Green Day: Billie Joe Armstrong's Meltdown iHeart Radio Music Festival

#greenday #bja

Former Guns N' Roses drummer Matt Sorum probably put it best when he tweeted out, "I thought Billie Joe Armstrong's rant was the most punk rock thing he's ever done. then he had to go and ruin it by apologizing. corporate rock is alive and well. never really bought that band anyways," he would conclude. It was a funny statement considering it was Green Day who inducted Matt Sorum into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame with Guns and Roses just five months prior in April of 2012. drinking and shenanigans seemed to be part of Green Day's image. from their humble beginnings from California, they appeared to be just three punk rock kids who wanted to make great music with the help of a little lubricants. In fact, even after the band got famous, the band's singer Billie Joe Armstrong admitted to Rolling Stone in 2013 that he had anxiety getting onstage in front of people and would reveal alcohol would help alleviate some of the nerves admitting, "I played on stage loaded a lot. I'd have anywhere from two to six beers and a couple of shots before I went on stage then I'd go out and play the gig and drink for the rest of the evening on the bus, fall asleep, wake up the next day, feel like crap, do soundcheck. it was over and over again. In that way,

I was a functioning alcoholic. Green Day is a very polarizing band on my channel, just like several other bands I've covered in the past including Dave Matthews Band, garbage, Foo Fighters and Linkin Park. I'm not afraid to admit that I like Green Day. granted, I'm a fan of their earlier work prior to them getting signed to a major label and of course, I was a big fan of "Dookie" in 1994 and 2004's "American Idiot", I was also a fan of. I even checked out their musical "American Idiot" a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it but I've always felt like for the last 10 years and for the 10 years prior to that, Green Day was always living in the shadow of "Dookie" and then they were also living in the shadow of "American Idiot". 2009 would see the release of "21st Century Breakdown", which I felt was a mediocre record. I still remember living up north at the time and hearing "know your enemy" and "21 guns'' played over and over again on Sirius XM hits one. three years later the band was set to do something a lot of bands don't do, while double albums get released every now and then by certain bands who are really ambitious, record labels aren't a fan of the move because the results in the records cost more than their competition and therefore hurts their bottom line. Green Day did something completely different. They had recorded so much material by the summer of 2012, they put out three individual albums called "uno", "dos" and "Tre", whose release dates would be roughly a month apart in the later part of 2012. each record would feature a different member on the cover. Personally I've always liked "uno" and "tre" the best. "dos", I could take it or leave it. Prior to the first of the three albums coming out, which was "uno", the band was out promoting the crap out of the record. they were showing up on venues that traditionally rock bands wouldn't go on, including America's Got Talent and The Voice. I don't really watch these shows and Howard Stern being on America's Got Talent wasn't enough for me to tune into that awful show. for those of you who don't know, IHeartRadio used to be called Clear Channel. yes, Howard Stern's former boss, when he was on terrestrial radio. After Stern left, the failing company had tried to rebrand itself with little luck. Since 2010 they had been holding the annual iHeartRadio Music Festival which brings together artists from various genres or so it's marketed. in reality is more heavily leaning towards pop music. Green Day had their "uno" album coming out in September of 2012 and about a week before the record dropped they played the festival and they were joined by a pretty eclectic lineup including Usher, psy, if you guys remember Gangnam style, and 'lil wayne. by this point in their career, Green Day were workhorses. They had been working non-stop since 2009 putting out records, doing a musical, touring and of course that type of lifestyle will eventually catch up with you, especially as you get older. at the same time, many people who find themselves in this situation, are too
attracted to the money to stop. In Billie Joe Armstrong's case, he was now part of the 1% that was so vilified at the beginning of the 2010s. that's not to say that money was his motivation,
he's a musician after all and if he's anything like me, I go stir-crazy sitting for too long at home and doing nothing. according to one estimate, Billie Joe Armstrong was the 42nd richest singer in rock n' roll, with a net worth of more than $55 million, making him wealthier than fellow rock legends like Vince Neil and David Lee Roth. Armstrong would tell Rolling Stone in 2013 that, as the Occupy Wall Street move