Personalities | Green Day | Broadening Horizons (2010) | Key Events
January
Grammy For Best Rock Album
‘Is this old hat now?’ an interviewer from TV Guide asked the band after 21st Century Breakdown won a Grammy for Best Rock Album, ‘No, no, this is never old hat,’ replied Billie Joe, ‘when you put that much effort into a record nothing is old hat.’ At this point a member of Kings Of Leon handed Billie Joe a hip flask from which he took an epic pull. ‘Whisky?’ quizzed Tre before taking a pull, ‘Tequila!’ he said post swig. Billie Joe suggested that Green Day and Kings Of Leon might trade shots a little later on.
March
The Stooges’ Hall Of Fame Induction
The Stooges had been voted down a record six times for induction into the American Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame but were finally admitted in March 2010, along with Genesis and The Hollies. Billie Joe gave a five-minute speech: ‘they symbolized the destruction of flower power and gave us raw power’, before handing Iggy the award. When The Stooges cranked up ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, Billie Joe started on guitar but ended up with his arms wrapped around Iggy belting out the chorus as Tre, Mike and other members of the audience cavorted on stage.
April
American Idiot Hits Broadway
After success in Berkeley, American Idiot transferred to Broadway, New York, where it opened at the St James Theatre on 20 April 2010. This ‘story of American youth looking to improve their lives,’ as director Michael Mayer aptly put it, received positive reviews, although it struggled to sell out every night. When Billie Joe stepped in to play the role of St Jimmy for one week between 28 October and 3 November, sales went through the roof. Billie Joe was to make many more appearances including a final three-week run before the show closed at the end of April 2011.
June
Green Day: Rock Band
The first Rock Band game dedicated to one artist featured The Beatles and on 8 June 2010 the second featured Green Day. ‘They’re a really good fit with Rock Band fans,’ stated game producer Alan Moore, ‘Rock Band fans grew up with the band.’ There was enormous attention to detail, with venues like the famed Milton Keynes Bowl being accurately rendered; individual band members were precisely depicted, right down to ‘the collection of all the tattoos down the years,’ stated Billie Joe. Fans could play 47 Green Day songs including the complete American Idiot album, Dookie and beyond.
Parc Des Princes
One of Billie Joe’s greatest achievements is the ability to turn the Roman/Nazi salute into a piece of rock theatre. At the sell-out concert at Paris’s Parc Des Princes Stadium on 26 June when the band approached the famous breakdown segment in ‘Holiday’, the audience already had their arms up in anticipation; at this point Billie Joe took a musical sidestep into an ad hoc rendition of ‘The Saints Are Coming’ before returning to the ‘Sieg Heil to...
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