Green Day Biography

When two childhood friends Michael Pritchard later known as Mike Dirnt and Billie Joe Armstrong formed their first band “Sweet Children” in Rodeo California, they were only 14 years old and no idea what the future was going to hold for them

With Dirnt on bass, and Armstrong on guitar as well as vocals they decided to add a drummer in 1989 named John Kiftmey [aka: Al Sobrante] and then changed their name to Green Day after one of the songs. And we could say the rest is history but let’s fill in the details.

1989 was the year Green Day independently released one of their songs which was a hit on the punk scene. Soon they had signed with Lookout! Records and independent label and “39/Smooth” their debut album was released that same year.

Kiftmeyer left the band and was replaced by drum tutor Tre Cool as the bands permanent drummer.

During the early 1990s Green Day their cultivated cult following gained momentum with the release of “Kerplunk” in 1992. The success of “Kerplunk” soon had major record labels interested in this young group.

Eventually Green Day signed with Reprise Records releasing “Dookie” in 1994. MTV support and the bands tour make “Dookie” a main stream hit that continued to gain momentum throughout the summer of 1994. At the end of 1994 Green Day performed at Woodstock 94 and they were an instant hit stealing the lime light. “Dookie” sales continued to increase selling over 5 million copies in just the US. They also won the 1994 Grammy for “Best Alternative Music Performance.” It seemed nothing could stop them now!

“Dookie” was quickly followed with “Insomnia” in the fall of 1995 entering the US charts at number 2 and selling more than 2M copies by the spring of 1996. In the spring of 1996 they cancelled a European tour due to exhaustion and spent the rest of the year writing new material and resting.

The end result was the release of their best album ever “Nimrod.” In one week it sold 80,000 copies and was loved by everyone even the critics. And although “Time of Your Life” only made it to #2 in the mainstream charts it is the song that Green Day has become most known for and become the song to play in any situation that had an element of sadness. It was even used in 2 separate ER episodes and in the last episode of Seinfeld.

The “Nimrod” era may have not been their best selling album era but their live performances had improved tremendously. Infact they even took a “Best Live Performance” at the Kerrang Awards.

After a 2 year reprieve from the media spotlight in 1999 Green Day returned to play Neil Young’s “Bridge School Benefit Concert.” Shortly after they began recording the follow up to “Nimrod,” which would become “Warning.”

During the early recording days producer Scott Litt was fired and they produced the album themselves. After completing the recording they decided to headline the 2000 Vans Warped Tour bringing more people to the tour than in any other time in history.

“Warning” was released in the fall of 2000 with some of the best songs to date yet their punk folk sound was not overly popular with their fans. Ironically this album still made it to platinum status, yet it was Green Day’s lease successful album.

There after Green Day released their greatest hits album “International Super Hits,” with a b side compilation called “Shenanigans,” and a DVD “International Supervideos” a chronological tale of the bands music videos to date. This was followed up by their huge world tour “Greatest Hits.”

And now there is another album in the works and one can only wait and see what it will sound like. Green Day has taken some interesting twists and turns throughout their career. Rumor has it this could be the best album yet!

Aura Mirchandani is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory.