Cross - Green Day: the secret history

Its one thing to be young, loud and snotty. In fact, its pretty much expected. But its another thing to be old, loud and snotty.

When youre just starting out and dont have any money its okay to be full of angst and bitterness. Because you have nothing to lose, you may also be really goofy and spend a lot of time acting like a jerk. But if youre lucky and your CDs and concert tickets start selling by the boatload, you wont be poor for long.

That means youll wake up one day, find yourself in your 30s with six or seven figures in the bank, and realize theres really nothing to be angry or bitter about. And when you try to be goofy or act like a jerk, it just doesnt work anymore.

In other words, youve failed to evolve as you age. Your act gets old, you start to look and sound phony. And, as the British say, things go all terribly pear-shaped. This has been the downfall of many musicians. Its like they all have a best before date stamped on their foreheads.

But there are exceptions and surprises. U2 is probably the best example. Elvis Costello is another good one. R.E.M. stuck it out.

But if you could rewind to the late 80s and look in on a rehearsal in some dirty squat in Oakland, California, chances are youd never, ever have bet on this group lasting more than 18 months. Not in a million years. Seriously: what could you possible expect from a high school drop-out, the son of a heroin addict, and a 12 year-old wannabe rock star?

But two decades later, tens of millions of albums sold and a bunch of Grammys and Junos, theyre doing just fine. Welcome to the world of Green Day.

Lets take a look at some deep background on a group that is now officially the biggest-selling punk rock band of all time. Along with Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Green Day has become one of the most popular and most influential of all the alternative bands that came in the wake of Nirvana.

Their sound isnt particularly innovative. They follow the tried-and-true three-chord punk formula thats been around since the late 60s, but through most of their career, theyve found a way to keep it sounding fresh.

They always keep things interesting, too. For example, Green Day played at the 25th anniversary of Woodstock in Saugerties, New York, back in August of 1994. Their set became famous for a mud fight with the crowd, and for the bass player losing a couple of teeth when he ran into a security guard on stage and bounced his face off a speaker cabinet...ow!

Most people are familiar with the recent history of Green Day, or, at the very least, know about the big albums from the last dozen years. But theres much, much more to the history of this band than American Idiot and Dookie. Hopefully, we can fill in a few blanks.

Green Day is made up of three very interesting individuals, all of whom were born in 1972. Billie Joe lived in Rodeo, California a suburb of Berkeley, which is part of Oakland. Rodeo is a depressing sort of place; the most obvious landmark is a foul-smelling oil refinery.

Billie Joe was something of a musical prodigy. By the way, this is his proper first name, not Billie, so he should be addressed as Billie Joe. His father was a jazz drummer who taught his kid to sing show tunes. By the time Billie Joe was five, he started singing at old-age homes and childrens hospitals. He took up the piano at eight. He would have preferred the guitar, but his dad said his hands were too small.

Billie Joes father died of cancer when he was ten. He was just one of five kids being raised by a mother who could only find work as a waitress at a place called Rods Hickory Pit. A stepfather came into the picture two years later, but all the kids hated him. It was pretty rough.

But as tough as it was for Billie Joe, it was even worse for his friend Mike. He was born Michael Pritchard. His mom was a heroin addict and the courts took him away and placed him in an adoptive home with a white man and a Native American woman. When he was seven, they divorced. Mike lived with his stepfather for a while, and then ended up back with his birth mother for a bit. Thats when he smoked his first joint, at age 7.

Billie Joe and Mike met in the cafeteria at school in about 1983. Over the next year, they formed a couple of bands that played songs like Van Halens Aint Talking About Love and Ozzys Crazy Train.

The first original song Billie Joe remembers writing was something called Why Do You Want Him?. That would have been about 1984. This would also be the year Billie Joe bought his first guitar: a Fender Stratocaster. He still has the guitar and still uses it on stage.

Things really began to change in 1987. Mike finally left home, at age 15. He just couldnt take it anymore. He lived in a truck for a while before he rented a room at Billie Joes place. Billie Joe earned extra money by selling joints at school for two bucks a piece, which is why everyone called him Two Dollar Bill.

Their first real band was called Sweet Children. It was Billie Joe on guitar, Mike on bass, and a guy named John Kliffmeyer on drums, but he wanted everyone to call him Al Sobrante because that was where he came from: a town called El Sobrante.

The first Sweet Children gig was at moms restaurant: Rods Hickory Pit. About 30 people showed up. And yes, Sweet Children did record something. They issued an EP on a label called Skene Records in 1988. If you can find the original copy of that, youve got a real collectors item.

Over the next couple of years, Billie Joe and Mike played in separate bands. Mike sang for a group called Crummy Musicians while Billie Joe was a member of Corrupted Morals. There was also a brief moment when he was part of Rancid. Yes, that Rancid, but it was for an extremely short time...a blip.

In 1989, Billie Joe and Mike reformed Sweet Children under the name Green Day, which is a private term of theirs for a day spent smoking up.

There was another name change at around the same time. Drummer John Kliffmeyer gave up calling himself Al Sobrante. This explains why some people think Green Day changed drummers.

The three of them, all 17 at the time, made their first record. It was a 7-inch EP on a local indie label called Lookout Records. They called it 1,000 Hours. It was followed by another four-song 7-inch in 1990. This EP was called Slappy (reissue).

On February 16th, 1990, just one day before his 18th birthday, Billie Joe dropped out of high school to get into music full-time. He supported himself by selling newspaper subscriptions outside a local grocery store.

Mike hung in there until June. The day after he graduated in June, Green Day set out on their first-ever tour. They also recorded a full vinyl-only album for Lookout Records called 39/Smooth. One of the songs on this album was called, surprise, Green Day.

That first tour was pretty short, but it was enough for John, the drummer. He had plans to go to college, so he was quitting. In retrospect, this probably wasnt a great career move, but back then, who knew? Then again, Green Day might not have done as well as they have had it not been for this lineup change.

Johns replacement was Frank Edwin Wright III, who just happened to be the guy giving John his drum lessons. He was a regular at a punk club called 924 Gilman Street, which catered to Oaklands teen punk scene. From the time he was 12, Frank had been in a band with a dude named Lawrence Livermore, the founder of Lookout Records, so theres the connection. Lawrence was also the guy who renamed Frank Tre Cool.

Tre joined Green Day just in time to record another indie album for Lookout called Kerplunk, which contained an early version of the song Welcome To Paradise.

Kerplunk was released on January 17th, 1992. And if you look at the CD booklet, theres a story about a girl murdering her parents so she could see Green Day. Dont worry: its not true. And by the way,