International Man of Mystery. According to NME, he once said that if he could play any role in history, he would desire to step into the shoes of Austin Powers, anybody's favorite cryogenically resurrected Swinging '60s London-era super spy. Armstrong was more than than a casual fan of the franchise: He loved it so much that he named his cat after Basil Exposition, Austin's superior at British Intelligence.

In 1999, Armstrong got to be a function of the Austin Powers universe (although non in the fashion he had dreamed) when the Dark-green Day song "Espionage" was featured in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. A photo from IMDb reveals that he was also in attendance at the film's premiere, along with bandmates Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt. What a dandy plow of events.

Billie Joe Armstrong is an histrion, too

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In addition to churning out i hit after some other, Armstrong has tried his hand at acting. In 2002, according to his IMDb page, he made his alive-activity acting debut with a guest appearance on Haunted, a curt-lived American horror series. He shared the screen with Matthew Play a trick on (who would later star as Jack Shepard on Lost) in an episode chosen "Concluding Telephone call," playing a character named "Ghostly Betting Man."

Haunted wasn't Armstrong's only foray into the screen acting world. In 2007, he had a cameo in The Simpsons Movie, along with bandmates Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt. His blithe alter ego sported his signature tousled hairstyle, along with a button-up and ruby-red tie.

Armstrong scored his kickoff starring role with Ordinary Earth, directed by Lee Kirk. In the 2016 feature film, he plays an aging punk stone dad who has to cope with "normal life." Fred Armisen, Judy Greer, and Selma Blair are among his costars.

Billie Joe Armstrong and Lady Gaga are pals

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Lady Gaga might non play Light-green Day's style of music, but that doesn't mean she tin't capeesh it. In 2009, she admitted to NME that when she bought the band's 1994 album Dookie, she was so obsessed with information technology that she "just wanted to lick the pages from the booklet." Huh? "I hateful, it is iconic," she antiseptic. Armstrong was happy to hear that she was a fan (although he admitted that the licking part was a bit "bizarre"). He was quick to share praise for her: "She's a good creative person. She's a take a chance-taker. She'southward an original. It's pretty awesome."

In 2010, Gaga showed her support for Green Day by showing upwardly to a performance of American Idiot, the Broadway musical based on the 2004 album of the aforementioned name, at the St. James Theatre in New York Urban center. Armstrong was present, as he was playing the role of St. Jimmy in the musical at the time. Broadway.com's photos of the event show Gaga grinning and posing with the cast and crew. At one signal, she even planted a friendly buss on Armstrong'south cheek.

Gaga and Armstrong's friendship continued to flourish after that. In a 2011 commodity from Kerrang (preserved online by fan site GreenDayAuthority.com), Armstrong listed Gaga equally 1 of his "elevation celebrity pals."

Billie Joe Armstrong used to conscience his own songs when his kids were listening

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In 2009, Armstrong was interviewed by Larry Livermore, the producer who signed Light-green Twenty-four hours to his label Picket Records in the '90s. Noting Armstrong's penchant for explicit lyrics, Livermore asked Armstrong, "Out of all your piece of work, is in that location anything you'd feel embarrassed virtually singing in front of your own children?"

The punk rock dad responded in the affirmative. "Yes, sometimes the kids will hear a Green 24-hour interval vocal on the radio in the machine, and there'south a cuss give-and-take or something'due south a fiddling scrap suggestive, and I'll cough really loud, or turn it down a bit," he said. He went on to clarify his parenting manner: "I don't raise my kids in an environment that would be stereotypically punk rock. [...] I'grand helping to build 2 young men, who I desire to exist smart. I can't tell them what to exist in their lives, tell them they accept to play music or they take to be punk rockers. Those decisions are part of existence your own human beingness. But I tin encourage them to exist healthy."

Now Armstrong's sons are musicians in their ain right. As reported by NME, his son Jakob releases rock music under the name Jakob Danger, while his son Joey is the drummer for the punk band SWMRS. Armstrong is happy to see that they're forging their ain path in the manufacture. "I'm proud of both of them," he said in an interview. "They're great!"

Billie Joe Armstrong briefly had a family ring

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All the members of the Armstrong family are musically gifted, so it makes sense that they would combine their talents at some point. In 2011, they teamed up to record a four-vocal EP every bit The Boo. Instead of taking his usual place at the mic, fan site GreenDay.fm states, Billie Joe Armstrong played bass. His wife Adrienne Armstrong sang vocals. Jakob Armstrong played guitar, and Joey Armstrong played bass. The EP was intended as a Christmas card to be distributed to family and friends. However, Billie Joe Armstrong did ship a few copies to 1-2-3-4 Become! Records. You'd be difficult-pressed to find the record in a store, but all four of its tracks — "Super Starship," "Wallflower," "I Want Revenge," and "Little Silent Boy" — can exist listened to online.

In 2016, Billie Joe Armstrong looked dorsum on the EP in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "We wanted to commencement a dysfunctional Partridge Family kind of band," he said. "We came upwardly with a bunch of songs and I convinced Adrienne to sing. She just sounds like a total girl-group diva."

Billie Joe Armstrong was kicked off a flight because of his pants

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Armstrong'due south commitment to a laid-back artful is appreciated by his fans, simply in 2011, a Southwest flying bellboy wasn't then groovy on his wait. According to ABC associate producer Cindy Qiu, who happened to be present during the event, Armstrong had just boarded a plane heading from Oakland, California, to Burbank when a flight attendant told him to pull up his saggy pants. Armstrong asked the flying attendant, "Don't you lot have meliorate things to do than worry about that?" The flight attendant doubled downward on her demand earlier booting him off the airplane. Armstrong was incredulous about the event, tweeting, "Just got kicked off a Southwest flight considering my pants sagged as well low! What the f*ck? No joke!" The tweet racked up thousands of retweets and likes.

After this small public hubbub, Southwest spokesperson Brad Hawkins released a statement regarding the incident. "We reached out to repent," he said. He and so explained that in his understanding, "the state of affairs was resolved to [Armstrong's] satisfaction."

The incident wasn't Armstrong's simply habiliment-related kerfuffle: According to a Yahoo interview, Armstrong was once arrested for getting naked onstage during Green Twenty-four hour period'southward early years.

Billie Joe Armstrong once spat on the window of a pizza place

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In 2019, co-ordinate to Kerrang, Armstrong took to Instagram to share some archival footage from Green Day's past. "If anyone wants to transport me videos of early shows [...] I tin jar my memories and tell quick stories on Instagram," he wrote in the caption of ane post. A user named @patrick.suto interpreted this as an opportunity to ask Armstrong about an anecdote he had heard from his mother. "Yeah beak my mom used to piece of work at Zachary's pizza and she said one twenty-four hour period you didn't have your ID and tried to buy beer and she didn't give information technology to you and so you spat on the window and walked out," he commented, adding a few laughing emojis for good measure. "Can I become some confirmation on this it's legendary," he continued.

Instead of ducking out of the chat, Armstrong responded good-naturedly. "Yes. We were as well doing an interview with spin mag that same solar day," he replied. Just some other twenty-four hours in the life for a punk band in the '90s.

Billie Joe Armstrong has a Who Framed Roger Rabbit? tattoo

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Whatsoever fan can tell yous that Armstrong likes to stone the inked-up look, but information technology would be difficult for even the biggest Green Day devotee to name all of the tattoos he sports. According to Body Fine art Guru, Armstrong has approximately 40 of them, and every one is unique. Perchance the nearly obscure is a full-color illustration of Baby Herman, a character from the 1988 Disney film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The cartoon infant can be spotted on Armstrong's left forearm, snarling and smoking a cigarette as he did in the motion-picture show.

While many of Armstrong's tattoos are just for fun (run into the clowns embracing on his left paw), others hold deeper pregnant. Armstrong has the names of his married woman and two sons tattooed onto his skin. "Adrienne" is written in cursive on his right arm. "Joseph" is printed beneath information technology, accompanied by a rose decal. "Jakob" is inked onto his left arm in vibrant block letters. He also boasts several Green Day-related symbols. The pinkish bunny from the comprehend fine art of the band's 2011 live albumAwesome Every bit F*ck tin can be seen on his right forearm, while the radio from the band's 2016 tape Revolution Radio appears only above his left elbow. In add-on, he has several tattoos that reference 2004's American Idiot: "St. Jimmy," "Rage," and "Love" on his arms and "IDIOT" on his left ankle.

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