Green Day
Green Day is an American punk-rock band from California, USA. Childhood friends Billie Joe Armstrong (lead guitar, lead vocals) and Mike Dirnt (bass guitar, backing vocals) formed the band in 1987. Green Day's original drummer, John Kiffmeyer left the band in the early stages to pursue his college education.
Green Day is one of the most prolific punk-rock/ska bands that have come out of East Bay, California and in the top ten punk-rock bands of all time.
The band’s second studio album Kerplunk (1992) brought the relatively unknown band from obscurity into the limelight. With major labels clambering over themselves to sign them, the boys signed to Reprise Records after they finished touring in 1992-1993, and from then on, the rest is history.
Dookie (1994) was Green Day’s first major commercial success – selling 15 million records worldwide and earning the band a Grammy in the same year for Best Alternative Band. Smash hits from Dookie include "Basket Case" and "When I Come Around" and the album made it in the top 500 albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.
Feeding the indie, Grunge times of the mid to late ’90s, Green Day’s next album Insomniac (1995) didn’t prove as popular as Dookie, but their next big album came in 1997 with Nimrod which reached number 10 on the US Album Chart and achieved double platinum status.
After a string of successful albums and hit singles and a gruelling tour schedule, Green Day took a break to spend time with their families. The band was growing up and things were changing quickly. Enter Jason White (guitar, backing vocals) in 1999.
In 2003, new material was recorded but it never made it to the public ears – the masters (Cigarettes and Valentines) were stolen and the band decided to scrap the album all together and start from scratch.
Meant to be – who knows?! However; in 2004, American Idiot became their highest selling album, reaching number 1 in 19 countries and receiving many awards. Green Day followed it up with a 150 date tour, stopping off at the UK.
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