Dean Gray posted the songs on line, soliciting no payment, but asking that fans make a donation to charities Green Day had supported. “Originally, the goal was to point out just how similar some of the songs on American Idiot are to other rock songs,” Ben told MTV.com. “But there are also some tracks we did that created entirely new songs and they’re amazing. So we decided to put the entire mashed-up album on line and on November 18 we did.” Within 10 days they received a cease-and-desist order from Warner Music, though the band members themselves may not have minded the infringement as much. Billie Joe was said to have called the mash-ups “really cool,” and, in reference to downloading songs for free via services like Napster, he’d said in 2001, “It was never really about getting paid. It was just getting people to hear my music and say, ‘Hey, I like your song.’ So if Napster wants to put my song out so people can download it or whatever, let ‘em do it.”
Nonetheless, after receiving the letter from Warner’s, Dean Gray took the mash-ups down on November 28. In response, a DJ named Noisemaker, based in Portland, Oregon, organised what was called the “American Edit Gray Tuesday Protest” on December 13, which had websites around the world offering the songs as free downloads for a single day. On his website, Noisemaker contended that the protest “was not intended to be a mass organization of music piracy but, rather, one single display of the consumptive power of the mash-up and home remix community in the hopes of encouraging the labels, publishers, and artists who are curious about the mash-up community to consider giving the high-quality productions of ‘illegitimate’ music a legitimate consideration as a promotional avenue for all music.” He added, “What can I say? It’s the best promotion Warner and Green Day never wanted.”
On the more legal front, US fans could content themselves with the screening of a new hour-long live performance taped for fuse on November 12 at their New York City studios. The concert, which aired December 4, was the culmination of an entire week of Green Day programming on the network. Afterwards, the band headed Down Under for another successful series of shows, with Billie Joe still delighting audiences by shouting phrases like, “My name is Billie Joe Armstrong and I was sent to make George fucking Bush’s life a fucking nightmare!” A review of their December 17 performance at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne, where they played before 37,000 people noted, “This was the Green Day at their best.” At the same show, Billie Joe Armstrong mentioned how Australian band The Living End had sent him a demo tape during Green Day’s first Australian tour, then brought out the band’s singer/guitarist, Chris Cheney, who played guitar on a cover of The Bobby Fuller Four’s ‘I Fought The Law’.
The show was also the very last date of the American Idiot tour. “It’s going to be kind of sad for [the tour] to end, but, you know, we don’t have any regrets.” Billie Joe told Billboard, looking back on what he called “the best year of our career.” The magazine also noted that the band had grossed $36.5 million from touring in 2005 alone. (Forbes put the touring income figure at $34.8 million, out of $99 million total the group had earned during the year.) And in a year that had seen album sales in the US continue to drop, American Idiot had remained a top seller, selling another 3.4 million copies. And there were still more awards to be received before the year was over. On December 19, the group won a clutch of honours at the Radio Music Awards, with ‘Boulevard’ chosen as Song of the Year in the Adult Hit Radio, Rock Radio, Alternative and Active Rock Radio categories, and Artist of the Year in the Alternative, and Active Rock Radio.
As they remained in the public eye, Billie Joe continued his anti-Bush statements; NME quoted him as saying, “This is the worst US administration in our history.” And now, instead of being regarded as controversial, it was a sentiment being echoed openly by US elected officials, as when Senator Hillary Clinton, addressing a rally in Harlem on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday on January 16, 2006, said, “I predict to you that this administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country.” A tide was turning in America, and Green Day had been in the vanguard of change.
As 2006 began, there were no concert dates on Green Day’s schedule for the first time a year and a half. But there were more awards waiting to be accepted. In the Kerrang! Reader’s Poll they were named Best Band, the Milton Keynes concerts Best Live Show, ‘Jesus Of Suburbia’ winning Best Single and Best Video, and Billie Joe Best Dressed Star, as well as Hero Of The Year. On January 10, Green Day won the Favorite Group at the People’s Choice Award. On February 8, they were back at LA’s Staples Center for the Grammy Awards, with ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’ winning Record Of the Year. When Billie Joe, Mike, and Tré came up to the stage, they hugged each other, then Billie Joe stepped forward to speak for the group, his first words being, “Oh my God!” Standing onstage with them were Rob Cavallo, Doug McKean (who’d engineered the album), and Chris Lord-Alge (who mixed the record). Billie Joe thanked them all, as well as Mike and Tré, whom he called his “brothers for life.” He ended by saying, “I just want to acknowledge that pop radio playing rock music is a very big deal to me, so thank you very much.” Lord-Alge had time to shout, “Green Day rules!” into the mic before the station cut to a commercial.
Six days later, on February 14, they finally won two Brit Awards, American Idiot winning Best International Album and the group itself winning Best International Band. (“When Paris Hilton presented the best international album prize to Green Day at the 2006 Brit Awards, many must have loved the irony of hearing the heiress scream out ‘American Idiot!”’ ChartAttack.com jokingly noted.)
And there were still more awards to be picked up. On March 9, the band received an Icon Award from the non-profit organization Music for America, at a San Francisco fundraiser honouring politically progressive musicians and politicians (other honourees included San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Death Cab For Cutie, and Oakland-based Youth Movement Records). Nirvana’s bassist Krist Novoselic handed the group their award, and Billie Joe, pleased to be at an awards show “that actually has a fucking purpose,” added that he anticipated getting the “racist, war-hungry, corporate fascists out of the White House” in 2008, the year of the next US presidential election. March 19 found them at a dinner held by the Recording Academy’s San Francisco Chapter at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, “Honoring Bay Area Music Professionals.” “It’s an honour to be here because it’s an honour,” Billie Joe quipped as the group posed for pictures in the press room. My Chemical Romance played a medley of Green Day’s songs by way of tribute at the show, which included ‘When I Come Around’, ‘American Idiot’, and ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’.
On March 23, it was announced that Esquire magazine named the group Best Band in their annual ESKY Awards for Musical Achievement. On April 1 they were named Favourite Music Group and ‘September’ Favourite Song at the 19th annual Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Awards. The same day it was announced the group would now be promoting a way for their fans to register to vote with their cell phones via text messaging at future shows.
But the band members were winding down from the excitement of the previous years and were quietly preparing to go back into the studio to start work on the follow-up to the most impressive album of their career. It was a prospect anyone would find intimidating. “It’s just getting to this point where we’re finished with this cycle, and sort of looking down and saying, ‘OK, what’s next?’” Billie Joe told Rolling Stone. “That’s always the scariest moment in a band’s career, and it’s happening to us in a big way.”
He could’ve said “happening to us again,” as this was precisely the situation Green Day had faced after Dookie’s explosive success. But it was a decade on, and the band, and their coping skills, had both matured, meaning they’d be able to face the next chapter in their career with a renewed sense of confidence. And they’d also be working, at least initially, in a very familiar setting, Studio 880, where playing hard and working hard went hand in hand, with some pretty spectac
ular results.
The group had over a dozen new songs to work on when they went in the studio, though Billie Joe stressed they’d be taking it slow; no potential release dates were even hinted at. “We’re gotta take our time,” Billie Joe told the NME. “[2005] was such a big year for us. I think it’s a good time to regroup and have good substance to write about instead of hopping into something really fast.” To Billboard.com he said, “Right now, it’s that no-pressure/fun stage of just getting on a 4-track and coming up with some goofy stuff. Eventually, something sort of unfolds. It’s exciting. The juices are always flowing.”
In addition to the album, the band has expressed an interest in touring places where US rock bands don’t usually go: Russia, perhaps, or many Cuba. A film version of American Idiot is also in the works, though at the time of this writing, the project was still in its initial planning stages, though the band members have said they have no plans of starring in the film. But there will be another film project released during 2006; as of this writing, John Roecker’s documentary about the making of American Idiot, entitled Heart Like A Hand Grenade, is scheduled for release late in the year.
So many people have tried to explain what it all means, how a band whose members came from two small California towns most people had never heard of managed to turn the rock world upside down not just once, but twice. It’s a remarkable and impressive story, all the more exciting for not being over yet. And in the end, it’s a story best summed up by the band members themselves. Mike made the following comment to the Dutch magazine Oor in 1995, but it’s just as true today, over 10 years later: “The name Green Day is living a life of its own now. Green Day is now an item to describe something, to support an idea or whatever. But I know what Green Day really is: three guys in a room and Billie Joe writing the songs.”
Acknowlegements
Thanks to Chris Charlesworth, for commissioning this book, and to Andrea Rotondo for her editing. Many thanks to all of my interviewees: Murray Bowles, Dean Carlson, Jennifer Finch, Jon Ginoli, Steve Hart, Kevin Kerslake, Neill King, Mark Kohr, Ken Leslie, Jesse Michaels, Robin Paterson, Frank “Dr. Frank” Portman, John Robb, Michael Rosen, Winston Smith, Toxsima, and Eric Yee; extra special thanks to Lance Bangs, Chris Bilheimer, Jason Funbug, John Goar, Lawrence Livermore, and John Lucasey for their help in providing materials and answering repeated inquiries. My transcriptionists/researchers also merit major kudos for their efforts: Katie Hansen, Nick Tamburro, Julia Voss, and especially the nimble and relentless fingers of Carrie Stamper. Thanks also to Marc Melfi and Nick Hoffstedde for their help in many areas, Jeff Apter, Rick Buttle and Tam Johnson for their additional assistance, and Dr. Christopher Belcher and Carol Nicholson for keeping my hands and arms working. And, of course, my greatest supporter — mom.
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