It’s impossible to hear the line “Do you have the time to listen to me whine?” without immediately conjuring the sound of Billie Joe Armstrong’s palm-muted modded Marshall tone. Over the last 30 years, Green Day’s 1994 major label debut, Dookie, has become not just a cultural touchstone, but a tonal one.

The ultimate distillation of producer Rob Cavallo’s rock sound perfectly partnered with the Green Day guitarist’s chunky power chords, producing one of the most familiar and beloved tones in modern history.

It’s not surprising then that Armstrong and Marshall have teamed up to bottle that sound on a custom handwired signature head – the 1959BJA Billie Joe Armstrong Artist Signature, lovingly finished in a colorway inspired by the guitarist’s iconic Fernandes Strat, Blue.

What is surprising is that it’s taken this long. After decades of stagnation, and with new investment courtesy of its flourishing home audio wing, Marshall is beginning to look like a brand reborn. Steph Carter, director of Culture Marketing, and Jon Magill, Director of R&D, Amplifiers, tell us how the firm’s first signature amp in well over a decade came to be.

This is Marshall’s first signature amp in 14 years. Why now?

Carter: It started when we had Billie in one of our campaigns for the Monitor headphones. Most of the comments in those posts were, “This is great. Where's the Dookie amp?” So we ran with that.

We thought, “What better way to re-kick off signature products for the company?” It’s an amp that's talked about in so many different ways, with a band who have transcended from being a punk rock band to being a household name.

Given the long gap since the last Marshall signature amp, was there an element of having to rebuild the infrastructure before this could happen?

Magill: Yeah, a lot of the people who would have been involved in these signature things had moved on to other places since that time. It all had to be worked out fresh.

We had to work out, “How was it done in the past?” and “How are we going to put all of this in place to make this work so that we can make a really great product, satisfy all of these customers and do it in a kind of time- and energy-efficient manner?” So a bit of a challenge!

What was the starting point for the design then? Were you using an existing platform, a Plexi build, as a base?

Magill: Starting with the schematics and photos, which were sent over from Billie's team, it was about making sure that we got all of the bits that were important – certain capacitors and things.

We knew that one of Billie’s amps is based on not the handwire we do now, but the old SLP reissue, which was built on the ST1 PCB board. We didn't know how much that was a factor in the sound. So we built up an amp that way, and we compared those.

Then there was a third variant involving some changed modifications; we built all of that and it was, “Now we've got to ship those over and see what Billie thinks.”

If someone opened up the original and compared it side by side, would it look the same inside?

Magill: No – that wasn't quite the intention. Certainly, one of Billie’s amps is based on that ST1 board. But in terms of what he thought of the sound, there was a preference for the handwired over the old PCB, which is fortunate because it's closer to what we’re producing now.

We could have gone down either route, but there was a strong preference for handwired, so maybe it looks slightly nicer on the inside than Billie's amp! But what we’ve ended up with is something with high-quality craftsmanship – UK-built, handwired, all that stuff – but which sonically reflects the character of that original amp.

How many iterations did you go through?

Magill: I think there was a rough prototype, then these three different versions, and then when we narrowed it down to one version, we had to go through the process of getting that production-ready. We were pretty quick. I think we managed to do it all within about three or four months, which is good.

Carter: It was quite easy. They were really on board from the beginning. They loved the idea of it. No one’s ever done an official version of this with their seal of approval.

We got to the final three for them to make the decision, “Do we go down a handwired route? Do we go down one that's based off like a 2203 board?” So we sent them all three. They plugged into the handwired one first, and they were like, “That’s the sound,” straight away.

They tried the other two; went straight back to the handwired one and A/B-ed against his rig and it was like, “We want this in the rig. It sounds better.”

It felt good for us that not only have we been able to make this work and deliver it quickly, but the feedback coming from their team was that this possibly edged out his number one. That was a really good starting point.

What can you say about the mods and what they do compared to the traditional circuit?

Magill: The starting point was the 1959, which is the non-Master Volume, classic, very loud but maybe slightly uncontrollable Marshall sound. The mod converts it into a Master Volume model – something people did since the ’70s, converting them.

It’s kind of where the 2203 and then the Master Volume models come in – converting so that you have one gain and one master volume, rather than the two channels, which you can blend.

So it does that, but it also adds more gain and changes the filtering in the unit so you end up with something which sounds generally bigger and more exciting – more lively to play – than your standard Marshall Master Volumes.

I hadn't realized how much fun it was going to be to play until I plugged into one. It does its own thing. It’s incredibly versatile. It might be very much Billie’s sound, but it’s surprised so many people when they’ve plugged into it.

What sort of feedback have you had from Billie?

Carter: We took the amp over in January to shoot a video with him, and it was really interesting. He brought an array of guitars with him. He brought one of his Les Paul Juniors with him. I think it was a ’56 Custom, and he bought his Blue Strat.

His guitar tech, Hans Buscher, was doing a bit of a setup and playing through everything, then he turned around to everyone and was like, “Sounds good. Does anyone want a go on his guitar and amps?” I was like, “I'll have a go!” The first thing I did was play a Green Day riff and I was like, “It sounds like Green Day!”

Then Billie comes in a little later, plugs in, puts the guitar on, and plays When I Come Around. And he’s like, “That's the sound.” He just absolutely loved being with it, and it did exactly what we set out for it to do. This is the sound of that amp. Especially his hands with that blue guitar. It’s unbelievable.

It’s been great to see Marshall coming back into its own in recent years. This is another landmark moment. How has it felt working on this?

Carter: It’s been amazing. Internally, we know the power of the brand and we know what we can achieve. It's been great to take what we know we can do and bring it to fruition. We've made some amazing jumps in the last two or three years since the creation of the Marshall Group, and we haven’t even gotten started yet.

Magill: It's great to be involved in these things which are related to iconic moments in music history – to be making something that’s going to excite the guitarist community, and allow people to have their own contact with those musical things which are so special to them. Modifying amps is also great fun! As Steph says, we want to see how much more we can do.

So what’s next for the Marshall signature series? There’s clearly more to come…

Carter: I think that's about as much as I can give you.

Magill: I think Steph's got a to-do list for me!

Carter: Me and Jon have got a lot of good conversations coming in the future. There’s so much love for the brand – there always will be – and the more we’re coming into this space and showing up for the musicians, the more musicians are saying, “Hey, I've got this thing,” or, “What about this amp in my collection?”

There’s lots of exciting things in front of us. I just need to give Jon a couple of heart attacks first on how big the list is and see what we can come up with. Then we can share with the world what kind of crazy, mad scientist stuff we're going to do.

This is obviously a handwired UK build and is priced at the higher end of the scale. Are there conversations around a more affordable option coming at some point?

Carter: Maybe… maybe not!

I’ll take that as “watch this space.” Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Carter: Just going back to the things that Jon said about what this amp can do. When we did the video with Billy, we took it to Rob Cavallo. The history behind the amp is Billie used a modded Marshall in Rob’s studio that became the Dookie amp. Rob still has that amp.

We had the realization that while this is the Dookie amp, Rob has used that amp on pretty much every record he’s ever made. So this amp could also be the sound of My Chemical Romance, the sound of Paramore, the sound of the Goo Goo Dolls, the sound of Linkin Park. It's such a versatile amp in its own right.

• Find out more at Marshall.com.

Guitar World video demo

What is it?

Growing up watching MTV in the 2000s, the deluge of mega-hit singles from Green Day's American Idiot was inescapable.

The world was enthralled by the songwriting, attitude and visuals of the title cut, Holiday, Wake Me Up When September Ends and the epic Jesus of Suburbia – but don't forget the magnificent guitar sound too.

Of course, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong had years of form in that department already – the band's 1994 breakthrough album Dookie is also well-known for its tone; that sound has been replicated for several successful runs of MXR's Dookie Drive.

There's a common thread, and it's a pair of Marshall amplifiers - two Super Lead reissues which Armstrong acquired around the Dookie era and then had modified. These have formed the backbone of Armstrong's tight, percussive, snarling tone ever since; over Green Day's long, highly successful career, then, these two Marshalls have left a sizeable footprint on rock history.

Now, the British brand has chosen to commemorate Armstrong with a hand-wired signature amp, based on those long-serving Super Leads with their so-called ‘Dookie mods’.

Marshall's model code for the 100-watt Super Lead is 1959 (nothing to do with the year; a common misconception) - so this amp becomes the 1959BJA.

Specs

• Price: $3,999 | £3,099 | €3,699
• Type: Valve-powered amp head
• Origin: UK
• Output: 100 watts RMS
• Speaker: None
• Channels: 1
• Controls: Presence, Bass, Middle, Treble, Master, Gain
• Connectivity: Front panel 2x ¼” instrument inputs - Low and High gain. Rear panel 2x ¼” speaker outputs (selectable impedance, 16, 8 or 4 ohm)
• Footswitch: None
• Weight: 20.1 kg / 44.3 lbs
• Dimensions: W 741mm x H 294mm x D 210mm
• Contact: Marshall

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

As expected, given its price and top-rung status, the head is put together with care and precision, in the factory that’s been turning out these big old amps for generations. It's a hand-wired, British-built Marshall; the componentry, assembly and finishing is all tried-and-tested.

The front panel has ‘Master’ and ‘Gain’ screen-printed in the style of a label-maker, a fun little touch that calls to mind modified amps of yesteryear. In the top corner, there's a commemorative plate in Marshall's trademark brass, bearing the model name, the ‘Dookie’ logo, and Armstrong's signature. It's a nice addition that stamps some artist personality onto the amp, without being overbearing.

Like other Super Lead models, though, the head shell's corners are unprotected. That's an oversight in terms of durability - it might not be such a worry on a normal, more functional-looking black Marshall, but do you want that tasty blue Tolex getting scuffed and torn?

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★☆☆

The construction is gloriously traditional, then, but so is the form factor - and that's not without its old-fashioned flaws. There's one central handle on top, and the amp’s substantial weight is unevenly-biased; it's tilting uncomfortably against you all the time you're carrying it. Practical it ain't - but once it's sitting on a cab, the BJA looks cool enough to forgive it for the backache… almost.

The front panel, meanwhile, offers some clues to the amp's character before you even switch on. For a kick-off, we've two inputs, not the Super Lead's usual four - just Low and High, for different gain stages. Importantly, there are also controls for Gain and Master Volume. These functions point not towards the Super Lead, but the later JCM 800 model. Interesting.

As for the rear panel - well, there are the speaker outputs, impedance and mains voltage selectors, as well as a nice silk-screen of Armstrong's signature, but not much else in the way of features. In particular, the lack of an effects loop seems a notable oversight; anyone using effects will have to do so through the amp input, which severely restricts functionality for delay or reverb pedals in particular.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

I tested the BJA through an industry-standard Marshall 1960A cab, with my humbucker-equipped Les Paul (the ideal pairing for most Marshalls) and my prized 1962 SG/Les Paul Junior. Armstrong has been relying on Juniors for many years, so this is surely the most appropriate guitar to start with.

The Low input first, with Gain and EQ controls around 12 o'clock. It's a bright, punchy and ringing clean tone; classic Marshall. Winding the Gain up, I ducked the Bass down to keep the low-end tight. The BJA began exhibiting those classic ‘Plexi’ overdrive characteristics we've heard on countless recordings.

The Master volume allows this to happen at *slightly* more sensible levels but, make no mistake, this amp is ridiculously, devastatingly, extravagantly loud. From my rehearsal room, I caused numerous earthquakes throughout Bedfordshire with the knob at a mere 10 o'clock. I once measured a dimed Marshall DSL100 at 124dB, and I've no doubt the BJA would top that. Earplugs are non-negotiable.

That's to say nothing of the High input. With the Gain only around 10 o'clock and the Master towards noon, there's already a hell of a lot of gain, the P-90 in my Junior tipping into feedback without any encouragement - but those ‘Dookie’ mods pay dividends, as this is the sound in every Green Day fan's head. Fat, and full of midrange punch, but with superb definition in the high-end.

At the upper reaches of the Gain knob, it's far beyond Green Day - well into classic metal territory with a Les Paul, for example. As the controls suggest, the BJA does operate much like a JCM 800, and has easily as much gain available, but the voicing is still Super Lead through and through. In a word? Magnificent.

Verdict

Artist signature Marshall amps don't come along all that often and, however good they are, they tend to be hard to get hold of - often amounting to little more than catnip for collectors, buying them to speculate while the general public gets barely a sniff. That may well prove to be the case here too - but does this amp deserve better?

Yes, it's far too loud for almost any situation short of Green Day’s stadium tours. Yes, it’s highly impractical and inflexible, lacking any modern conveniences whatsoever; forget power scaling or reactive load, it doesn't even have an effects loop. The most modern feature is the master volume.

If it were a series production amp, this would certainly be a limiting factor in its appeal, but the market for this hand-wired status symbol likely won’t care. And if you do happen to get into a room with one, and a decent guitar, you tend to forget about all that as it pulverises your brain and eardrums – into Brain Stew, if you will.

This review might be academic for many, who wouldn’t have any use for such an amp even if it were attainable. Imagine if it were a readily-available 20-watt Studio model with the same voicing, though. We can but dream.

Guitar World verdict: The Marshall 1959BJA is the first artist-signature Marshall amp in over a decade, and it might remain out of the grasp of many - but the modified Super Lead tone, in a format that apes the master-volume JCM 800, is truly a magnificent playing experience. Try it, if you can.

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Marshall has partnered with Billie Joe Armstrong for the 1959BJA – a baby-blue signature head that pays tribute to the Green Day leader’s first guitar.

The amp received a soft launch at the 2026 Super Bowl five months ago, when the punk icons performed at the opening ceremony on February 8.

Eagle-eyed viewers were drawn to what Armstrong had plugged his Gibson Les Paul Junior into. A signature amp was speculated. Now it’s been confirmed.

The 1959BJA, “Marshall’s first signature amp in 14 years”, is inspired by one of punk rock’s most recognizable guitar tones, serving up a 100-watt head that features three ECC83 pre-amp valves and EL34 power amps.

Specifically, the amp draws from Armstrong’s 1959HW head, which boasts a custom “Dookie Mod” in a bid to recreate the sound of the record of the same name. The 1994 album introduced hits like Welcome to Paradise and Basket Case, and proved a breakthrough moment for the now-stadium-filling power trio.

The amp features a three-band EQ, Presence, Master Volume, and Gain, while there are High- and Low-gain inputs and two speaker outs for 16Ω, 8Ω and 4Ω impedences.

As for the color, which strays from Marshall’s usual black-and-gold chic, it's a nod to Armstrong’s first-ever electric guitar, a Fernandes S-type nicknamed “Blue”. Vitally, the amp ramps up the gain, and injects extra body and more low-end punch to its character.

“I’m so overjoyed to have my own signature Marshall amp,” Armstrong delights. “These amps have been a part of my musical life, from my heroes down to little old me. Turn it the f**k up!”

“From the moment you hear those opening chords on Dookie, you know exactly who it is,” adds Steph Carter, Culture Marketing Director at Marshall. “Working with Billie to create an amp that captures that punch, aggression, and clarity was an incredible project for our team.”

The Marshall 1959BJA Billie Joe Armstrong Artist Signature is priced at $3,999.99 / £3,099.99 / €3,699.

The amp is also tied to Marshall’s new Amplify loyalty program, which commits 1% of member purchases to support grassroots music, starting with independent music venues.

See Marshall for more.

Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong is set to front a new punk rock supergroup to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Ramones’ first album.

The play-it-fast-and-simple icons are widely considered the world’s first true punk band, with the MC5 and the Stooges laying the groundwork before them. Their 1976 self-titled LP, which included stonewall classics like Blitzkrieg Bop and I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, kick-started America’s powerful punk scene.

Armstrong, who performed Blitzkrieg Bop at the band’s 2002 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, will be joined by Rancid guitarist/vocalist Tim Armstrong, Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, and C.J. Ramone on bass. Ramone played in the group between 1989 and 1996, when the band retired. His audition, however, got him sent to a naval prison.

Their one-off performance is slated to take place on August 30 at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, which, apart from being a very rock n’ roll location for a gig, is where Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone were laid to rest. The show will raise funds for Dr. David Agus’s cancer research at the Ellison Institute Research Foundation.

John Travolta will host the event, which will also feature screenings of the supernatural horror film Carrie and Travolta's new film, Propeller One-Way Night Coach.

“The spirit of the Ramones is alive in every backyard punk show, punk club, and festival,” Armstrong enthuses (via Rolling Stone). “Generation after generation of cretins and weirdos become Ramones lovers. Kids are influenced by the Ramones, and they don’t even know it yet.”

Incredibly, Tommy Ramone was originally meant to be the band's manager, but after countless drummer auditions, it became clear he was the only sticksman capable of complementing Johnny Ramone’s buzzsaw guitar style.

And while the Ramones influenced a slew of next-gen punk bands like Green Day, the power trio have in turn inspired 21st century artists like Yungblud – it’s the cycle of punk. Yet Smashing Pumpkins man Billy Corgan believes Green Day have gone on to eclipse the Ramones.

The announcement coincides with the release of Green Day’s new single, I’m Never Gonna R.I.P, after Armstrong rekindled his love of guitar solos on their 2024 album, Saviors.

At just 32, Matthieu Lucas has managed to build something extraordinary.

The entrepreneur, guitarist, and music enthusiast has painstakingly chipped away at building the emporium that is Matt’s Guitar Shop from the ground up, attracting A-list clients from all four corners of the globe.

The journey was far from plain sailing. However, judging by the caliber of artist guitars gracing every inch of the walls in this slice of musical paradise – tucked away on an unassuming street in Paris – it has well and truly paid off.

“It was not easy because you just show up at a store, and you look like a baby, and somehow, you start talking big dollars to very reputable dealers or collectors, and some of them were like, ‘How is this possible… this guy is selling drugs somewhere,’” he quips, as he recalls the early days of his ambitious venture.

However, it’s perhaps Lucas’ marketing prowess and ethos – that even the most prestigious of guitars are meant to be played on stage – that has transformed him into the go-to guy for artist guitars, with players such as Marcus King, Craig Ross, Billie Joe Armstrong, Myles Kennedy, and Yungblud all getting in on the action.

“I was very inspired by banks and huge associations buying Stradivarius [violins] very early on and lending them to musicians on tour playing classical music,” Lucas says.

“Guitars need to be shared with the world. That's my theory. That's why we lend ours on stage all the time, and that's always going to raise the value. They're really artifacts of a very specific period when the guitar revolutionized everything.”

What inspired you to start Matt’s Guitar Shop in the first place?

It’s been a little bit more than 10 years, actually. Time flies! [However], it all started when I was 15 years old.

I was not really interested in music or guitar in general. I was just playing video games with a friend of mine. His father showed up in the room and he said, “Guys, you need to listen to AC/DC.” And then I said, "Okay, [I’ll] give this guy five minutes with his old band and then I'm going to be finished with him.”

And we listened, and Angus Young was really the guy who penetrated my brain, and my passion for guitar started there. Six months later, I was seeing AC/DC in a stadium and buying an SG copy, and that started it all. And then I just wanted to buy more and more guitars because I started to discover bands.

Step by step, I went to Paris guitar stores. I was hanging out in a store called Guitar Store in Paris, and the guy was nice to me, and he let me discover the world of guitar sales – buying, selling… the daily life of a guitar shop.

I was already buying and selling privately. So it [Matt’s Guitar Shop] started in an apartment in Paris – a very small apartment. Three years, maybe four years later, we had the opportunity to get the place here, and that was it.

What were some of the initial challenges, especially as a young businessman?

They really put you in boxes initially, and that was not easy, but step by step, we met people that trusted me, and I knew who I wanted to work with over time.

I don’t come from a musical family myself. So I was mainly listening to those guys in my headphones when I was younger. I was listening to Lenny [Kravitz] and Craig [Ross] quite a lot because I have deep respect for that duo and what they represent.

One day, I show up at Rudy's Music [in New York], and Rudy just traded me one of Craig’s main touring guitars, which was his 1964 ES-345.

I didn't have the money back then, so I said, ‘Give me three months. I'm going to buy and sell in France, and I'm going to come back and pick it up.’ And my friend, who was with me at this time, told me, ‘Are you crazy? This guitar is way too much money.’

It was a time when social media was different. I just sent a message to Craig on Facebook, and two weeks passed by, and I was like, ‘Okay, this guy is busy. He's never going to reach me.’ And, suddenly, my phone is popping off, and Craig Ross just answered me, and he was so kind. [He was like,] this guy is 22 or 23 years old, he just made a huge purchase for himself, compared to his capacity.

So when I bought this guitar, we met at L'Olympia in Paris, and we got that connection going. So, for me, just meeting him was great because Craig really proves that you can’t buy class. I met Lenny later, but with Craig, it's been like 10 years and I still have that connection with him.

Which artists’ guitars command the most demand and attention?

It's quite mixed. We have John Frusciante's 1961 [ES-]335 that he played on stage. We have, of course, Paul Kossoff's 1955 “Black Beauty”, which was also used by Eric Clapton during Cream because they used to trade guitars quite a lot.

I’ve had this guitar for almost 10 years now, and I don't regret buying it. Another interesting one is Steve Lukather’s 1951 Esquire. We [also] have AC/DC's Cliff Williams’ bass – we have number three, which was toured all around the world for four years with AC/DC.

How has your vision for the showroom evolved, compared to when you first opened the doors?

When I started this business with artists’ guitars, I had two kinds of people: the people who believed in it and the people who were laughing at me.

Now, I was very proud when I was assisting at the [Jim Irsay] auction in New York City because I think that the guitar changed the world, and that the guitar will still be listened to in 1,000 years, and all those guys will be gone, and what's left is the music and their instrument. [When you buy that guitar,] you are the owner of their legacy.

So we feel kind of amazed at the shop every day because I really believed in that market when it was not fancy.

What made the Jim Irsay auction different?

Everybody was waiting for that auction. That was, after all, the greatest collection [that ever existed] of artists’ guitars.

People are starting to understand that there are good aspects to buying a guitar – whether it's for the investment or whether you're a guitar player – but if you choose wisely, those guitars will never go down [in price] because there is always somebody richer than you who wants to have that guitar.

Why have the Jim Irsay guitars leapt in value in such a short time span?

It depends on the auction house you're dealing with, the place you're buying the guitar from, and the marketing around that.

Marketing is key when you want to sell a pricey instrument like that, and I think Christie’s did a great job. They went everywhere, and when you're doing that, you just attract the best buyers because they don't have any doubt about what they're buying.

Everything went through the roof because those buyers were brought together by Christie’s in one room. They could have been telephone bidders. They could be room bidders, or internet bidders, but they were all together in one room for this collection, which was exceptional.

I see that with the shop. I don't have a single customer older than 60, and usually my customers are between 25 and 50, so it's a new generation who just discovered the world of guitars, and those people are working hard to get those guitars.

When you put them in one room, I can guarantee you that you will see new world records. If Jimmy Page's “Number One” was in that room that day, that would be between 20 and 30 million [dollars] easy.

But who are these people? What are their backgrounds?

I can give you an example of one person I know: Bobby Tseitli in Chicago. Bobby is a good friend of mine – those guys are really amazing, and they're putting together a collection called Family Guitars.

I knew they wanted [Jerry Garcia’s] “Tiger” so much. I gave him a huge hug when he bought that guitar, and I can guarantee you that this guy probably cried like a baby in his room sleeping next to the guitar that night, and that everybody in the room was feeling amazed because he was bidding with all his heart. The night after, Derek [Trucks] played it on stage. I mean, what's better than that?

I think we should be thankful for those guys who believe in the market and make it dynamic because they're not only buying guitars; they are making the shows more attractive. Everybody in the room will remember the day they saw Jerry Garcia's guitar in the hands of Derek Trucks. [In terms of the buyers’ backgrounds], I never ask too much unless they talk about themselves.

For sure, at Christie’s, we saw hedge fund guys, tech guys, cryptocurrency guys… so it's new money, in a good way, not in a bad way. From what I can tell, we have more and more young people who are just working hard, and they could be in tech, they could be in sports, whatever… we have so many kinds of buyers, and that's the beauty of this job.

Do you think we're going to see David Gilmour’s Strat one on stage anytime soon?

I know by name the guy who bought it. I don't know him personally. If he reads the interview, [I would say] I think you should put that guitar on stage. But I hope all those guitars [from that auction] are going to be on stage soon.

How do most of these clients find you?

Social media helps. You put the guitars on stage, and people are always filming. The audience recognizes the guitar, and I get texts or messages on Instagram.

So, I think it's a win-win-win because the crowd is winning because they get to see a very special guitar that day. Marketing-wise it's great for the shop, and it's also great for the artist because when this is going to the press, the tour is gonna get some marketing.

When Marcus King was touring in Paris 10 years ago, he was playing in clubs [in front of] 20 people, and we were there already, and now he's more famous, of course. And he still loves to play that Paul Kosoff guitar. Every time he’s in Paris, he plays that guitar on stage, and it's one of his favorite guitars to play.

What trends are you noticing in the types of guitars that command the highest prices in today's market?

When I started, nobody really wanted a guitar from Green Day, for example. Now, I’m getting asked more often.

I think it's a generation thing – Green Day are getting bigger because the older they get, the bigger their legacy. When the band is getting older, their fans are also getting older, and they have more capacity to buy the items of their dreams. When artists pass away, sometimes you get a bit emotional. So, of course, people are missing them so much that they want their guitars.

But I would be curious to have one of those big “dinosaur” guitars on stage [at an auction]. After the success of the Gibson Keith Richards signature, [I would be curious to have] one of Keith's guitars going on stage, the black [ES-]355, the “Micawber” Tele... or Jimmy Page's guitars or Brian May's guitar or Paul McCartney's bass – those legendary guitars that are still used by them.

I think we would be surprised by the price they fetch because records are made to be broken and are made to be set higher every time. And again, it wouldn't surprise me in the near future if we see a guitar [sell for] between $20 and $30-40 million.

Do you see any risks or misconceptions for new buyers entering the vintage guitar market, especially those treating it as an investment?

I would suggest that you check the provenance of the instruments. You have to choose wisely. If you're advised wisely and if you decide to buy the guitar at the right price, that's great.

To give you an example, when I bought Steve Jones' guitar, I knew there were rumors of Steve selling the original one 14 times to different people.

So we checked the mother-of-pearl inlays. We checked all the dings and marks. We scanned the pictures of the guitar today, and we matched those mother-of-pearl inlays. When [there are] three matches, then you know.

Beyond the monetary value, what makes a guitar collectible?

The more provenance you have and the more history you have with the guitar [the better]. For example, if Keith Richards just played one guitar one time on the sofa two minutes backstage and signed it, that doesn't really make sense to me. But what matters to me is if he played it on stage. Why did he choose that particular one for his personal collection? Was there a reason sound-wise?

I don't agree with comments on the internet that say that, ‘Oh well, David Gilmour modified the Black Strat like 700 times over time…’ [If you want a pristine guitar,] then just buy a vintage guitar. Don't even look at an artist guitar.

I understand that it doesn’t make sense for some people to buy a $15 million guitar, but I think the more modifications it has, the more personal the instrument becomes – and that’s what makes its value even higher.

There's been a lot of criticism over the amounts spent at the Jim Irsay auction. What would you say to people who feel that collectible guitar prices have lost touch with reality?

I think we are living in a world where records are made to be broken.

I would get [that comment] from the perspective of somebody earning a medium salary. That's understandable, because for some people, it's just hard to feed their children, and then you see on the news that somebody just bought David Gilmour's guitar for $15 million.

But I would say it has been like this forever, in sports, the arts… let's not even talk about the football world. I think the world is discovering guitars with these auctions, with these pieces of history, [and] with the new players as well. The rich will always be richer. We can't control that. If they want the David Gilmour Strat for $50 million one day, that's it.

What's been your proudest moment of seeing one of your guitars being played on stage?

I lent Myles Kennedy Jeff Buckley's guitar on stage in Paris a few years ago. That was the final show I assisted before Covid, but that was a moment because it was at L'Olympia [in Paris].

It was full of symbolism. We were preparing for that day for four months. Myles was the perfect guy to sing Hallelujah on stage with the very guitar that Jeff recorded the song with. I still get chills talking about it.

[Another standout moment was when] I saw Craig Ross playing [Jeff Beck’s] Yardburst in Paris.

If I told my young self, [who was] listening to Lenny Kravitz and Craig Ross, that one day I would have Jeff Beck's guitar and then Craig would play it on tour, especially in Paris, my hometown, I wouldn't believe it. It was really a full-circle moment.

• Learn more about Matt's Guitar Shop.

Billie Joe Armstrong's highly sought-after tone may soon be achievable thanks to a teased team-up with Marshall, which was on full display at Green Day's Super Bowl LX performance at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, just yesterday (February 8).

The band showcased their staying power with a nod toward nostalgia with Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), before launching into the anti-war anthem, Holiday. Accompanying Armstrong was a pale blue Marshall amp head and cab, which many were quick to point out were fresh additions to his gear.

The speculation was all but officially confirmed by Marshall. The brand posted a video teasing what many are assuming is a bona fide Armstrong signature amp, alongside a close-up of the potential upcoming offering with the caption, “Green Day showing the world how to keep it loud!”

A number of eagle-eyed commenters on the latter post pointed to the top left corner of the amp, which has a label boasting a word that looks a heck of a lot like “Dookie”, as the word appears on the cover of Green Day's 1994 album of the same name.

Armstrong's oft-copied Dookie guitar tone can be in large part attributed to a humble 100-watt Marshall Plexi 1959SLP nicknamed “Pete”.

“Pete”, crucially, was heavily modified, not stock. Marshall, meanwhile, has in recent times begun finally acknowledging the wide world of modded Marshalls with hot-rod builds of its own.

We'd wager that that's another point for the “new signature amp” team...

In terms of channeling that tone without a Marshall, in 2019, MXR released the Dookie Drive to mark the 25th anniversary of the record. The initial release was met with resounding success and was followed by version 2, version 3, and, yes, version 4 in 2023 – with each iteration boasting a new artwork.

We'd wager a Marshall “Dookie” mod amp would be a dime or two more than that pedal, but if it's indeed on the cards, it's a demonstration of the storied company's further embrace of tweaks to the equations it's long stuck to.

Fernandes Guitars – the Japanese brand best known for its innovative electric guitar pickup, the Sustainer, and its range of cult affordable guitars – has filed for bankruptcy yet again, after the cessation of operations in July 2024 and initial bankruptcy filings that were later withdrawn.

However, unlike last year's report, there may be a glimmer of hope for Fernandes fans worldwide.

The company officially received a decision to commence bankruptcy proceedings from the Tokyo District Court on July 9, with Attorney Taro Awataguchi appointed as the bankruptcy trustee. According to a report released by TSR, the total debt accrued amounts to around 730 million yen [approximately $4.98 million] owed to approximately 60 creditors.

“In recent years, the company's performance has deteriorated due to the rise of the secondhand market and intensifying competition,” states the report [translated from Japanese].

“Although the company attempted to make a comeback by creating catalogs and releasing new products, sales fell to 166.08 million yen [approximately $1.31 million] in the fiscal year ending January 2022, and the company recorded a final deficit of 24.14 million yen [approximately $164,513]."

The report goes on to say that, as the company's credit declined, its cash flow reached its limit, leading it to cease operations in July 2024. However, before the court granted proceedings, according to an inside source, “part of the ‘FERNANDES’ trademark has been ‘transferred to another company.’”

Whether this could lead to a revival, a hybrid revival, or an acquisition of sorts remains to be seen – especially since the company itself hasn't issued any new statements, while its official website remains offline.

The Saitama-based company started in 1969 and evolved to receive worldwide recognition, even becoming the guitar du jour in the ’90s after being wielded by members of Metallica and Green Day – particularly Kirk Hammett and Billie Joe Armstrong.

In Japan, the guitars were often the go-to choice for players in the visual kei genre of rock, with X Japan and Buck-Tick notably championing the brand.

The company went on to produce a multitude of signature guitars over the years, with Robert Trujillo, Dave Kushner, and Brad Gillis among its artists, alongside Japanese stars like Hotei and Hide – with Keanu Reeves even being among its endorsees at one point.

Bands inviting fans on stage can be wonderfully endearing. We’ve seen Yungblud jam with fans time and again, while Pearl Jam recently celebrated a fan travelling 7,000 miles to watch the band by inviting him on stage to play Yellow Ledbetter with them – but one fan has used his moment in the spotlight to troll Green Day.

The punk rock legends chose to bring a fan on stage during a recent open-air show in Luxembourg on June 30, with the acoustic guitar staple Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) next up on the setlist. The chosen fan, however, had other ideas – and their wicked sense of humor got the better of them.

The young fan had Bille Joe Armstrong’s acoustic slung over his shoulder, but when he was prompted to start playing the 1997 hit in front of the 16,000-strong crowd, he chose to play Oasis’ Wonderwall instead.

Armstrong’s groan of “Oh, fuck me!” amidst a mixed reaction from the crowd – whoops and boos intermingling – hits hard. He knew he’d been duped.

The guitarist, though, swiftly unarmed his guitar-playing assailant, who put his hands to his head in disbelief. There was then a brief exchange between the pair, which likely saw the fan pleading his case before being ushered off stage, leaving Armstrong to finish the song himself.

He may have proven more forgiving if he hadn't played the long game in his bid to drop the punchline. There'd been an exchange just beforehand, with the young fan playing a chord progression that was definitely not Good Riddance, prompting Armstrong to laugh awkwardly and say, “You told me you could play this song!”

Still, Liam Gallagher found it funny at least. He commented on a clip of the prank on X with “Best song of the night.”

Green Day have been making a tradition of ending many of their sets with the help of their fans – Good Riddance's simple chord progression really lends itself to the opportunity – but this might be the first instance a fan has dared to go off-piste. The band may reconsider their vetting process in the future.

It’s been a busy few months for Armstrong. He was in Liverpool in January watching a fan cover a Green Day classic at the Cavern Club, unaware that the man who wrote it was in the room. In April, he showed his guitar solo chops by shredding Crazy Train with The Coverups, and joined the Go-Gos on stage for a Coachella guest spot, and last month they headlined Download Festival.

Green Day released their latest album, Saviors, last year, with Armstrong saying he fell in love with guitar solos again after doubling down on his love of Eddie Van Halen.

He’s also one of a select few musicians to have played Steve Jones’ Les Paul on stage in recent months, after its owner, who bought the guitar for $390,000 at auction, loaned it out to certified punk heavyweights.

Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong is better known for power chords and pop punk anthems than he is for shredding, but that doesn’t mean he can’t bust out the occasional guitar solo. He's done just that at a recent show with the Coverups, tackling Randy Rhoads' iconic Crazy Train solo complete with tapping.

The guitarist’s side-project includes Green Day bass player Mike Dirnt and touring foil Jason White and sees the collective taking on cover songs from Led Zeppelin and David Bowie to the Ramones and Poison.

The inclusion of the Ozzy Osbourne classic at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown, California will come as a surprise to many. It shows that just because guitar solos are a rare breed in Green Day’s music, doesn’t mean the guitarist is capable of letting fly.

Granted, there are elements of the solo that have been simplified, and he wears a look of pure concentration on his face throughout. Nevertheless, the way he moves through the early tapping passages is very impressive, and it's made even more so considering he’s doing it on a big-body, semi-hollow Gibson.

“It’s metal hour, isn’t it?” he asks White, with the guitarist responding with “it’s your turn,” before they get the train a’ rollin’, with Armstrong having soloed his way through Whole Lotta Love earlier in the night.

And it wasn’t just during the solo that he showed off his tapping skills, as he channeled Rhoads’ chorus tapping licks too. However, aware of how challenging the solo is, he can be seen readjusting his guitar strap as the spot draws ever closer, switching from his usual low-slung look to a more shred-friendly hip height. All while still singing. Hats off.

Armstrong rekindled his love for guitar solos on Green Day's latest album, 2024's Saviors, so the Rhoads love-in feels very much like an extension of that. Speaking to Guitar World about the record, two hotshot shredders are quick off his lips.

“When I was a kid, I loved Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. And then something happened where it was like you had to be in the guitar Olympics,” he had said. “If you wanted to play, you had to be as good as those guys and be able to play as fast as Yngwie Malmsteen.

“That’s when my tastes started changing and I started getting more into punk music and alternative, where it was more about rhythm playing. I got more into being an anti-solo guitar player, especially for [1994's] Dookie.”

The Coverups show comes after Armstrong joined the Goo-Goo Dolls at Coachella, proving something of a bucketlist moment for the guitarist, and took Steve Jones' Sex Pistols Les Paul Custom for a spin in Paris.

A trip to Liverpool earlier this year saw him taking in a show at the Cavern Club, the music venue made famous by the Beatles. There, he watched a guitarist play a Green Day song, who was completely unaware who was looking on from the crowd.

Each year, surprise collabs prove to be a key part of Coachella’s festivities. Pop superstar Benson Boone continued that tradition by tapping Brian May for a firework-laced finale to his festival set, which included a romp through Bohemian Rhapsody.

The American singer-songwriter has shot to fame in double-quick time and, was placed just below Lady Gaga – who would later rock a Suhr Custom Classic T for her performance – and Missy Elliot on the bill. However, he was evidently determined to make the most of his time on the world’s most famous festival stage – and the Queen electric guitar legend was to be his trump card.

Dressed in a white and blue jumpsuit and very regal cape that gave more than a whiff of Freddie Mercury, Boone began the cover playing a grand piano – which he then front-flipped off as May and his Red Special guitar soon rose out of the stage high above him in time for his guitar solo.

But not everyone in the crowd was as excited as Boone for the collab, with his flip getting a louder cheer than his fevered shout of “Brian May everybody!”

May stayed on for the show's closing number, Boone's chart-smashing hit Beautiful Things, which was given an altogether riffier sound. May had teased the performance on Instagram earlier in the day, posting a picture of Boone’s scheduled slot saying “Who's gonna be there tonight? This guy will shake the world.”

Afterward, Boone took to TikTok to make light of the underwhelming response May, a hero in the singer’s eyes, received on the night. He called Brian May an “absolute legend” and championed the “cultural impact he has had on the world”, but an apparent generational divide in the crowd meant the cameo fell slightly flat.

Returning to social media the next day, May clearly loved every second of his spot, saying: “I'm still reeling from last night at Coachella. Thanks to all of you folks who made it feel so special… this particular way of concluding Bohemian Rhapsody will be hard to beat in the years to come! I'm awestruck.”

This was one of May’s first major shows since suffering a minor stroke last year.

Elsewhere, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong donned an SG Junior for his guest appearance during the Go-Go's afternoon showpiece, powering through their 1984 anthem Head Over Heels. An excitable Armstrong exclaimed, “Holy shit, I’m playing with the Go-Gos,” before hurtling into the song’s first verse.

Lady Gaga's Suhr-fuelled headline performance, meanwhile, came hot on the heels of her latest album, Mayhem, for which she's cited Nine Inch Nails as a surprise influence. Her guitar choice was likely inspired by her band member's employment of the brand, with Gaga reuniting with long-time guitarist Tim Stewart earlier this year.

Some additional guitar goodness came courtesy of Beabadoobee and LISA, whose own set was filled with some sensational solos.

Last year’s big Coachella collab shock came when Nile Rodgers and his trusty Stratocaster joined K-pop sensation Le Sserafim, while AP Dhillon's guitar-smashing antics caused controversy, leading Guitar World to ponder whether smashing instruments was still deemed cool or not.

What better way to know you're doing a good job interpreting a song than to earn the approval of the person who wrote it? One lucky musician in Liverpool experienced exactly that when he found himself playing Green Day's 1997 classic Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) in front of none other than a (very discreet) Billie Joe Armstrong.

For guitarist Callum McMorran – a former contestant on The Voice UK – it was just another Tuesday, treating punters to an acoustic performance as part of his regular residency at Liverpool's iconic Cavern Club. However, another audience member spotted Armstrong himself among the attendees, who was even filming McMorran's performance on his phone.

“Imagine performing a @greenday song to Billie Joe Armstrong... Well our resident @callummcmorran got to on The Cavern Club front stage,” posted the Cavern Club on Instagram, to which McMorran replied, “A moment I won’t forget in a hurry.” The delighted guitarist also shared a longer version of this video, with the caption, “Cool moment tonight.”

A street performer in Mexico City experienced a similar moment when he serenaded Steve Vai with a rendition of Vai's For the Love of God outside the venue where Vai was scheduled to play. The story comes with a twist, though, as the busker, Rafael Flores, wielded not one but two guitars – much to Vai's awe.

And speaking of surprises, last year Billie Joe Armstrong brandished Steve Jones' 1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom on stage during Green Day's show at Accor Arena in Paris.

On June 18, guitar connoisseurs attending Green Day's concert at Accor Arena in Paris could spot Billie Joe Armstrong brandishing a 1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom electric guitar.

This guitar, however, was not just any other 1970s Les Paul. Recently sold at auction for $390,000, it was previously owned by punk royalty Steve Jones from The Sex Pistols and Sylvian Sylvain from The New York Dolls.

The guitar's new owner, Matt Lucas from Matt’s Guitar Shop, facilitated this historic moment. “Over a year ago, I became a huge fan of the genealogy of music, and for me, The Sex Pistols changed the world in many ways,” he said. “Owning that very guitar was a dream I never even imagined!”

Lucas continues, “Billie Joe is, for me, one of the iconic inheritors of the punk legacy, and it was a perfect match. Green Day was on tour, so I reached out to him, and realized one of his guitar geek dreams was to play this guitar.”

Adding to the guitar's punk pedigree, Armstrong used the Les Paul to perform Green Day's politically charged Know Your Enemy, as well as tracks from Saviors, the album the band released earlier this year. 

Given its age and years of intense use, the guitar needed some repairs to become playable again. As expected from a Pistols touring instrument, the guitar has multiple breaks and cracks. Plus, years of poorly ventilated and musty clubs, sweaty shows, and minimal care turned the guitar's original Arctic White finish into its now-iconic yellow hue.

“The bridge pickup coils were both damaged,” says Lucas. “Kloppman in Germany saved the original bobbins in three days. They are incredible! They saved the humbuckers that made the Sex Pistols.”

Lucas also masterminded Alter Bridge's Myles Kennedy using Jeff Buckley's 1983 Fender Telecaster at a Paris concert in 2019, before selling it to Matt Bellamy of Muse.

As the CEO of Matt's Guitar Shop reveals, he hopes to facilitate more of these moments for fellow guitar enthusiasts.

“These legendary guitars should be played on stage by all,” he enthuses. “I'm committed to democratizing their access and will invite other artists to play Steve’s iconic guitar in the future. The door is open!”

On April 20, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony joined Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt on stage as part of their side project, The Coverups, at Costa Mesa’s Tiki Bar.

In a video recorded by surprised fans, Armstrong is seen saying: “I wanna say thank you Michael for an unbelievable catalog of music that has changed the history of rock 'n' roll.”

The unlikely trio went on to perform Kiss’s Rock and Roll All Nite with Green Day's Tré Cool on drums, and Van Halen hits Dance the Night Away and Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love. The 28-track strong setlist also included crowd favorites from The Buzzcocks, The Ramones, David Bowie, The Pretenders, and Nirvana, to name a few.

By playing Eddie Van Halen's riffs alongside the ex-Van Halen bassist, Armstrong came full circle. In a 2024 Guitar World interview, Armstrong talked about how he grew up admiring Eddie Van Halen's guitar work: 

“When I was a kid, I loved Eddie Van Halen and Angus Young and Randy Rhoads. And then something happened where it was like you had to be in the guitar Olympics. If you wanted to play, you had to be as good as those guys and be able to play as fast as Yngwie Malmsteen. And I was like, ‘Man, then I’m just gonna end up sitting in my room for the rest of my life. I’m never gonna be in a band, ever!’

“That’s when my tastes started changing and I started getting more into punk music and alternative, where it was more about rhythm playing. And also still about great guitar sounds and great solos.”

Green Day's cover band side-project features frontman and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist Mike Dirnt. Touring guitarist Jason White, guitar and bass tech Bill Schneider, and audio engineer Chris Dugan complete the band's lineup. Their shows are sporadic but extremely popular.

This year, they played at The Garage in London on February 27, followed by the 100 Club on March 1. Their Costa Mesa show sold in under 14 minutes.

This isn't the first time The Coverups had a special guest joining them on stage. Courtney Love made a special appearance at both London shows, where they performed Hole's Celebrity Skin, David Bowie's Suffragette City, and Cheap Trick's Surrender, among other crowd-pleasers.

Green Day began the 1990s as a trio of snot-nosed Bay Area-punks, but they ended it as one of the biggest rock bands in the world, with three consecutive multi-platinum albums (led by the mega-smash 1994 effort Dookie), a string of hit singles (including the prom-dance staple Good Riddance [Time of Your Life]) and numerous sold-out tours.

But at the dawn of the new millennium the band was at a crossroads. Their 2000 effort, Warning, which saw them move in a more pop- and folk-influenced direction, was, at least for Green Day, a commercial disappointment – in part due to an unenthusiastic response from fans, and also the fact that its songs leaked onto Napster weeks before its release. 

Furthermore, personal relationships between Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool were at a low, with Dirnt admitting to Rolling Stone at the time that “breaking up was an option.” 

Nevertheless, Green Day soldiered on, and by 2002 were 20 songs into a follow-up album, titled Cigarettes and Valentines. And then the demo master tapes were stolen. 

“We didn’t know what we really wanted to do,” Armstrong tells Guitar World. “We’d been around for, like, a decade and a half, and we were just indecisive.” A lesser band might have elected for the breaking-up option. 

But rather than calling it a day at the ripe old age of 30, Armstrong and his band mates chose a different path, helped in no small part by some good advice from Green Day’s longtime producer, Rob Cavallo. 

“He said something to me that was really inspiring,” Armstrong says. “He was like, ‘Let’s make something that’s just monumental. Do things that you haven’t done before. Just fucking go for it and make an epic statement.’ ”

That “something” became American Idiot, not only the most epic statement of Green Day’s career, but also the most epic statement of any rock band in 2004 – let alone a supposed three-chord punk-rock outfit. 

A quasi-rock-opera celebrating and lamenting the disillusioned and disenfranchised in a post-9/11 America in the throes of the Iraq war, George W. Bush’s divisive presidency and all manner of cultural and social dysfunction, the record incorporated big ideas into even bigger musical statements. 

Armstrong and his bandmates took inspiration from rock operas and concept albums like the Who’s Quadrophenia and Tommy, David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and Pink Floyd’s The Wall, but also musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Grease. 

They blasted out punk anthems like Holiday and the title track, but also extended multi-movement epics like Jesus of Suburbia and Homecoming, the latter “a sort of A Quick One, While He’s Away-type of suite,” Armstrong says. 

Regarding how it all came together, Armstrong says, “We had access to a recording studio 24 hours a day, and we were just fucking around, doing it for fun. And I remember the response from Rob was, ‘This is it.’ And then we were like, ‘Oh, fuck, it is!’ I was getting to make the music I’d always wanted to make and the record I’d always dreamed of.” 

In essence, that meant pushing everything to the hilt – including his guitar approach. “I wanted to play more guitar solos and let that part of me come out,” Armstrong says. “And I was messing with different pedals and working to get the best sounds and to do it with confidence.”

Those sounds came courtesy of two primary six-strings – Armstrong’s trusty Gibson Les Paul Junior, and a Les Paul Standard he refers to as “Boobie” – and also two modified amps: a Marshall known as the “Idiot Amp,” which was modded with an extra gain stage for a crunchy, excessively thick sound, and a 50-watt Park 75 with a version of Armstrong’s “Dookie” mod in it.

A tweed Fender Tremolux was also employed for clean tones, as well as “smaller” tones like those heard on the intro to American Idiot. 

When Green Day emerged from the studio, it was as a band transformed. Whether anyone would appreciate that transformation, however, remained to be seen.

“We were known for writing two-minute punk songs, and here we were doing these eight-minute opuses,” Armstrong says. “There was a part of us that was like, ‘God, what are people gonna think of this?’ Then it just got to a point where we said, ‘Fuck ’em. This is where we wanna be,’ you know? ‘Give us an A or give us an F – there’s no in-betweens.’ ” 

The band got their first taste of how things could go down before the album came out, when they were doing pre-production at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles and decided to invite a crowd to come and watch.

“We talked to KROQ and put out the word, filled the place up and did a little concert,” Armstrong says. “That was the first time that we played Jesus of Suburbia. And I remember there was almost shock in the crowd, where people were like, ‘What the fuck did I just hear?’ I don’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but it felt like a moment where we could say, ‘Okay, we’re on the right track. This feels good…’ ”

Things, of course, proved to be really good. Released September 24, 2004, American Idiot not only revived Green Day’s career, but went on to become their first Number 1 album and one of the biggest rock records of the decade.

It spawned five hit singles – the title track, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Wake Me Up When September Ends, Holiday and an edited-down Jesus of Suburbia – and was nominated for seven Grammy awards, winning for Best Rock Album (American Idiot) and Record of the Year (Boulevard of Broken Dreams).

In 2009, a stage adaptation of the story premiered in Berkeley and eventually made its way to Broadway. To date, American Idiot has sold an astonishing 16 million units worldwide – a number that, for most bands, would easily rank it as a personal best-seller, but when you’re Green Day, and one of your albums is Dookie, makes it number two on the list.

As for how the experience of American Idiot compared to that of its mega-selling older sibling?

“With Dookie, we were so young, and the success part threw me for such a loop that I didn’t know how to respond to it,” Armstrong says.

“Life had changed so quickly that I was always feeling like, ‘Did I enjoy that moment enough?’ So I think that with Idiot, it was, ‘Let’s get the most we can out of this moment as far as feeling gratitude and feeling like we did something special.’

“Because we always wanted to have what our heroes had, like the Who making Tommy or something along those lines. Every band wants to have a Sgt. Pepper’s type of moment. And Idiot was that moment for us.”

It’s a moment that Green Day will revisit on this summer’s stadium tour in support of the new Saviors, which will also see them celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dookie and 20 years of American Idiot. 

Regarding what the band has in store for the shows, Armstrong says, “Well, we play a lot of songs off Idiot anyway, but we’re gonna add some more. So in addition to the bigger ones you’ll hear songs like Letterbomb and a few others. We’ve just got to get in and rehearse everything to kind of see what makes sense.”

He continues, “But we definitely plan to celebrate those anniversaries for sure, and play more off Dookie and American Idiot.” Armstrong laughs. “And then at the same time, of course, do plenty of stuff from Saviors and, you know, the other records.” 

• Saviors is out now via Reprise.

Green Day burst onto the scene  – or, at least, the mainstream scene – 30 years ago with Dookie, the multi-platinum monster of a record that was largely responsible for dragging punk rock out of cramped clubs and dingy DIY venues and into the world of sold-out arenas, glossy magazine covers and near-constant radio and MTV rotation. 

And while the trio – singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool – remain by far the most commercially successful punk band in history, they’ve also spent the last three decades taking a torch to any conventional ideas of what punk actually is. 

Unless, of course, you ask Armstrong, who never subscribed to conventionality in the first place. “Punk, to me, has always meant freedom,” he tells Guitar World. “Maybe there’s some people where it’s just about being an aggressive punk-rocker and saying, ‘fuck society’ and falling into all those sorts of clichés. But that’s not my definition. For me it’s about getting into the deep end of the water as an artist. All that other stuff is just limitations.” 

From the smash acoustic ballad Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) to the nine-minute, multi-movement epic Jesus of Suburbia, to the ambitious, ultimately era-defining concept album American Idiot (and its ensuing Broadway stage adaptation), Armstrong and Green Day have continually defied stock perceptions of what is and isn’t punk rock. 

Their last album, 2020’s somewhat divisive Father of All Motherfuckers, largely eschewed their characteristic sound in favor of a more Motown-, soul-, garage-rock- and hip-hop-influenced approach (with Armstrong even trying out his best Prince-style falsetto on the title track). And their new and 14th studio effort, Saviors, is yet another pivot, this time toward something that is both a return to form and a further pushing out on punk’s perimeters.

In the latter category would be tracks like the celestial, widescreen Coma City, the ’80s-style hesher-rocker Corvette Summer, the ’50s-rock pastiche Bobby Sox and the glammy, chest-beating album closer (and real highlight), Fancy Sauce. 

What’s more, Armstrong also opted to tweak his lead guitar approach on the record, adding in Angus Young-style double-stop-spiked phrases to Living in the ’20s, spacey, heavily effected lines to Fancy Sauce and a soaring solo to Goodnight Adeline, among other standout six-string moments, all of which contrast with his characteristic octave-style melodic work. 

That said, there’s still plenty of Green Day’s archetypal amped-up, caffeinated power-chord throttle throughout Saviors, from the rampaging Look Ma, No Brains! to the hard-charging aggro-rock of Living in the ’20s, to the anthemic, American Idiot-like culture-skewering opening track and first single, The American Dream Is Killing Me.

Throughout, Armstrong paints a maddening and madcap portrait of a world gone crazy, ranting and railing about TikTok and taxes, commies and cocaine, assholes in space, grandmas on fentanyl and superheroes playing pretend. It is, in his words, a “paradise for locos,” where everyone is racist, he’s fucking his robot senseless and the Uber, apparently, is always running late.

If it all feels a bit chaotic and ludicrous, well, that’s just a reflection of the times. “Whether it’s social media or influencers or war or Trumpism or political correctness, it just feels like we’re all over the place right now,” Armstrong says. “It’s just kind of…” he pauses, then laughs. “It’s just really fucked up.”

There’s an argument to be made that the contemporary music scene can seem similarly hard to make sense of – especially for an act that built its name on three-chord guitar-rock anthems. But here as well, the 51-year-old Armstrong is confident about Green Day’s place in the modern world.

“If Green Day were a new band in this era, I feel like we would fit right in next to Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift in a lot of ways,” he says.

“Because I just feel that if it’s good songs – if it’s great songs – you can bust through any genre or any sort of popularity contest. So I just always go to where I’m strongest, and that’s good lyrics, good melodies, good songwriting.” And, as Armstrong mentioned previously, ignoring limitations. “You have to throw yourself curveballs sometimes,” he says. “Or else you get bored, you know?”

Just days after premiering new songs from Saviors at a series of concerts in Las Vegas, Armstrong sat down with Guitar World to discuss the making of the record, the state of the world – musical and otherwise – in 2023 and, of course, guitars and gear.

He also took time to look back on the making of the landmark Dookie, which was recently issued in a massive 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition set that, along with indelible singles like Longview, Basket Case and When I Come Around, is packed with unreleased four-track and cassette demos, outtakes and live recordings from the Dookie world tour. 

“We were just three dipshits that were along on this crazy ride,” Armstrong says of the record that has now sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. “We made something we were really proud of, and we knew that we made something that we would love and people would love. We just didn’t know how many people would love it.”

Saviors is Green Day’s 14th studio album overall. As the primary songwriter in the band, did you have any particular intention as far as what you wanted to do this time out?

“You know, the intention kept changing. There were times where I just wanted to make a straight-up punk-rock record. And there were times where I wanted to do sort of stadium-rock, Britpop-sounding songs. And then there were a lot of false starts. 

“So with all of it, I was almost kind of confused. But then we went into the studio with the songs we loved the most and everything seemed to come together. It was almost like the lightbulb went off as we were recording it. Like, ‘Oh, now I know what we’re doing!’”

Was there any particular song which sparked this new batch of material?

“There were a few. One was the song Saviors. And then also Look Ma, No Brains!, Goodnight Adeline and One Eyed Bastard were there, too. Then later on, I had an old demo of The American Dream Is Killing Me, and that seemed to just sort of bring the whole thing together.”

Was there a reason that you chose Saviors to be the title track of the record? 

“Well, in addition to being one of the first songs I wrote for the album, I also felt like, ‘Man, this sounds like the first song off an album.’ Eventually that first song became American Dream, but when we were trying to figure out what we wanted to call the album as we were mixing, I was listening to Saviors and really hearing the sort of desperate cry for help that the song has. It’s trying to make some sense of the world. So I was like, ‘We should call the album Saviors.’ Because I think everybody’s looking for something or someone to hold onto, and to believe in.”

To that point, The American Dream Is Killing Me taps into that feeling of being untethered from modern society, and trying to find your way in a chaotic world. It’s something that you also addressed on American Idiot, which is now celebrating its 20th anniversary. Could you have imagined, when you were wrestling with these sorts of issues back then, that you’d still be doing it two decades later?

“I actually think our country is more divided than it’s ever been. And the thing about the American dream, the original idea of it, is just sort of lost on me at this point. On top of that, now we’re all sort of set on this algorithm that we’re being fed every day. I’m a victim of it, too. The stuff that I see online or on Instagram or YouTube, it just feeds the thing in your brain that your brain wants to see. You think you’re being informed, but really you’re retreating more into your own bubble.”

On the other hand, there’s tracks on the new record like Corvette Summer, which revel in total escapism. You just want your power chords and record stores, and to shut out the outside world. 

“Totally. You definitely need to have some kind of escape from everything, whether it’s going to your favorite record store, hanging out with friends in person or just doing something where you’re not sitting in front of a screen the entire time. For me, I still listen to punk rock every day. 

“I’m always looking for cool new bands, or maybe I’ll go down the rabbit hole of trying to find power-pop stuff that you can’t find anywhere except for on Discogs or specialty record stores. I do still have that escapism that I’ve had ever since I was 12 years old. So something like Corvette Summer is saying, ‘I just wanna feel good for a minute.’ Or, you know, two-and-a-half minutes. [Laughs]”

On your last record, Father of All Motherfuckers, you worked with producer Butch Walker. This time you returned to Rob Cavallo, who helmed Dookie and American Idiot, among other classic Green Day albums. What does Rob bring to the equation?

“Rob is really smart and knowledgeable. And he’s really musical – he can play the shit out of the piano, play the shit out of the guitar. He understands how to connect with the band as far as getting a really good take and gluing everybody together. And he just has non-stop energy. 

“There would be times where I would start to get tired and I would shut down, but then you’ve got Rob, who will give me a second wind. And not by force, but just by creating a good vibe in the studio and having a good time and focusing everything on the positive. And being like, ‘I want to kick ass!’ in a way. He’s like a coach: ‘Let’s get out and beat people’s ass with this next song!’ And then you go, ‘Fuck, yeah, let’s go!’ [Laughs]”

Father of All diverged pretty far off of Green Day’s characteristic sound and was a polarizing record amongst fans. How do you regard it in hindsight? 

“I think you make records sometimes where you have to learn more about yourself. To me, Father of All was this record that was like [Green Day side project] Foxboro Hot Tubs or something like that. Kind of garage-y. I love that stuff. 

“And at the end of the day I’m just trying to come up with good melodies and really take my time with writing lyrics and make sure there’s nothing left unsaid. So I plan on making records like Father of All in the future, for sure. Everyone’s gotta make records that are their “id records” or something, you know?”

On Saviors, one thing that feels a bit different for you is your approach to guitar solos. For starters, there’s more of them.

“Yeah. I kind of put on my ‘rock god’ hat and just started soloing a lot. Actually, I think I soloed more on this record than any we’ve ever done. And not in a shredder kind of way, but just more like, you know, I love [late Pretenders guitarist] James Honeyman-Scott and [late David Bowie and Ian Hunter guitarist] Mick Ronson and guys like that, who play those really melodic solos that fit with the melody and what the song is calling for. 

“Plus, it’s fun to just kind of go off and rip a guitar solo. Like Fancy Sauce – I’m playing that 'ghost-sounding' solo where it kind of comes in and out, and Living in the ’20s, I wanted to have a guitar solo like I Can’t Explain or an old Kinks song, where it just has that kind of haywire feel to it. It’s also very Angus [Young]-sounding. You’re bending strings and wiggling ’em around. [Laughs]”

What were your main guitars on Saviors?

“I used my ’56 Les Paul Junior a lot. A Les Paul ’burst that I’ve been using for years, that’s on a lot of the solos. A ’59 Les Paul Standard that I used quite a bit. I also had a ’53 Telecaster and a ’60 Esquire. You can hear the Tele for sure on the solo on Living in the ’20s.” 

How about amps?

“I have this one amp, a Dookie amp that I haven’t used in a while, since maybe [1997’s] Nimrod. That was the main one. It’s a Marshall 100-watt Super Lead [1959SLP] that was modified by Martin at CAE [Armstrong is referring to the late Martin Golub of Custom Audio Electronics and later L.A. Sound Design]. I used that a lot for the bigger, crunchier parts of the songs.”

Is this the modded Marshall amp we’ve come to know as “Pete”?

“Yeah, it is that one. I put ‘Pete’ on it because I named it for a friend.”

What’s Pete up to these days?

“Oh, he’s hanging around somewhere. I haven’t talked to him in a while. [Laughs]”

Were you using any effects in the studio? 

“I know I used my Klon [Centaur overdrive], but there wasn’t too much in the way of pedals. Just some boost type things. But there were some other amps for different tones – one I got on Craigslist, an original Roland Jazz Chorus that belonged to someone from Oingo Boingo or something. 

“It’s on the song Suzie Chapstick, which has that Pretenders kind of sound to it. And then for some of the clean things, like on Bobby Sox, I used Mike [Dirnt’s] amp, actually, his ’63 Fender Bassman.” 

How would you characterize your approach to the guitar these days?

“When I was a kid, I loved Eddie Van Halen and Angus Young and Randy Rhoads. And then something happened where it was like you had to be in the guitar Olympics. If you wanted to play, you had to be as good as those guys and be able to play as fast as Yngwie Malmsteen. And I was like, ‘Man, then I’m just gonna end up sitting in my room for the rest of my life. I’m never gonna be in a band, ever!’

“That’s when my tastes started changing and I started getting more into punk music and alternative, where it was more about rhythm playing. And also still about great guitar sounds and great solos, but not like the heavy metal thing, which started to become kind of a parody.

“So what happened was I got more into being an anti-solo guitar player, especially for Dookie. But I think as time went on after that, I became less bashful about saying, ‘Okay, this is stuff that I had learned along the way, that dates back to when I was 13 years old. Let’s let that free now to try to put a spotlight on a little bit more of what I’m capable of, and not be afraid of making a bad noise.’

“I’ve gotten to a point where I know my limitations, but at the same time I’m really pushing myself to be a better guitar player.”

All that said, does it feel like in 2023 people still want to hear guitar bands, in particular in a mainstream context? How does Green Day fit into that landscape?

“I mean, if we were a new band in this era, I don’t know if trying to sign to a major label and doing all that would be the right place for us. But since we have all this history of having big songs and big records and a lot of mainstream success it’s a different story. 

“I also feel that we continue to generate new fans, just because there’s something about the energy of Green Day that I think a lot of young people flock to every time we put out a new album. Our fans are all ages – and I’m talking, like, 11-year-olds to 65-year-olds in our audience.”

Regarding Green Day’s longevity, 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of Dookie. In addition to putting together the Deluxe Edition package, you recently played a small club show at the Fremont Country Club in Las Vegas, where you performed the full album from front to back. When you think back to that time, what comes to mind for you?

“That record was just massive, and we were all, like, 21 years old. So it was such a crazy era for us. But the great thing about Dookie is when we were rehearsing it [for the Vegas show], it still felt fresh. It didn’t sound dated. 

“And all our favorite records, whether it’s the Beatles’ Revolver or the Who albums or the first couple of Van Halen records, one of the things that makes them great is you’re like, 'Oh, this feels like it was just made yesterday.' And Dookie still feels like that.”

One interesting thing in listening to the four-track demos included on the Deluxe Edition, they’re pretty close to what we hear on the official studio versions. Some of the cassette demos veer off stylistically, but by the four-track recordings everything sounds fully realized. Is that the way you guys were working back then, with everything really tight and ready to go by the time you hit the “record” button?

“Definitely. Because we didn’t want to change our sound. Although we did want to make everything sound bigger, with fatter guitars and a bigger sonic range overall. Because our first couple records, the first one [1990’s 39/Smooth] was made for 700 bucks, and the second one [1991’s Kerplunk] was made for, like, 2,000 bucks or something like that. And in a small studio. 

“So we wanted to expand on that and have a little bit more time to get better sounds. But also, we were really adamant about the fact that we grew up hearing bands go from their original sound to the big, gated reverb snare that just washes everything and makes records from the ’80s sound like shit. We didn’t want to do that. For us it was, ‘We want to reflect what we sound like live, but just make it larger.’”

In 1994, an album like Dookie would not necessarily have been pegged as an obvious hit. That was the era of grunge, when guitar rock was not exactly bright and shiny and unashamedly melodic. Did you feel out-of-step with the mainstream at that time? 

“I think so. But you know, grunge had also started becoming really watered down. You could hear a lot of people were just being imitators of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. And so we were like, ‘Well, let’s just be anti-that.’ [Laughs] Maybe not necessarily ‘anti,’ but, ‘Let’s be the other side of the coin.’ 

“And then there’s the other side of that, where if you’re going against the mainstream grain, you could fall flat on your face, too. There’s definitely that fear. You don’t know what’s gonna happen. But we knew we made something we were really proud of, so we had that.” 

And once you achieve success, then you have to contend with being perceived as sellouts. Which was a big thing in the ’90s. In fact, Green Day had to deal with it even before Dookie was released, just due to the fact that you had signed to a major label, Reprise, prior to recording the album. Looking back, does it seem a little insane how worked up people could get about that sort of thing?

“It was weird. It was crazy. I mean, I definitely feel like we were sort of the guinea pig. It’s like we were like the first pancake, you know? [Laughs] Other bands that came after us that were punk and got popular, they didn’t get the kind of backlash that we did. 

“But the area we come from, it’s the East Bay, it’s the home of [incendiary punk and hardcore zine] Maximum Rocknroll. So I think it was a combination of being from the area we came from and also being the first one. 

“But it makes you start to really understand who your real friends are. I remember getting in fist fights with people over this shit, you know? Now, I don’t think it would really ever happen. I mean, I don’t know the scenes today, whatever their rules are, but it was crazy for us. But I know we made the right choice.”

A few days after the Fremont Country Club show you headlined the When We Were Young Festival in Vegas, where you performed alongside bands like Blink-182, Good Charlotte, Sum 41 and dozens of other acts that, to various degrees, incorporate elements of that Dookie approach into their sound. Do you hear the influence?

“Yeah, for sure. I mean, a lot of it is just because bands have told me, to my face ‘If it wasn’t for that record…’ [Laughs]”

There’s actually a whole musical universe that Dookie helped to create. 

“It’s like when I listened to Generation X or the Replacements. All those big bands for me – I guess it’s what Dookie is for a lot of other bands. And I couldn’t be more grateful for that. For people to be like, ‘You put something out there that had an impact on someone else’s future’? It’s an amazing thing.”

• Saviors is out now via Reprise.

Last month, Green Day released Saviors – their 14th studio album, which marked not only the latest addition to the punk rock icons’ celebrated discography, but also a notable shift in the soloing approach of the band’s frontman.

As Billie Joe Armstrong details in the most recent issue of Guitar World, Saviors saw him make a conscious effort to rekindle his relationship with the humble guitar solo, resulting in what he describes as quite possibly the most solo-heavy record of Green Day’s repertoire.

When quizzed about the abundance of lead efforts on the album, Armstrong reflects, “I kind of put on my ‘rock god’ hat and just started soloing a lot. Actually, I think I soloed more on this record than any we’ve ever done. 

“And not in a shredder kind of way, but just more like, you know, I love [late Pretenders guitarist] James Honeyman-Scott and [late David Bowie and Ian Hunter guitarist] Mick Ronson and guys like that, who play those really melodic solos that fit with the melody and what the song is calling for.”

Melody and ‘serving-the-song’ sentiments aside, there was another reason why Armstrong decided to ramp up his lead playing on Saviors: it was fun. 

“Plus, it’s fun to just kind of go off and rip a guitar solo,” he goes on. “Like Fancy Sauce – I’m playing that ‘ghost-sounding’ solo where it kind of comes in and out, and Living in the ’20s, I wanted to have a guitar solo like I Can’t Explain or an old Kinks song, where it just has that kind of haywire feel to it. It’s also very Angus [Young]-sounding. You’re bending strings and wiggling ’em around. [Laughs]”

Armstrong’s shift towards re-embracing guitar solos for Saviors comes decades after his younger self shifted towards doing the opposite when Green Day were still in their early years. 

This choice to sit out of this soloing culture, he tells Guitar World, came in response to the generational virtuosos he looked up to as a youngster – a response that directed him towards more rhythmic playing.

“When I was a kid, I loved Eddie Van Halen and Angus Young and Randy Rhoads. And then something happened where it was like you had to be in the guitar Olympics,” Armstrong explains. “If you wanted to play, you had to be as good as those guys and be able to play as fast as Yngwie Malmsteen. 

“And I was like, ‘Man, then I’m just gonna end up sitting in my room for the rest of my life. I’m never gonna be in a band, ever!’ That’s when my tastes started changing and I started getting more into punk music and alternative, where it was more about rhythm playing. 

“And also still about great guitar sounds and great solos, but not like the heavy metal thing, which started to become kind of a parody. So what happened was I got more into being an anti-solo guitar player, especially for Dookie.”

Over the years, though, Armstrong felt inclined to let his younger years influences filter into his playing and, in his own words, “Try to put a spotlight on a little bit more of what I’m capable of, and not be afraid of making a bad noise”.

“I’ve gotten to a point where I know my limitations,” he concludes, “but at the same time I’m really pushing myself to be a better guitar player.”

To read the full interview with Billie Joe Armstrong, visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar World.

In other Armstrong news, the Green Day guitarist recently reflected on his emotional, tear-filled first meeting with Eddie Van Halen.

In case you weren't following along at home, the shiny new March 2024 issue of Guitar World is the first issue to feature Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong on the cover since March 2017 and the third Armstrong cover – Louis, Lance, Neil or otherwise – during my 13 years at GW.

It also happens to be packed with stuff!

As much as I enjoy editing and assembling themed issues (like the '80s issue, the '90s issue or last month’s Eric Clapton special), I really love issues like this one, aka “everything but the kitchen sink” issues – the ones with at least seven different features.

It’s where/how/when I feel the magazine does the most good in its attempt to cover and mirror the ever-expanding world of guitar – or at least to deliver an enjoyable slice of that world.

To that end, I’m loving this issue’s mix of characters and topics, including...

>>> Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong tells the origin story behind Saviors, the punk superheroes’ first new album in four years, and looks back on the making of 1994’s Dookie. In a separate feature, Armstrong recalls the making of the band's monumental comeback album, 2004's American Idiot.

>>> Gretsch, Rickenbacker, Fender, Epiphone... Hamburguitar? In the Beatles' mid-'90s Anthology era (which also spawned their 2023 single, Now and Then), George Harrison's guitars of choice were built by a man named Bernie Hamburger.

>>> Code Orange’s Reba Meyers and Dom Landolina shift lanes with The Above (while Steve Albini and Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan come along for the ride).

>>> In a rare Kiss-centric interview, Ace Frehley takes a strut down memory lane and discusses nothing but – you guessed it! – Kiss.

>>> Chelsea Wolfe and Bryan Tulao break down the dark, swirling masterpiece that is She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She.

>>> NYC session great Eddie Martinez recalls his time with Run-DMC, Blondie, David Lee Roth and Robert Palmer. He also sets the record straight – once and for all – about exactly who played the Addicted to Love guitar solo.

>>> In a new book, Smiths great Johnny Marr traces his entire career through the prism of his amazing collection of guitars. Why don’t all our guitar heroes do this?

>>> How Ted Nugent accidentally destroyed – and later gave away – his first Gibson Byrdland.

This issue – aka the devilishly good-looking (and very red) March 2024 issue of Guitar World – is available right here, right now.

This issue also features...

We have new interviews with Tool's Adam Jones, Marty Friedman, Mary Timony, Evanescence guitarist Troy McLawhorn, Erik Rutan and Rob Barrett from Cannibal Corpse, Phantom Planet's Alex Greenwald and Helmet's Page Hamilton. There's also a quick goodbye to the late Denny Laine of Paul McCartney and Wings, including a guide to 10 of his essential tracks.

Meanwhile, Joe Bonamassa shows you how to play I Want to Shout About It, Andy Timmons helps you build powerful arrangements, Josh Smith explains how to apply “handcuffs” as a soloing device and Andy Aledort shows you how to mimic vocal melodies on guitar.

This month's transcriptions are Don't Back Down by Mammoth WVH, the live Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash and the 1992 live version of Don't Think Twice, It's All Right by Eric Clapton.

We have reviews of the UAFX Lion '68 Super Lead Amp pedal, the Ernie Ball Music Man Luke 4 SSS, the Stage Right by Monoprice SB100 100-Watt All-Tube Two-Channel Guitar Amplifier with Reverb, the Revv Amplification Tilt Boost pedal and the Squier Paranormal Nashville Stratocaster.

In Power Tools, Chris Gill explores the history and mystery of the mighty Gibson ES-335.

You can buy new issues of Guitar World at Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Hudson News, Books a Million and other stores – and online from Magazines Direct. And, while you're at it, why not save on every issue by subscribing?

When Billie Joe Armstrong went to watch Van Halen as an aspiring 12-year-old and started crying because of the sheer majesty of Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing, he probably had no idea he’d be the one reducing his hero to tears decades later.

But that’s exactly what happened: during a recent interview with Howard Stern, the Green Day frontman recalled how the late electric guitar great literally cried when he met Armstrong backstage.

When asked about his affinity for Van Halen, the Gibson signature artist reflected on how he himself burst into tears when he witnessed EVH’s wizardry first-hand during a gig in 1984. 

“They were my favorite band, and I cried,” he said. “Because Eddie was so… it’s like his guitar playing came from a different place. Like, he reinvented how to play guitar.”

But it wasn’t just Van Halen’s guitar playing that struck a chord with Armstrong. The aspiring musician was equally moved by the Frankenstein mastermind’s musical sensibilities and songwriting chops. 

“I think that’s the main thing I took away from Van Halen,” he asserted. “The songs were just so fucking great.”

Fast-forward through the years, and Armstrong embarked on a trip with his friends to see Van Halen at Kansas City. The group purposely skipped the California show – “It just seemed a lot of people were there hobnobbing and it was like, you know, a lot more celebrity and rockstars and things like that backstage” – and instead ventured to “the heart of where rock fans are”.

It was around the time Van Halen had reformed with David Lee Roth, and at the gig he attended Armstrong was given the opportunity to meet the group personally. Little did he know it would end up being a deeply moving encounter.

“It was kind of an emotional thing,” Armstrong reflected. “First we went back and I met Wolfie, who was super-cool, and then they were like, ‘Do you want to meet Eddie?’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god.’

“So he's back there and he's got his guitar on, he’s plugged in and he’s just… it’s like he’s talking to me and shredding at the same time. And I don’t know if anybody really knows this, but the size of his hands are gigantic. 

“I grabbed his hands and I looked at them, I was like, ‘Dude, your hands are so…’ He’s like, ‘Oh, I’ve got arthritis now,’ and blah blah blah.

“And then this really insane thing happened where he kind of started crying, and he looked at me, and he put his hand behind my neck, and he goes, ‘You’re the only one that understands me,’ and he just had tears coming down his eyes.”

As it turns out, emotion hit Van Halen because he knew the Green Day frontman saw him as more than just a guitar player, and appreciated him for so much more than just his ahead-of-its-time chops.

“I didn’t really know what to say. I was like, ‘Man, you have no idea how much you’ve meant to me as a musician and as a songwriter.’ He was like, ‘People think I’m an alien because of the way I play,’ and I'm like, ‘It’s all about your songs.’ And he goes, ‘Exactly. Exactly.’”

Armstrong was also witness to another impactful exchange, which this time took place between Eddie and his son, Wolfgang.

He continued, “It was this really heavy experience and then the crazy thing is – it was this really sweet thing that happened – Wolfgang came in, and Eddie’s shredding, and he’s going, ‘Dad… Dad… Dad!” He was like, ‘We have to tune.’

“So they both had their guitar and bass. They weren’t using a tuner. Then Eddie said the coolest thing – it was a father-son moment – he goes, ‘Do you want to tune to me, or do you want me to tune to you?’

“That kind of bond that a father and son had as musicians I thought was just… it always stuck with me as this beautiful thing.”

Armstrong isn't the only guitarist to have had an emotional meeting with Van Halen. Last year, Vito Bratta recalled to Guitar World how he too was reduced to tears upon meeting his hero.

Green Day are set to reopen the virtual doors to their official Reverb Shop, through which the band plan to sell nearly 100 pieces of music gear that has been used on tour and in the studio across the years.

Naturally, it is Billie Joe Armstrong’s own assortment of electric guitar offerings that will be of particular interest to six-string fans, with the frontman contributing a selection of notable instruments to the sale.

There will be, unsurprisingly, a handful of Gibson Les Paul Juniors included in the event, but there are two that stand out among the rest: a bright pink model that is actually a prototype BJA signature guitar, and a one-of-a-kind, custom relic’d version that can actually be won simply by signing up for store details.

The former example, though, notably served as a test for Armstrong’s 2017 signature Gibson, and became the template for which the guitarist and his tech experimented with numerous hand cut pickguard shapes and pickup mounting options.

There is, as such, a fair few drill hotels scattered around the body of the single humbucker guitar, which also seems to be missing its two control knob tops.

The preview list also plays host to another Les Paul Jr., this time in the form of a vintage 1956 sunburst model that, according to Reverb, was purchased in 2017 during Green Day’s Revolution Radio tour and became Armstrong’s hotel and bus practice guitar.

Two final Gibsons make the store preview, including a heavily played, stage-used ES-335 that was built-to-order for the frontman specially for the 21st Century Breakdown tour, and a Sonex 180 Deluxe.

Gibsons aside, Armstrong’s personal Fender Bullet Deluxe – another one of his practice strummers during various US and European tours – and a heavily customized Gretsch Electromatic that can be seen in the music video for Back in the USA are also set to be listed.

This is only an early preview, remember, so more guitars will be added to that list when the store eventually goes live next week. A Hiwatt cab has also been teased, so it’s safe to assume some amps and pedals will be thrown in the mix, too.

The Green Day Reverb Shop will go live on October 18 and, as mentioned above, those who sign up for more information are in with a chance of winning that relic’d BJA Les Paul Jr.

Head over to Reverb to find out more.

And now this: it is the overdrive pedal that has had more comebacks than Sinatra, the one that captures Billie Joe Armstrong’s fierce, effervescent pop-punk rhythm guitar tone in a compact, pedalboard-friendly housing, and it is officially back, again… Yes, it’s the MXR Dookie Drive.

This really was a surprise announcement from MXR/Jim Dunlop, or was it? After all, by our counting, this is the fourth edition of the BJA signature drive pedal. 

The first came in 2019, released to mark the 25th anniversary of the California punk institution’s landmark album, Dookie, and voiced to capture the electric guitar sounds on the recording. Then there was version 2 and version 3, each with revised artwork. And now, by popular demand, we have another.

Once again, version 4, if we are really calling it that, has a new design on the front, with an enclosure repainted in red. The controls – and the circuit – remain unchanged.

There are dials for Output, Gain, Tone and Blend, with a Scoop button for hollowing out some of the mids – a very popular move in the ‘90s, not least among the metal guitar crowd, but also for Armstrong. In his two-amp rig, one Marshall was scooped with the gain cranked, the other with more mids dialed in.

What made, or makes, the Dookie Drive so interesting is not just how easy you can dial in a tone – it is a bit like playing through two big guitar amps, running hot – but the versatility that comes by way of its Blend control, allowing you to mix the signal between the stack running at full throttle high-gain, and the other as crunch.

Now, by this point you might be asking yourselves, how many more times is MXR going to reissue this? Why not just add the Dookie Drive to the lineup and have at it? And you’d be forgiven for asking the question. 

But technically speaking, if you are not someone who did it all for the Dookie, so to speak, you could get the same sounds – the same pedal, essentially – in MXR’s FOD Drive.

Getting the sound of modified Marshall amp stacks and housing them in a compact pedal was quite the achievement. Little wonder MXR wants to get it on as many pedalboards as possible. And if you’re a Green Day fan, this new paint job is pretty killer.

The street price for this v4 edition is $199 / £219. For more details on the current MXR lineup, head over to Jim Dunlop.

Can it really be 69 years ago that Gibson took the wraps off its bare‑bones Les Paul Junior? Well, it is, and while it might have been aimed at students back in the day, you don’t need us to tell you it’s powered many classic recordings to which Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong has certainly contributed. He’s been a Gibson signature artist since 2006, his latest was back in 2018, and there’s already an affordable Epiphone Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior.

Billie’s take for 2023 is as much a celebration of his style as it is a viable new addition to the oeuvre in its pink plastic Protector case with leopard print interior, a stock Vintage Ebony finish or this show-off Silver Mist metallic. 

The 2018 version used a standard ’57 Classic zebra humbucker, and previous runs featured a stacked-coil P-90 design. Under the dog-ear cover of this latest signature guitar is a new humbucker created by Gibson’s Jim DeCola that’s based on the ‘sidewinder’ style Gibson actually first used on the Seth Lover-redesigned EB-2 bass pickup back in 1958.

Pickup and finish aside, this version also differs from the Original Series Junior with its ’60s-style Billie Joe Armstrong SlimTaper neck profile, individual Gibson Deluxe tuners and large strap buttons.

Now, if you want a perfectly finished guitar, you might need to look elsewhere. Although the top clear coat is perfectly flat and glossed, you can see the grain of the mahogany in numerous places and a rather obvious tooling mark where the neck joins the body. As the neck is a full-width tenon, there’s that body lip on the treble side that is much more square-edged than our ’57 vintage reference. 

It’s also not possible to confirm whether the 45mm thick slab body is one or multi-piece because the only wood we can see is the slightly orange-tinted rosewood fingerboard. The edges of the ’board are lightly rolled and the standard medium-gauge frets are cleanly installed, just lacking a final polish on their tops. 

The neck pitch is good, too, so the lightweight aluminium wraparound bridge sits low to the body, though it does tip forward a little. While the setup is fine, intonation with this simple bridge will never be 100 per cent, but it’s certainly good enough for some rowdy rock ’n’ roll.

Feel & Sounds

This one is a perfect weight, light but not excessively so, and thanks to the pretty full shoulders (which are fuller than our Les Paul Classic’s standard SlimTaper), the neck feels bigger than the measurements suggest: 20.8mm deep at the 1st fret, 22.7mm by the 12th. Acoustically, there’s an alive feeling, a crisp and ringing response.

The pickup sits pretty close to that bridge; it’s 34mm from the domed top of the bridge to the centre of the high E polepiece, so 10mm closer than our ’57. As supplied and with no overall height adjustment, the top of the dog-ear cover sits around 3mm from the strings on both sides (measured with the outer strings fretted at the 22nd fret), although you can, of course, adjust the slot-head polepieces to your taste. Our ’57 model’s dog-ear is almost too close to the strings by comparison, approximately 1.5mm on both sides.

But what we hear from this BJA isn’t a million miles from our ’57: it has slightly less output and less of the big lower midrange, it sounds a little clearer and a bit more polite, and it’s less raw. But turn up the wick and it’s certainly got some balls, and it sounds and feels quite well behaved – more standard humbucking-like than our ’57, which is both noisier and quite microphonic by comparison.

The tone control is certainly effective, and though the volume’s taper is quite fast, many will just leave things full up. And that’s where we hear maximum sizzle – pulling that volume back does round things but only very slightly.

There’s quite an upcharge for this package, so unless you want a vivid pink leopard print case, or indeed a Junior in metallic silver, you might want to go for the standard model in one of its two historic colours.

Specs

• PRICE: $/£2,199 (inc case)
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Single-cutaway, solidbody electric
• BODY: Mahogany
• NECK: Mahogany, Billie Joe Armstrong SlimTaper profile, glued-in
• SCALE LENGTH: 624mm (24.6”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech/43.3mm
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, acrylic dot inlays, 305mm (12”) radius
• FRETS: 22, medium jumbo
• HARDWARE: Aluminium wraparound bridge, Gibson Deluxe tuners w/ white buttons – nickel plated
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 51.5mm
• ELECTRICS: Gibson P-90 DC Dogear humbucker, volume and tone controls
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.31/7.3
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISHES: Silver Mist (as reviewed), Vintage Ebony – gloss nitro-cellulose
• CONTACT: Gibson

Gibson has announced the arrival of the 2023 Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior – its latest signature guitar for the Green Day frontman.

The new model is fairly similar in spec to Armstrong’s 2018 signature LP Junior, featuring a mahogany body, a mahogany neck with Armstrong’s custom slim taper profile and a rosewood fingerboard. Elsewhere, you’ll find gloss nitrocellulose finishes (in Ebony or Silver Mist), a wraparound bridge and Vintage Deluxe tuners.

There are some crucial differences, though. The first and most important of these is the inclusion of a P-90 DC Dogear pickup, which replaces its predecessor’s ’57 Classic humbucker. This takes it much closer to Armstrong’s favorite Les Paul Juniors – the 1956 sunburst he dubs ‘Floyd’ and his black 1959 model.

“The single cut ’50s Les Paul Jr has been the root of my guitar tone for over 20 years,” says Armstrong. “Ever since I bought ‘Floyd’ my 1956 Sunburst Jr, in the early 2000s I have been addicted. It’s a simple, raw, and powerful guitar that has a sound that just can’t be beat! Plug it straight into any tube amp, crank it and it will roar!“

A large part of that is down to the updated P-90, which aims to channel the classic tone of the pickup, but uses a dual-coil design to reduce unwanted noise. Gibson describes it as a “modernized” take on the Sidewinder build developed by PAF pickup inventor Seth Lover in 1958.

Secondly, there’s been a few tweaks to the headstock end, namely a new Graph Tech nut and a truss rod cover that now carries Armstrong’s signature.

The third and final difference is the least consequential but most immediately noticeable: an offensively lurid pink hardshell case. Specifically, a rock-solid Gibson Protector case with luxurious leopard print plush lining. Naturally, we love it.

One last thing to note is the price, which has risen almost 60 percent compared with the 2018 model: from $1,399 to $2,199 for the 2023 edition. That’s a pretty sizeable swing, even with the custom case and new P-90. 

So, thanks for nothing, inflation... on the plus side, if you spend your rent money on it, you can probably sleep in the case. That plush lining looks really comfortable. 

If that feels like poor decision-making, you can always pick up the 2021 Epiphone Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior, which also features a P-90 pickup and is priced around $549.

For more information on the Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior, head to Gibson.

Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong says he will renounce his US citizenship following the decision by the US Supreme Court to repeal Roe v Wade, ending a woman's constitutional right to have an abortion.

Speaking at a packed London Stadium on (Friday) June 24 – which Green Day were playing as part of their ongoing Hella Mega Tour with Fall Out Boy and Weezer – Armstrong announced his plans in a strongly worded message.

“Fuck America,” he said. “I'm fucking renouncing my citizenship. I'm fucking coming here. There's just too much fucking stupid in the world to go back to that miserable fucking excuse for a country.”

After a lengthy applause from the audience, Armstrong added: “Oh, I'm not kidding. You're gonna get a lot of me in the coming days.”

Armstrong's criticism of the Supreme Court was continued during the band's performance the following day in Huddersfield, England, when – before playing American Idiot – he declared, “Fuck the Supreme Court of America”, calling the justices who voted to overturn Roe V Wade “pricks” (per the Daily Mail).

Fans might not have been surprised by the words of Billie Joe Armstrong, who has numerous times before used his Green Day platform to make political commentary.

Two of the band's most commercially successful albums – American Idiot (2004) and 21st Century Breakdown (2009) – were both strongly critical of George W Bush, who served as the 43rd President of the United States between 2001 and 2009.

In an apparent response to Armstrong's comments, Five Finger Death Punch bassist Chris Kael tweeted: “No one cares about anything enough to pack up and move out of the country. It's easy to say onstage, on TV and on social media; but, when's the last time you actually packed your bags for anything longer than a brief vacation and a quick return home? Stop bullshittin’.”

Billie Joe Armstrong was one of many guitarists criticizing the SCOTUS decision. Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello said it would result in a rise in illegal abortions, noting that his great grandmother “died from an illegal, unsafe abortion”.

In a statement posted on Pearl Jam's website and read out in concert by frontman Eddie Vedder, the band said: “No one, not the government, not politicians, not the Supreme Court should prevent access to abortion, birth control, and contraceptives. People should have the freedom to choose.”

Meanwhile, Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick said those who voted to repeal Roe v Wade were “forcing unwanted pregnancies upon women”.

The market for gear is saturated with signature guitars, amps, pedals, guitar picks and so forth, but what about all those artist collaborations we don’t see at NAMM?

Over the years, guitar players have proven to be an entrepreneurial breed. Sometimes out of a sense of philanthropy, restlessness from too much post-tour R&R. Or maybe sometimes it pays to have a sideline.

We all know the music industry can be a harsh and unforgiving sector. It has never been easy to make a buck with an electric guitar in hand. Once upon a time, there were moguls, gruff folk putting the squeeze on the talent, and great big managerial sharks capable of swallowing a college fund whole.

Then came Napster, file-sharing, the hollowing out of the business model. Silicon Valley’s H bomb. When you add all that up then factor in the ever-capricious tastes of the record-buying public, it makes sense for a pro player to have some start-up business smarts.

Indeed, musicians have always shown a commercial acumen that would make them as welcome on campus at Harvard Business School as they would be at the Ryman. Here, we're going to look at some of our favorite guitar player collaborations with the captains of industry, and those who have taken the concept of the well-stocked merch table to its logical conclusion.

We'd be remiss not to give mention to some of the enterprising merch strategies over the years. KISS, in particular, are a case study in branding and reach. KISS Koffee remains a favorite brew for creatures of the night doing battle with the morning. Beer is big. But we typically see that in the wild as an outgrowth of the band’s brand – and indeed a penchant for a frothy cold one. Look at the joy their cold Canadian golden ale has given Rush’s Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee.

All self-respecting rock and metal bands have a beer nowadays. Iron Maiden have a very brown, very English ale, the Trooper. Status Quo have a malty little number named for their 1972 album Piledriver. Those urbane sophisticates Megadeth have a Belgian-style saison, A Tout Le Monde, and AC/DC’s Australian Hardrock lager is a crisp German number that will have the average person bladdered and duckwalking to the toilet after a touch too much.

Whiskey? Well, Metallica’s Blackened American Whiskey is made using some traditional and avant-garde methods, with some batches exposed to 11 of the best from the ‘Tallica catalog to presumably improve the aging process. 

But if beer and whiskey seem like appropriately adjacent products to align with, the following guitarist x industry collabs are more left field, and just what do they tell us about the guitarists who brokered them?

1. Yngwie Malmsteen x Sharpie – A marker pen

Birthdays in Chez Malmsteen must be tricky. What do you get for the neoclassical shred virtuoso who has everything? A Ferrari makes a poor investment with gas prices the way they are. Not another guitar amp, that’s for sure. As the bold Mr Malmsteen has explained, and with no little delight, he has an embarrassment of riches on that front. His Great Wall of full-stack Marshalls – allegedly, though yet to be verified – can be seen from orbit.

A Stratocaster? Pah! He’s got them, his studio crowded by an array of signature Strats. How about a pen? Maybe some Montblanc, fancy-pants fountain pen? Well, you’re outta luck. Because Sharpie, yes, the marker pen brand, has already released a personalized range of Yngwie Sharpies. We’re not sure what cut, if any, Yngwie gets on this, but as signature gear goes this is, well, this is very practical: setlists, autographs, daubing arpeggio sequences onto bus shelters.

2. Billie Joe Armstrong x Kat Von D – Basketcase eyeliner

This collaboration between punk superstar Billie Joe Armstrong and makeup brand KVD raised eyebrows upon its release but it left eyes well and truly lined – just the thing for that up-all-night, shambled-in-from-Camden look.

Now, if the pharmacist is closed for the night, you could in a pinch borrow one of Yngwie’s Sharpies instead, but we don’t advise it. You won’t get that smoky come-hither that KVD’s non-precision eyeliner range excels at.

Unlike mascara, which always looks like something The Borrowers use to clean the chimney, and is mildly hazardous to the retinas, eyeliner is easy to apply and a very forgiving medium. You might even say it’s American idiot proof. Armstrong describes it as being the ultimate pick-up line in the punk scene, which is good to know for all you punk singles out there. Also good to know is proceeds went to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Kat Von D and Billie Joe Armstrong also collaborated on another charitable endeavor, funding a chimpanzee sanctuary. Evidence once more of the Monkees’ influence on punk and alternative rock.

3. John Mayer x The Laundress – Out West laundry detergent

Many of us go weak at the knees at the mere mention of the words ‘John’ and ‘Mayer’. Often because of his carefully curated signal path, campus-schooled chops and exquisite phrasing. He knows our pressure points. Other times, well, he is – how to put it – kinda dreamy, and more than that, clearly a man who takes some care and attention when laundry day comes around.

When that day comes, you can bet that the Sob Rock superstar is washing his duds in his signature Out West detergent. It’s tough on stains, easy on colors, and can be used in the machine or fingerstyle (commonly referred to as ‘handwashing’).

Unlike germanium diodes, it operates well in all temperatures, and it’s suitable for cotton, linen, blends, and synthetics, and more. It hasn’t been tested on animals, and 50 percent of the retail price goes to supporting voluntary private land conservation in the state of Montana.

Wait, you don’t think we’re going to let you out of here without some notes on the scent? Grab this and your cotton Oxford will be as fresh as a daisy, offering “crisp and powdery notes with undertones of sandalwood, leather, and amber surrounded by spice, patchouli, and musk”. We’ve all smelled worse on the last train home.

4. Hot sauces: Joe Perry, Billy Gibbons, Obituary’s Trevor Peres and more…

Janie might have a gun but Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry has his own range of Rock Your World barbecue and hot sauces and they’re so darn tasty you’re gonna need a pump for this stuff. Boneyard Brew table sauce? Just the thing when sitting down to eat the rich. Or maybe you prefer some mellower piquant sweetness, try the house Original BBQ sauce.

In case you get some pulled pork stuck between your gnashers, or maybe if dinner was so enjoyable you have to break into song before dessert, Perry has been known to ship these sauces with a guitar pick. 

Apparently, the back story to this saucy tale – and let’s be real here, there have been a few saucy tales in the history of Aerosmith – is that Perry found the food on tour too bland, and so he cooked up his own sauce. It sure does add a whole new level of subtext to Lord of the Thighs. Or to Get Your Wings for that matter.

Then you have Billy Gibbons and Tim Montana’s range of salsas, BBQ and hot sauces. Those who sprinkle reaper chilli flakes on their granola in the morning might enjoy the Have Mercy hot sauce, rated 9 on the heat dial, but if it’s a casual lunch and you need something to put on the kids’ sandwiches, the Blanco BBQ looks the part.

As for Obituary’s Trevor Peres and his collaboration with Bump In Sauce – evocatively named T-Bone’s Famous Original “Rib’Licious” BBQ Sauce, it presumably has that uncanny ability to make anything and everything taste not just edible but delicious. You could grab the Rat off of Obituary guitarist Trevor Peres’ pedalboard, slather it in “Rib’Licious” then wedge in a brioche bun and it’d taste like ambrosia.

Is it strange for guitar players to have their own BBQ sauces? Well, not when they hail from the Sunshine State. They know a thing or two about grilling down in Tampa, Florida. But there sure are plenty of pickers who have put their name to condiments – Johnny Winter, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Zakk Wylde, Dexter Holland, and Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein have all got their own signature sauces. Speaking of…

5. Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein – Vegan Monster Protein

Mention Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein and mealtime and it’s not necessarily hot sauce that springs to mind. Doyle might look like he would eat your first-born with fries and peas but IRL he is a vegan, and has developed a high-protein formula that will help you add to your abs, tighten your buns and rack up those gains.

Vegan Monster Protein, which was also [unconfirmed] his nickname in the Misfits, is easily prepared. Simply mix with eight to 16 ounces of water – or some non-dairy milk – and you are good to go. You can also use it as a meal replacement shake.

Pro tip (well, more of a suggestion): why not mix it with tomato juice then spike it with Doyle’s Cajun-style hot sauce, whose basil might add a little je ne sais quoi and make the Vegan Monster Protein a Vegan Monster Hangover cure?

6. Mustaine vs Hammett: Dave Mustaine x Net Worth Coffee Brokers vs Muddy Waters Kirk Hammett Greeny Blues Blend

Having resisted the clean tone joke with regards John Mayer and his detergent, it behooves us not to mention the word bitterness or anything leaving a bad taste in the mouth here when talking about Dave Mustaine, Kirk Hammett and a humble cup of good morning America. 

MegaDave had every right to be proud of this roast, working with his wife Pam on this signature blend. Sadly, it is no longer available, but for all your coffee needs and here to save breakfast we have Kirk Hammett. 

His partnership with Muddy Waters Coffee Company on the Greeny Blues Blend is inspired by his Greeny ’59 Les Paul Standard and offers “a rich, full-bodied dark roast with notes of dark chocolate, earth and tropical fruit.” Like Mustaine, Hammett’s coffee collaboration sees money going to good causes, with portions from each sale of Greeny Blues Blend ($20 for 12 ounces) going to music industry non-profit Crew Nation.

7. John Petrucci x Captain Fawcett Nebula beard oil

There are some telltale signs that Dream Theater’s John Petrucci has officially got his shit together. Number one: listen to his discography, a body of work in which compositional audacity is met in kind with executional exactitude. No slop. This is a disciplined man.

We also know he loves barbecue, holding court at the grill. So why couldn’t JP have joined the legions of guitar players and brought a barbecue sauce to market? 

Well, no, because with a beard as lustrous, vigorous and luxuriant as his, the last thing you want is to soil it with a cayenne-rich condiment. Instead, looking for a new vertical, Petrucci went all in on beard care, bottling up some magic whisker elixir in the shape of his signature blend of beard oil.

It’s a serum known only to Petrucci and the good Captain Fawcett, and it might just give your facial shrubbery the gloss of the immortal. “Exhilarating top notes of bergamot & aromatic myrtle riff with a bittersweet tang of grapefruit, rising to an intense heart of earthy, violet orris, dark coffee & tenacious woody cedar. A pulse of seductive musk trails a smoky backbeat laced with vetiver & luxurious leather…” 

No, not the title of the new Dream Theater album, but how your beard will smell when gussied up with Petrucci’s Nebula.

8. Billy Gibbons’ signature sandwich – the Whisker Bomb Po’ Boy from Antone’s, Texas

The man with the most famous whiskers in rock ’n’ roll history is not afraid to upend beard best practice and take a walk on the wild side when lunchtime comes around.

Here he has a Whisker Bomb Po’ Boy from Texan sandwich institution Antone’s that is a guaranteed three-napkin meal. It contains, of course, some Billy Gibbons signature Whisker Bomb sauce, which is applied to a filling of buttermilk fried-green tomatoes, harissa, chipotle mayo, goat’s cheese and arugula, and served up on warm fresh French bread from Royal Bakery.

The Whisker Bomb Po’ Boy is part of a charity initiative with proceeds going to the Clifford Antone Foundation, a non-profit “dedicated to preserving music culture”. But with all those condiments, it’s going to be right up there with cereal milk as the number one threat to beard-wearers across Texas.

9. Brian May x Seiko – Red Special watch

Timekeeping is an essential skill for the guitar player, and we have all manner of gadgets to help us, from the bleep-bleep of the internet metronome, wrist-bands with haptics, to these strange people commonly referred to as drummers. But what about when you’re not playing? How do you stay punctual? 

For Dr Brian Harold May, that’s easy: he has a signature Seiko watch, his second collaboration with the Japanese watchmakers.

It celebrates May’s recent reissues and has a design inspired by his Red Special guitar, with a face that looks like pressed wood, and a deep red finish that contrasts nicely with the gold-and-black of the bezel and strap. That striped detail on the strap is meant to look like guitar strings, which as six-string references go is a deep cut, alluding perhaps to May’s signature Optima Gold electric guitar strings. 

10. Tony Iommi Monkey Special Xerjoff

By a nose, the most unlikely commercial collaboration of any guitarist, we have Tony Iommi, godfather of heavy metal and perfumer at large, working with Italian perfume house Xerjoff on a signature scent.

When we first heard the news it was smelling salts we needed, not a unisex perfume with strong opening notes of bergamot from Reggio Calabria, rum, Bulgarian Geranium and passionfruit.

But lo, the plot thickened, with Iommi sharing the story of how he was weaned on evergreen festive fragrances Old Spice and Brut, before becoming a collector as he toured the world. So heady was the whiff of the perfume counter that Iommi released his first music in eight years, Scent of the Dark.

Perhaps it is time we upped our olfactory game and upgraded to a bottle of Monkey Special, named for his iconic Gibson SG Special, and leave the Old Spice to the shark fishermen.

11. Deftones x Golden Barn – The Passenger Box signature cannabis

So, you’ve polished off that bag of Mustaine’s coffee at the back of the cupboard, chasing it down with a pint of Hammett’s, and now you’re so wired with the caffeine that you find yourself arguing on the internet about Metallica, James Hetfield’s dog and the hinge in heavy metal history that took place right before the release of Kill ‘Em All.

That means it’s time to step away from the screen find your chill, and Deftones’ Stef Carpenter might just have the thing for you – a signature weed line developed in partnership with Golden Barn. Now, this is definitely a 21st century collab, and it looks to be available in California only, at least for now. For readers of a certain vintage, not to mention certain states, news of this is mind-blowing enough without actually sampling it.

Technically, this is a band collaboration, and shouldn’t count, but we strongly suspect Carpenter was operating as project manager for this one. “You can smell it immediately when you open it up,” he says. “It tastes just as it smells. It gets the job done.” A conversation one would never hope to have with a spaniel at the airport.

The storied ranks of Epiphone Les Pauls have been joined by a minimalist new signature guitar, the Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior.

A lower-cost version of the Green Day frontman's first Gibson signature Les Paul Junior (not, it's worth nothing, his 2018 Gibson signature LP JR), the guitar is built with a slab mahogany body and a mahogany neck with an Indian laurel fretboard that boasts 22 medium jumbo frets.

Like its Gibson big brother – itself based on "Floyd," Armstrong's 1956 Les Paul Junior – the guitar boasts a single pickup at the bridge, in this case an Epiphone PRO P-90. Controls are limited to single master volume and tone knobs with CTS potentiometers.

In keeping with the guitar's no-bells-and-whistles spirit, its only signature visual touch is Armstrong's autograph, printed at the back of the headstock.

Elsewhere, the 2021 Armstrong Les Paul Junior boasts a wrap-around lightning bar bridge, a Graph Tech nut and a set of Epiphone Vintage Deluxe tuners. A custom hardshell case is also included.

The guitar is also available in a Player Pack version, which features the guitar (with a bolt-on neck and without Armstrong's signature) and a Epiphone 15G guitar amp with two channels – clean and overdrive – a three-band EQ, and an aux input. 

The included gig bag, meanwhile, features an Epiphone guitar strap, guitar cable, electronic clip-on guitar tuner, and a trio of Epiphone-branded guitar picks.

The Epiphone Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior is available now – in a Classic White finish – for $549, a pretty stellar price, we must say, for any signature model, even an Epiphone.

The Player Pack version of the same guitar, meanwhile, is only available in the U.S., and rings up at $399. 

For more info on the guitar, stop by Epiphone.

With the return of live music comes the return of everyone’s favorite gig stories: heartwarming tales of talented youngsters taking the stage alongside their electric guitar heroes in front of packed venues to wow attendees with their effortless chops and rock-star-in-the-making stage presence.

After seeing Lauren join Foo Fighters for a rendition of Monkey Wrench, Green Day have now got in on the action, inviting young guitar prodigy Meyer – who, according to a Reddit post, is only 11 years old – onstage during a recent Hella Mega Tour concert .

Commenting on the YouTube video, a Mike Gordon wrote, “That’s my boy, Meyer!!! He’s been practicing and jamming Green Day throughout the pandemic. Hours each day.”  

Taking place at the Hersheypark Stadium last Friday (August 13), Green Day were halfway through their rendition of Operation Ivy’s Knowledge, before they invited young Meyer up to join them.

Emerging with an American Idiot album t-shirt and a naturally cool rock star attitude – see him egging on the crowd the minute he stepped foot on stage – Meyer was then given a Pacific Blue Epiphone Les Paul Melody Maker E1 to wield.

One quick-fire impromptu guitar lesson from Billie Joe Armstrong later, the 11-year-old was up and running, immediately blasting his way through the track’s customary D, C and G powerchords. 

The track came to a frenetic end, with Green Day bass guitar player Mike Dirnt joining Meyer for a back-to-back photo finish, while Armstrong – who had his Hamer double-cutaway axe nonchalantly slung over his shoulder – brought proceedings to a close.

“Hey, kid, come here!” he instructed, before giving the plucky young player choreographed instructions for an Armstrong special – a flying jump off the drum platform. And as an added bonus, he even got to keep the guitar.

“They (Green Day) are his favorite,” Gordon's comment added, “but he also loves to play Nirvana, [Smashing] Pumpkins, Foo [Fighters], Blink [182] and Rage Against The Machine. Proof positive that hard work and dedication to your passion, with a little luck sprinkled in, can make dreams come true. 

“So fucking proud. Much gratitude to Billie Joe, Mike and Tré for being such gracious rock stars. Best show ever!”

On Gordon's YouTube channel, you can find videos of young Meyer playing pop punk classics, including Green Day's Basket Case and Blink-182's All The Small Things.

Green Day’s much-delayed Hella Mega Tour, a joint venture with fellow rockers Weezer and Fall Out Boy, resumed earlier this year after being put on hold by the pandemic.

Recently, Rivers Cuomo took to the stage on his own for a stripped-back cover of Fall Out Boy’s Sugar, We’re Goin Down after a band member tested positive for Covid, forcing the group to pull out of two dates.

Green Day have released their first new music of 2021, the electrifying, aptly named Here Comes The Shock.

It's the band's first material since last year's Father Of All Motherfuckers, and Billie Joe Armstrong's first outing since his solo covers album No Fun Mondays.

Debuting as part of the NHL Outdoor Games on NBC last Saturday (February 20), Here Comes The Shock features a familiarly high-gain electric guitar line that punches its way through at break-neck speed, accompanied by rapid-fire rolls on the snare and hi-hat.

The track, which was announced on Twitter, was released in North America on February 21, with the rest of the world getting it a day later.

Accompanying the release of the single is a Punk Rock Aerobics-led music video, which aims to gets hearts a-pumping with a series of knee-high skanks, Iggy Pop punches and customary air-guitar strums.

The new material comes in anticipation of the Hella Mega Tour's resumption, which has so far been delayed due to the pandemic. Boasting a stellar lineup composed of Green Day, Weezer and Fall Out Boy, it is hoped that the bands can get back on the road soon to begin the tour.

If all goes well and Green Day hit the stage soon, don't be surprised if they use Here Comes The Shock as a warm-up track – it might be needed after all these months without any high-energy live music.

BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG
No Fun Mondays
REPRISE / WARNER

It’s rare for an album of covers to rival any great artist’s own work. But the effort Billie Joe Armstrong put into his 2020 lockdown project cannot be understated. 

No matter how disparate the source material, Armstrong ties each track together with his big, soaring singalong voice and loveably gritty fretwork. You can hear how much fun he had dipping into his new-wave edge on “Kids In America”; when he hits the chorus on “Corpus Christi”, you can tell how strongly he envisioned howling it out to a jam‑packed stadium. 

Perhaps most importantly, though, Armstrong doesn’t merely emulate his heroes on this tirelessly spirited love letter to them – he makes each song entirely his own, keeping the integrity of each intact while spinning them all through his own jammy and jovial punkabilly lens. 

Wait, it's December already? Yes, this really quite terrible year is finally coming to a close, but it's doing so with a proverbial bang, and a boatload of new guitar releases.

This week, we've got Billy Joe Armstrong paying tribute to one of his foremost early influences, a dose of early-'00s nostalgia courtesy of KennyHoopla, and a thrilling gem from the Eddie Van Halen archives.

And that's your intro. Dive into our choice picks below…

Billie Joe Armstrong – Police on My Back

Billie Joe Armstrong’s latest side project traces its roots to the start of the coronavirus lockdown back in March, when the Green Day frontman, backed by his sons, shared a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells’ I Think We’re Alone Now.

The pop-punk trailblazer promised he’d release a new cover every week, and as a result of the last six months or so, we’ve now been treated to an entire album worth of BJA reworks of classic songs.

Among the record’s highlights is Police on My Back, taken from The Clash’s 1980 album Sandinista!. As you’d expect, Armstrong injects a little pop-punk DNA while preserving the track's unforgettable melody. (SR)

David Garfield/Eddie Van Halen – If 6 Was 9

In the wake of his passing, it was said by many that the loss of Eddie Van Halen was the greatest blow to the guitar universe since the death of Jimi Hendrix 50 years earlier. 

Given their mutual status as titanic figures who changed how the electric guitar was played and perceived, it definitely makes sense, and makes it all the more sweet to hear one of those world-changing guitarists pay homage to the other.

Hailing from from keyboardist David Garfield’s new EP, and opening with an absolutely ridiculous solo – packed to the brim with the dive bombs, light-speed tapping and deliriously fun attitude we all know and love from Eddie – this spin on the Hendrix classic is one of those great lost studio treasures where you hear an artist who’s so musically well-defined just let loose and have fun. 

If you’re here to have your face and brain melted with fretboard pyrotechnics, you’ll get that and then some. More importantly though, If 6 Was 9 shows – in the midst of all those blink-and-you-miss-them runs – just how much the man loved guitar and pushing himself in new and different ways every time he picked it up. (JM)

Alpha Male Tea Party – Bonfire Disaster Movie

Just when we thought we’d heard all that is good and guitar-y in 2020, the UK’s premier purveyors of sledgehammer instrumental riffage have made a triumphant return with a surprise new album, Infinity Stare, which lands tomorrow.

Bonfire Disaster Movie is emblematic of the trio’s increasingly refined approach to The Art of the Riff. Guitarist Tom Peters lets loose with a multitude of octave-embiggened stabs, before making way for a (never thought we’d type this sentence) surprisingly sexy ring mod/bass synth middle eight – a palate cleanser of sorts for the return of the track’s monolithic main hook.

In short, it’s a blistering display of massive guitar sounds and tight arrangements, and guaranteed to deliver a Merry Riffmas indeed. (MAB)

KennyHoopla – ESTELLA// (Feat. Travis Barker)

To anyone who might opine that pop punk is dead, we’d be quick to show them the latest effort from Cleveland singer-songwriter and rapper KennyHoopla.

He’s recruited Blink-182 backbone and all-round guest favorite Travis Barker to deliver the rhythm section of his new track ESTELLA//. It’s feel-good, super-melodic, and it’s got as authentic a pop-punk instrumental as a track can possibly possess. The guitars underpin it all, with four-chord powerchord lines, palm-muting and infectious leads among the highlights. 

Side note: we love how certain parts of the music video look as though they were taken from the early 2000s. Nice touch. (SR) 

Brian Ray – Got A New Thing

Got A New Thing – the new single from longtime Paul McCartney guitarist Brian Ray – is definitely a tune his boss’d be proud of. 

Featuring Weezer’s Scott Shriner on bass and fellow Macca bandmate Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums, this power-pop gem oozes McCartney’s influence – the pitch-perfect harmonies, playful-and-hooky riffs, a simple chorus that lodges itself into your head by the second listen.

Ray is no mere impressionist though, and his raucous vocals and surprisingly powerful lyrics (Ray says the song is about “justice for the victims of sexual assault. It imagines the corrupt abuser being taken away in handcuffs and the victims going on to a new life, a ‘New Thing’, if you will”) give this tune a long leg up over the scores of McCartney imitators out there. (JM)

Dre DiMura - Died in Dallas

You might remember Dre DiMura as the intrepid guitarist behind the blindfolded performance of Eric Johnson’s Cliffs of Dover, and this new single is similarly adventurous.

Died in Dallas sees the guitarist team up with Periphery frontman Spencer Sotelo for a pop-punk extravaganza that runs the gamut, from trap breakdowns to a neoclassical middle section and some insane shred runs. Ace. (MAB)

Within The Ruins – Devil In Me

With their sixth studio album Black Heart, Massachusetts four-piece Within The Ruins deliver a savage and unrelenting volley of groundshaking riffs, furious drumming lines and intense guttural screams.

While the album boasts quality metalcore goodness from start to finish, sixth track Devil In Me is a particular highlight. It’s pretty much got it all; brutality, virtuosity, time signature shifting and a selection of thoughtfully constructed melodies.

In just three-and-a-half minutes, it takes you on one hell of a sonic journey. (SR)

Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Make Worry for Me

A fantastic merging of the musical minds that first took place in 2005 with the album Superwolf, Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy have joined forces again for a stellar new single.

With Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (Will Oldham) handling vocals, Sweeney paints a stirring musical backdrop, with a hypnotizing riff that touches on the heaviness of grunge, the folk/Americana tradition and the ready-to-pounce feral aggression of punk.

Sweeney’s brief-but-climatic solo is similarly eclectic, incorporating a touch of psychedelia that serves as the perfect final seasoning for the beautifully surreal, welcome return of this duo. (JM)

Billie Joe Armstrong’s 1970 Olympic White Fender Strat electric guitar, which the Green Day frontman used during the band’s 21st Century Breakdown tour in 2009-2010, has gone up for sale through London's Denmark Street Guitars.

The Strat, which can be seen in many photos and videos from the period, features an alder body and maple neck and has been modded to include a Seymour Duncan JB SH4 in the bridge position, with the single coils in the neck and middle positions disconnected based on Armstrong’s preference.

There’s also a sticker emblazoned with wings and the words “Class of 13” under the bridge, as well as significant buckle rash on the back and wear on lower bout where Armstrong’s, um, arm, hits the body.

The Strat, which comes with a hard case and a signed certificate of authenticity from Billie, is offered for £12,999 (approx. $17,350).

If this is a bit out of your price range, Armstrong's 1970 Martin D-41, also used on the 21st Century Breakdown tour, is available as well.

The dreadnought boasts a solid spruce top, solid rosewood back and sides and abalone inlays and also comes with a case and certificate of authenticity. This one will only set you back £11,999 (approx. $16,000).

For more information, head to Vintage and Rare.

When Kurt Cobain and Nirvana first unleashed Nevermind on the world, Steve Vai was coming off a stint in Whitesnake and recording insane electric guitar instrumentals like this.

So you could be forgiven for assuming a guy like Vai might not appreciate the playing of someone like Cobain. But you’d also, apparently, be wrong.

In a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar, Vai was asked if he felt there was something that set players like the Nirvana leader apart from others.

"Yes,” Vai replied. “Their intention. When the intention is strong, nothing will stop them. Kurt Cobain is a good example of that. He just did the music he wanted to do – that's what my take is on it.

"When I hear him and I hear that band, I don't know how much music theory or anything like that he knew, but he was able to develop enough technique to get his point across. He didn't have a virtuoso technique, but he didn't need it.

"You've got to keep in mind that his style of playing – those chords and the way he would arpeggiate chords and then go into that blasting kind of thing. All the years I spent practicing scales and virtuoso type riffs, he was locking onto these chords in a very connected way.”

Vai also took the time to highlight another guitarist he feels falls into this category of player – Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong.

"When you see that guy strumming chords, it's virtuosic in a sense because it sounds like an orchestra when he slams that guitar – every string has its own zip code, you know what I mean? Kurt was like that too,” Vai said.

"A lot of people might not look at him as a virtuoso but he had a connection with the thing he was doing. He found his comfort zone with his technique. Everyone is doing that.

"You can look at someone like John McLaughlin, who has required a different technique to get his point across, and Bob Dylan, who required his own technique on guitar to get his point across.

"Everybody needs some kind of technique and they will naturally gravitate to the thing that is most appropriate for them – if they don't get too confused with what everyone in the outside world is telling them. They've got to trust their instincts."

Appropriately enough, we just posted a guide on how to play guitar like Billie Joe - and nailing his idiosyncrasies is much harder than you might expect.

And if you thought you'd never catch Steve Vai playing Nirvana, either, we've got news for you: he teamed up with Joe Satriani and Guthrie Govan to offer up a very G3 take on Smells Like Teen Spirit back in 2016.

Billie Joe Armstrong sure knows how to make guitars sound big! Even shred god Paul Gilbert described him as one of the best guitarists in the world for his blistering downpicking. Billie Joe’s mastery of palm muting and powerchord riffing rivals even thrash metal giant James Hetfield.

Here, we’re giving you the tools to deliver Green Day’s breakneck riffing and melodic solos. The outwardly simple delivery is deceptive, and you’ll need to develop highly accurate fretting to make it work. 

To play as hard as possible, Billie Joe often strums all six strings regardless of the chord, using his fretting hand to control which notes ring out. Check out our photos to see how small details make simple riffs sound so great.

• 5 guitars that defined Billie Joe Armstrong's career in punk

1. Holding the pick

Billie holds his pick at an angle between his thumb and index finger, not quite flat on the pad nor on the side, which facilitates...

2. Pick angle

Attacking the strings at about 30 degrees gives Billie an aggressive tone and reduces resistance so he can play faster.

3. Stubbing

When fretting octaves or chords with their roots on the fifth string, the tip of Billie’s index finger brushes (or ‘stubs’) the sixth string just enough to mute it.

4. Fret hand muting

Billie Joe’s first finger rests across the first four strings, muting them. Together with stubbing, he can pick aggressively without unwanted open string noise.

5. Lead playing thumb position

Live, Billie uses this thumb position to fire off Chuck Berry-style solos. It makes string bending easier on the high strings, and he sometimes uses it for powerchords.

6. Rhythm playing thumb position

Billie Joe doesn’t worry much about thumb placement for rhythm playing, but he often uses this position. Do what feels comfortable, as long as there’s no fret buzz.

7. Palm muting

This is where your hand needs to be for BJA’s legendary palm-muted powerchords. Note how the back of your hand touches the bridge saddles. Then, to switch...

8. Unmuted picking position

...rapidly to an unmuted sound, he makes a tiny rotation of the wrist. The two positions should be extremely close so you can alternate between them at speed.

9. Pick attack 1

Billie Joe’s pick motion is a combination of forearm rotation and flicking his wrist. For loud strums, he raises his hand level with the top of the guitar, palm up...

10. Pick attack 2

...before slamming the pick downwards, turning his hand so it finishes in this position. The pick needs to brush the top of the strings to avoid getting stuck.

21st century technique breakdown

You’ve looked at Billie Joe’s playing techniques, now have the time of your life with these Green Day inspired riffs! Here you can put your technical know how into practice while you learn some punk style riffs. 

And it’s more than just pure technique - we’re looking at some now standard musical ideas that can be traced back through punk’s history. From essential chord shapes to powerchord riffs and octave-based melodic soloing, there’s enough food for thought here to keep you going during any punk-inspired jam session. 

Have a look at the tab, listen to the following audio tracks and try to memorize some of these essentials.

1. Powerchord embellishments

The bulk of Billie Joe’s riffs use classic powerchords like the D5 and G5 shapes in bars 1 and 3. He’ll also mix things up with the sus4 and slash chord shapes (A/C#, G/B etc) shown here. 

You can hear this approach on the outro to Basket Case. Even when he’s not palm-muting, Billie still prefers downstrokes for the most aggressive sound.

2. Palm-muted downpicking

Riffs like this will develop your downpicking and your ability to switch rapidly between palm-muted and unmuted strumming. As you play, mentally check for tension in your shoulder, elbow, and wrist - it’ll slow you down, so, if you’re at all tight, stop playing, shake it off and try again. 

The slide in bar 4 is another essential punk motif. Keep pressure on the strings as you slide to keep them ringing out.

3. Octave-based soloing

Green Day solos are melody-based and easily singable. To make the lines stand out, Billie Joe often plays them in octaves, as on American Idiot. Stub your first finger against the sixth string and use the underside of that finger to mute the idle strings. 

You’re then free to strum all six strings aggressively and only hear the notes you’re fretting.

4. Fret hand muting

On Green Day classics like Nice Guys Finish Last, Know Your Enemy and Holiday, the powerchords are often punctuated with staccato bursts where the strings are muted entirely with the fretting hand. 

If you mute with just one finger you’ll hear lots of high harmonics; muting with two or more digits gives you Billie Joe’s chunky, percussive sound. Aim to mute all six strings, and then you can pick hard without fear of unwanted noise.

5. Pedal tone soloing

When he’s not soloing in octaves, Billie Joe often creates memorable lines by using pedal tones. He’ll often throw these in to embellish solos which are otherwise based on the vocal melody. 

You can try playing the same licks over changing chords to get more mileage from one idea. In bars 3 to 4 here, you’ll need to barre the second and third strings to play smoothly.

There are few players in punk who wield an electric guitar like Billie Joe Armstrong. He's rocked them, he's smashed them, he's even had them custom-built only to give them away to fans onstage.

He's had his share of signature models. But which guitar do you think of when you hear Billie Joe's name? Is it Blue, the Fernandes S-style that was with him since the early days, since before the early days? Or is it the Gibson Les Paul Junior? 

You could argue that Billie Joe Armstrong single-handedly brought the Junior back into style, with Gibson launching a signature model in 2018 to consecrate this feat. 

Maybe it is all of the above and more. The funny thing about a player's guitars is that you can tell the story of their career through them. That's why number one in our top five Billie Joe guitars just had to be "Blue."

1. Fernandes S-style, aka Blue

One of the most iconic guitars in punk-rock history, ‘Blue’ was a gift from Billie Joe’s mum on his 10th birthday. 

It appeared in most early Green Day videos, including Basket Case, Longview and Welcome To Paradise, as well as countless tours. 

Since its beginnings as a Fernandes Strat copy, it’s had the neck and middle pickups disconnected and the bridge pickup changed to a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker.

2. The White LP Junior

For American Idiot, Armstrong reinvented his guitar sound, switching from Blue to primarily Les Paul Juniors. The raw, spiky sound of P90 pickups propelled some of the angriest lyrics Green Day had recorded to date. 

His white Junior is immortalised on the Bullet In A Bible live DVD, featuring Green Day and 130,000 of their closest friends. Billie Joe also used a pair of 1950s Juniors, each worth more than the entire recording budgets for Green Day’s first two albums.

3. Gibson Billie Joe Armstrong Signature Les Paul Junior 

In 2018, Gibson launched a guitar with elements of both Blue and the Billie’s signature Les Paul Junior. The single humbucker threatened a return to Dookie-style beefier tones, while keeping the look and playability Armstrong has favoured since 2004. 

The finishes were a nod to Green Day’s 50s rockabilly influences – maraschino cherry, ebony and (of course) sonic blue.

4. Fender Blackout Telecaster Custom

The guitar itself isn’t special – based on a Blackout Telecaster, it has a custom scratchplate and a Duncan JB. Green Day’s tech has built dozens of them as backups for Blue. 

What’s cool is that Billie Joe keeps giving them away. A quick YouTube search turns up videos of fans being invited on stage to play with the band and going home with one of these Teles. Now that’s punk rock!

5. Gibson "iHeartRadio" Les Paul Junior Doublecut

The TV yellow Les Paul Junior doublecut is infamous mainly for its destruction at the 2012 iHeartRadio festival. 

On learning that Green Day only had four minutes left to play, an aggrieved Armstrong launched into a spectacular rant before taking vengeance on his undeserving Gibson. 

Videos of the event quickly went viral online. In the aftermath, Billie Joe checked into rehab, his tech rebuilt the guitar, and Gibson’s shrewd marketing department spied the opportunity for a new signature model.

Back in January Dunlop unveiled the MXR Dookie Drive, which promised to recreate the sound of Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s amps on the band’s classic 1994 album.

Now, to celebrate the pedal’s official release, Armstrong himself has filmed a demo video in which he discusses his history with “chasing good tone and trying to get the ultimate rock sound.”

Additionally, he runs through the Dookie Drive’s distortion settings, hinting that turning the Blend knob fully counterclockwise will give the user the full Dookie tone. Turning the knob all the way to the right, meanwhile, offers something “a bit nastier, louder.”

Putting the Blend knob somewhere in the middle?

“I have no idea,” Armstrong admits.

You can check out the full video above.

For more information, head to Jim Dunlop. 

NAMM 2019: Following Billie Joe Armstrong’s tease on his Instagram page last week, Dunlop has officially unveiled the MXR Dookie Drive. The new unit is emblazoned with the cover art from Green Day’s iconic 1994 breakthrough album, Dookie, and looks to capture the sound of Armstrong’s amp on that album, which is believed to have been primarily a modded Marshall Plexi 1959SLP reissue that he had nicknamed Pete.

According to Dunlop, Armstrong’s Dookie tone was derived from “running his signal through two heavily modified amplifiers—one scooped with a ton of gain and the other with a well-defined midrange. When it came time to mix the record, the band blended the two signals together in different ratios to match the vibe of each track.”

For the Dookie Drive, Dunlop borrowed and analyzed the two amps, and then rebuilt them from scratch in pedal circuit form and fit them into a single housing. According to the company, “the High Gain and Clean Gain sections each have their own controls, while the Blend control allows you to mix them together just like Green Day did in the studio. If you want some extra scoop in the midrange of the overall output signal, just hit the Scoop switch.”

The Dookie Drive will be offered for $189. 

For more information, head over to jimdunlop.com. 

Online musical instrument marketplace Reverb.com has partnered with Green Day to launch the Official Green Day Reverb Shop, which will feature more than 100 pieces of gear used on tour and in the studio by the band throughout their career. The shop will feature items from every member of the band, including nearly 50 of Billie Joe Armstrong’s personal guitars.

“Every guitar has its own character. Each one reflects who you are—the kind of songwriter you are, the kind of guitar player that you are. Used guitars, in particular, come with a history to them. I love the character you can see looking at a fretboard that’s been used,” said Armstrong, who sold several guitars, amps, and more on Reverb just over a year ago. “After 30 years of collecting odds and ends and really good stuff...I have to sell some of it off.”

Among the instruments Armstrong is putting up for sale include the Harmony Stella parlor acoustic he used to record “F.O.D.” from Green Day’s seminal 1994 effort, Dookie, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The guitar, which was one of the first that Armstrong ever owned, still retains the original board tape set to the intonation and the same guitar strings. Armstrong is also selling the Marshall 4x12 Cabinets used on the tours to support Dookie and the follow up, Insomniac. The cabs, which have been a staple in Green Day shows since 1994, still have residue from the legendary mud fight that ensued during the band’s 1994 Woodstock performance.

Other guitars in the Official Green Day Reverb Shop include:

- A rare 1958 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top guitar that was one of Armstrong’s favorite guitars to play in the studio and around the house. The guitar was also used at a number of Longshot and Coverups shows.

- The 2011 TV Yellow Gibson Les Paul Junior guitar that Armstrong smashed during the 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas. The guitar has been put back together and is now playable.

- A Fifties Gibson ES-125 TCD electric guitar used live on tour in support of 21st Century Breakdown, Uno... Dos... Tré!, and Revolution Radio.

- A Fifties Gibson ES-140T electric guitar that Armstrong used on the tour bus throughout the Green Day tour supporting American Idiot.

- A 1972 Fender Telecaster Deluxe electric guitar that Armstrong used live on the 21st Century Breakdown World Tour.

- A Seventies Gibson L6-S electric guitar that was hand-painted by Armstrong and used live on tour.

- A Gibson Billie Joe Armstrong Signature Les Paul Junior signed by Armstrong and a Gibson Billie Joe Armstrong Signature Les Paul Special electric guitar that took Armstrong nearly two years of prototyping to create with Gibson.

Additionally, the shop will feature more than 20 pieces of studio gear and nearly a dozen amps, including a Mesa/Boogie Basis M-2000 that bassist Mike Dirnt used from 1997 to 2003, primarily on the tours to support Nimrod and Warning. There’s also five drum sets and a dozen snare drums that were seminal to Tre Cool’s career. 

Check out some of the guitars that will be up for sale below. To view all the items, head over to the Official Green Day Reverb Shop.

NAMM 2019: Yesterday, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong caused a stir among gearheads on Instagram when he posted a photo of what looks to be a signature MXR Green Day “Dookie” pedal with the caption, “Anyone going to NAMM?”

No other information has been released yet, but the pedal, which sports Output, Gain, Blend and Tone knobs, as well as a Scoop button, is believed to be an overdrive pedal based on Armstrong’s Dookie tone, which powered hits like “Longview,” “Basket Case” and “When I Come Around,” and was derived from a modded Marshall Plexi 1959SLP reissue that Armstrong nicknamed Pete.

To check for updates, head over to JimDunlop.com.

Back in January, Green Day premiered the somber lyric video for "Troubled Times," a track from last year's Revolution Radio. Now, the band has released a music video for the song, featuring outspoken frontman Billie Joe Armstrong reflecting on recent events in the news.

And these are truly recent events, as the video features footage from the violent incidents during the protests in Charlottesville, Va this past weekend, in addition to other news clips and images featuring war, violence and drug use.

You can watch the emotionally charged clip below.

For more on Green Day, visit greenday.com.

The gang at Loudwire shared a new video showcasing some of the gnarliest guitar destruction clips ever caught on camera.

We’ve got Richie Blackmore going ham on an unsuspecting cameraman, Yngwie Malmsteen literally splitting his guitar in two over a cabinet, and everyone’s favorite—the ol’ Hendrix and lighter fluid routine.

• If the thought of destroyed guitars makes you shudder (hey, we get it), then proceed with caution. But for the rest of you, enjoy!

If there’s any overriding theme for ¡Uno!¡Dos! and ¡Tré! — Green Day’s monumental forthcoming trio of albums—that’s it: the weird phantom zone between having a grownup’s responsibilities and wanting to spend your whole life getting your teenage rocks off. The 36-song set is heavily loaded with some of the most adolescent, loud, fast and obscene pop-punk that Green Day have churned out since their 1994 breakthrough album, Dookie, or even their earlier indie-punk releases, like 39/Smooth and Kerplunk.

But nestled among the tracks are some of Billie Joe Armstrong’s most mature songs to date, the reflections of a 40-year-old man who ignited the mid-Nineties pop-punk revolution, forged the sacrificial bridge between punk and the classic rock opera in 2004, penned some definitive anthems of the American Apocalypse, acted in a hit Broadway show and sold millions of records. Now, as then, he continues to record and perform with his two best pals from his teenage years, and remains married to the girl he fell in love with when he was 19.

“I just think, Holy shit, I’ve been documenting my feelings in songs since I was 16 years old,” he says. “And I’ve gone through 20-something years just documenting how some of those feelings have changed and how you evolve from a kid to an ex-kid, to a man-child, or whatever you want to call it. You realize how juvenile, maybe, some of your feelings still are. And sometimes you see how you evolved as an individual.”

But fear not! This is still very much the same guy who named his band’s major-label debut album after excrement. And he says Green Day had a blast all the way through the making of ¡Uno!¡Dos! and ¡Tré!. “It was a good feeling the whole time,” Armstrong says. “There was never any feeling of pressure. No bad feelings. There was no struggle to make it.”

Armstrong is kicking back in a lounge at a massive rehearsal studio outside L.A. He’s dressed in standard-issue street-punk gear: red Converse, black jeans and a T-shirt. His hair is messy, Beatles-esque and, following another one of his weird blond periods, once again jet black. Out in the hallway, bassist Mike Dirnt is trying on a succession of slim-cut, boldly striped trousers for a photo shoot to promote the new discs, pulling the garments from gigantic wardrobe cases that clutter the corridor. He’s still in his own blond hair phase. When I commend him and the band on coughing up 36 killer tracks, with nary a stinker or dog in the bunch, he shrugs and says, “Well, it wasn’t that hard. We wrote over 80 tunes for this thing!”

¡Uno!¡Dos! and ¡Tré! were the result of a tremendous burst of creativity on Green Day’s part. It was fueled by several things. For one, they made a firm decision to abandon the narrative, rock opera format of their two previous studio releases, American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. Armstrong found it liberating not to have to write songs to fit a plot or conceptual brief. “We definitely wanted to get away from that,” he says. “Closing the chapter on 21st Century Breakdown and that era gave me the freedom as a songwriter just to start getting into the fun of playing music again and changing things up. If anything, there was a conscious effort to get back to basics and just treat each song individually.”

Armstrong also had plenty of time and inspiration to write new songs while he was appearing in the Broadway production of American Idiot in 2010 and 2011. “Being in New York for that long a period of time,” he says, “I fell into this routine where I would get up in the morning, have my coffee, go for a walk, come back to my apartment, write a song and then do the show at night. I set up a small studio in my apartment where I could get my ideas down. Then I’d shoot over to the theater and act like a madman onstage. And being around all the actors, surrounded by all that constant creativity, I just couldn’t help it; I started writing songs.”

Back at their headquarters in Oakland, California, Green Day started arranging and structuring the new material. “Next thing we knew, we ended up with something like 30 songs. So it was like, ‘What do we do with this? Is this a double album? Are we doing Sandinista! here?’” Armstrong says, referring to the Clash’s 1980 triple-album. “So we said, ‘Let’s do three discs and release one record at a time, and wouldn’t it be funny if we called it ¡Uno!¡Dos! and ¡Tré!? It’s almost like Volume One, Volume Two…in the way of Van Halen I and II or Led Zeppelin I and II. Only we have three of them, and we put one of our faces on each album’s cover.”

The joke gets an extra lift from the fact that Green Day drummer Tré Cool adorns the cover of ¡Tré!. Billie is Uno, as befits Green Day’s main songwriter, lead singer and guitarist. But one isn’t sure how Dirnt feels about being stuck with Numero Dos. “At first it started out as a joke,” says Armstrong, who admits to being the one who came up with the names and the whole idea in the first place. “But the more we talked about it, the more we said, ‘You know, it’s pretty catchy.’”

The band, its label and its management also came up with the idea to release the three discs in succession rather than put them out all at once or as a set. ¡Uno! comes out September 25, ¡Dos! hits on November 13, and ¡Tré! will be released on January 15, 2013.

It’s an unconventional move, but one that’s perhaps more attuned to the short-attention-span digital era. Even at the height of the record biz, double and triple albums were a tough sell. And with so much attention on single song downloads these days, even a single-album release is risky business. But then again, the idea of a punk band doing a rock opera seemed pretty crazy back in 2004.

Each of the new discs has its own stylistic character, more or less. Classic Green Day predominates on ¡Uno! whereas ¡Dos! is more in the raunchy garage-rock mode of Green Day’s 2008 side project, the Foxboro Hot Tubs. “It’s a real Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas kind of death-trip vibe,” Armstrong says, “like a party out of control.” ¡Tré! is more of a mixed bag. It contains some of the set’s more reflective songs and some of the most epic arrangements, complete with string and brass orchestrations.

Armstrong says that the pop-punk material is what came pouring out of him first. “Just because I’ve been doing it for so long and I love that kind of music,” he says. “It’s just in my DNA at this point. On the last record I veered away from it so much, to the point where I sort of drove myself crazy. But the last record did have a song called ‘Murder City,’ which is a straight-up Green Day punk-rock song, and it ended up becoming my favorite song on that album.

"So with the new stuff, that kind of thing just came naturally. I think that the first songs that were written were ‘Stay the Night,’ ‘Nuclear Family’ and ‘Carpe Diem.’ So there was this power-pop thing happening. Then it became, like, ‘Guys, no ballads. Let’s just write rock and roll!’ But all of a sudden ‘Oh Love’ came out. It’s not really a ballad, but it’s not a power-pop song either. It’s powerful, but it’s slower and it’s got a groove to it. It’s kind of something we haven’t really done before, and at the same time it’s pretty epic.”

As it turns out, the song makes a great 12th-track album closer for ¡Uno! — a graceful counterpoint to the pop-punk mayhem that has come before and a musical marker that points the way to some of the material on the two subsequent discs. To complement the stylistic thrust of ¡Uno!, Armstrong also had a clear sense of the guitar sound he wanted and the overall production approach he wished to pursue.

“I really wanted the record to be a classic Green Day sound,” he says, “but I also wanted to introduce new elements of different guitar sounds—cleaner tones—and to mic the room so you can get the real power of the speakers moving the air to give it more of a live sound. It’s a bit of an AC/DC type of guitar sound, where it’s really powerful but what you’re actually listening to is a clean guitar tone.”

This live-in-the-studio approach was also facilitated by the fact that Green Day rehearsed the songs at the same facility in which they recorded them—their own place, Jingletown, in Oakland. It was formerly called Studio 880 but has since been endowed with a new name and new Neve mixing console. For the sessions, the band also drafted its longtime live guitarist, Jason White.

“He was in the room with us the whole time,” Armstrong says. “He’s been playing with us for over 10 years now, so we figured, ‘Let’s bring him in and he’ll be the fourth member. He can be Cuatro.’ So for all the rhythm tracks, he’s in the right speaker and I’m in the left. He added a really great element because he’s got a really smooth kind of style to him, whereas I’m more percussive. He matches what I’m doing but adds a vibe to it.”

Longtime Green Day producer Rob Cavallo also encouraged the band’s live-in-the-studio approach to the recordings. “When Rob came and watched us jam,” Armstrong recounts, “he was, like, ‘This is what the record should sound like. It should sound like you guys jamming in this room.’”

Cavallo was Green Day’s producer from Dookie onward (although his involvement in 2000’s Warning was minimal). But he fell away from the fold for 21st Century Breakdown, which was produced by Butch Vig. So how did Cavallo get back in the picture?

“By apologizing,” Armstrong deadpans before dissolving into laughter. “He just wanted to mend things. We had sort of a strained relationship after American Idiot. I don’t really know why. I don’t think he even knows why. It just turned ugly for a while. But we started having talks together again, and he said how much he really wanted to do the record. I started getting into playing him demos again, and he started champing at the bit to produce. So it was just a slow process of rebuilding the friendship and the relationship again.”

One other thing helped put Green Day back in pop-punk mode: they started playing songs from their first two albums, 39/Smooth and Kerplunk, while touring for 21st Century Breakdown.

“On our last tour, we were playing a lot of old songs, like ‘Who Wrote Holden Caufield?’ and ‘One for the Razorbacks,’” Armstrong says. “It was really fun. And sometimes when you’re in the middle of playing the song you start to realize, Oh, god, I remember who this song was about. I remember what I was feeling at that time. How is it relevant to me now? You almost get lost in all that, and you’re performing it in front of 10,000 people or whatever. It’s a trip going back like that. I think we were reluctant to do that before the last tour, but then we just started bringing those songs in. We’ve always wanted to write songs that we could play 20 years later, like the Rolling Stones are able to play ‘19th Nervous Breakdown’ and stuff like that.”

¡Uno!¡Dos! and ¡Tré! are certainly awash in songs that reference Armstrong’s punk-rock past as a kid growing up in Berkeley, California’s highly politicized, hardcore Gilman Street scene. The new albums’ overall mood of adolescent pop abandon is tempered by a wistful note of nostalgia that creeps into many tunes, some of the most frankly autobiographical songs that Armstrong has ever written.

“X-Kid” from ¡Tré! deals with the suicide of a close friend of Armstrong’s. “I don’t really want to get into it,” he says. “It’s too heavy.” And “Carpe Diem” from ¡Uno! is also haunted by intimations of mortality. That song’s about living in the moment,” he says. “I think the older you get, you have to appreciate your time on this planet.”

On a more cheerful note, “Sweet 16” is an unabashed love song to Armstrong’s wife, Adrienne, written as a gift to her for the couple’s 16th anniversary. They met during an early Green Day van tour while she was studying sociology at the University of Minnesota. At the time Armstrong was 18 and she was 20. It was pretty much love at first sight, although it took them both a little while to realize it fully.

“‘Sweet 16’ is about being in a relationship for a really long time,” Armstrong says. “The first verse is about my relationship with Adrienne when we first met. And the second verse is more about our relationship now. And just how time passes and just kinda, ‘Wow, we’re still here and still together.’”

Perhaps more surprising is the song “Amanda” on ¡Tré!. It references Armstrong’s brief relationship with a militant feminist punk-rock girl, actually named Amanda, during the Gilman Street days. She broke up with him and has haunted Green Day’s body of work ever since, although usually in veiled or fictionalized form. She was the inspiration for Green Day’s mega-hit “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” and also formed the basis for the character Whatsername in 21st Century Breakdown.

“Yeah, she’s in that,” Armstrong acknowledges, “and all the way back to a song like ‘Stuart and the Avenue’ [from Insomniac]. She’s an old friend who goes back to a long time ago—kind of like a recurring dream. She’s shown up in different songs here and there that are bitter or bittersweet. I wrote the song ‘Amanda’ from a perspective of, ‘Okay, now that we’re grown-ups…’ She’s got her kids and her husband, and I’ve got my family. And it’s just asking the question, ‘How are you? What’s life like for you? This is what I’m up to.’ We had a chance to reconnect and talk a little bit. And that was that.”

Gilman Street memories of a different sort pop up on “Rusty James” from ¡Uno!. “The song title is from the name of a character in the book Rumble Fish,” Armstrong explains. “And the song itself is about my old punk-rock scene and the survivors of it—the initial starters of that scene and how some of them didn’t really live up to their promises and just became finger pointers a little bit. And then they disappeared. And just the feeling that…Green Day, we’re still here. Where are you? What happened to all the values that you were bringing to the table? Now you’re gone. All the things you were telling people to fight for, you’re not fighting for them anymore. So that’s probably one of the more bitter songs I’ve written.”

Armstrong is certainly still fighting, having written the two most politically astute rock albums of the new century’s first decade with American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. And while ¡Uno!¡Dos! and ¡Tré! are certainly less overtly political, the song “99 Revolutions” on the latter album celebrates the Occupy movement.

“My idea of the Occupy movement goes beyond just left-wing radicals,” he says. “I think 99 percenters go all the way from that to cops, firefighters, nurses, teachers and lots of people in my own family. My mom’s worked at a diner her whole life. My dad was a truck driver. My brother works as a plumber. So I think there’s a really broad idea of what the 99 percent is. I’m just tapping into my working-class background in that song and then thinking about what is fair and what is not fair. And how the one percent should be taxed more, and how corporations should be taxed more, and how we should have things like free health care and building an infrastructure of schools and bridges and fixing roads. And by doing that, giving people more work.

“And it’s interesting to see some of the Tea Party people. It’s like, You don’t understand: you are a part of that. This directly affects you. With free health care you’re able to start your own independent business. You don’t have to worry about paying certain bills if you get sick, or having to deal with some fucked-up corrupt insurance company. You can be more independent and you can have that load lifted off you and your family a little more.”

While Armstrong supports the Occupy movement in general, some of the protests in his hometown of Oakland got pretty vociferous, and he’s critical of the militant fringe who smashed the windows of small local businesses. “It’s like, You’re bashing store fronts in Oakland?” he says. “Doesn’t Oakland have enough problems as it is? But the core of the movement…there are some smart people who are pushing it in the right direction.”

At the other end of the songwriting spectrum, ¡Dos! serves up raunchy, socially irresponsible rockers, like “Fuck Time.” There’s no mistaking what’s on Armstrong’s mind when the song’s grinding rock and roll chorus slams in with the line, “Oh, baby, baby, it’s fuck time!’

“That was originally going to be a Foxboro Hot Tubs song,” he says. “But we liked it so much that we said, ‘Why waste it?’ It’s just a big, fun, stupid song. It doesn’t imply anything; it comes out and says it. A lot of old rock and roll songs like Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” or some of Elvis’ old songs imply sex. Or just the term rock and roll: rockin’ and rollin’—well, that means fucking. So why not say it? Just go there.”

Among their other virtues, ¡Uno!¡Dos! and ¡Tré! certainly set the record for the largest number of obscenities per song on any Green Day album. “You’re not the first one to point that out,” Armstrong says, laughing. “It was totally by accident.”

The only things raunchier than some of the lyrics on the three discs are Armstrong’s wild guitar solos. There is hardly a tune on which he doesn’t bust out some frenetic six-string moves.

“Yeah, I haven’t pulled that shit out since 1991, since Kerplunk, ” he says. “When I did guitar solos on the last two albums, I wanted to do things that were more tasteful. But this time I just wanted to throw the book out on that, do whatever the song called for, rock out and create a party atmosphere. Might as well show off what I can do and just go for it.”

Armstrong’s guitar solo in the song “Make Out Party,” from ¡Dos!, attains a degree of adolescent shreddiness not heard since the days of early indie-punk proto Green Day tracks like “Dry Ice” from their 1990 EP, 1,000 Hours. “That one’s channeling Jimmy Page a bit,” Armstrong says of the “Make Out Party” solo. “Page has a way of playing guitar solos that, when he goes into fast stuff, it almost sounds sloppy, like some of the guitar solos on Led Zeppelin II. So I was just going for that kind of thing—making it dirty, slightly bluesy but also kind of out there at the same time.”

This kind of guitar work didn’t come easily to Armstrong at first. “It was difficult to re-enter that mode,” he says. But then I just started doing it more. And Mike was really, like, ‘Fuckin’ go for it man! Just go!’”

For all of Armstrong’s precociousness as a songwriter and spokesman, Green Day remain very much a band and an equal partnership. The egalitarian Gilman Street power structure lives on in the band’s internal dynamic. Armstrong defers to his bandmates on most musical matters. He’ll even hesitate to play a new song for his wife before running it past Dirnt and Tré first.

• “I don’t want to piss off the band,” he says. “They’d be, like, ‘Why are you playing the song for someone else before we get to listen to it?’”
• One wonders how it’s possible to get any kind of serious musical comment out of the irrepressible Tré Cool, who always seems to be in full-on prankster mode.

“Yeah, Tré does a lot of clowning around and says a lot of crazy stuff,” Armstrong allows. “I love him for that, and that’s part of him. But when he’s behind the drum set, he’s completely focused and completely in his element. I think he’s one of the best drummers out there. His character comes out in his drumming. It’s like some singers, where their speaking voice sounds like their singing voice. It’s authentic.

“And I think Mike is the same way as a bass player. Mike is really focused too. And I love his kind of melodies on the bass. He’s kind of the secret weapon on these records in a lot of ways, ’cause the sound of the guitars make room for his bass playing to come out a little bit more.”

Dirnt was the catalyst for another expletive-studded, standout track, “Kill the DJ” from ¡Uno!. “Mike wanted me to write something four-on-the-floor,” Armstrong says. “Something like Gang of Four or Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass,’ almost a disco kind of song. I didn’t really have any references for that kind of thing, outside of maybe the Clash. So I wrote that song and I just like the irony of writing a dance song that’s saying ‘kill the DJ.’”

But Armstrong denies that the song is any kind of comment on the contemporary music scene and the ascendancy of superstar DJs like Skrillex and Deadmau$. “No, not at all,” he says. “I hope some of those people take that track and remix it! I think the line ‘Kill the DJ’ is more a take on all these opinions you get when you watch television these days—anything from Bill Maher to Bill O’Reilly: culture wars and all that; the static noise that keeps coming at you. And there’s that moment when you just say, ‘Shut the fuck up!’ That’s my take on it: ‘Just give me fuckin’ peace.’ Also, the song has the vibe of a party that’s gone gross—the feeling that everyone’s in the bathroom at the same time doing cocaine together.”

The second disc’s closing track stands in stark contrast to the “party out of control” vibe of the preceding songs. Titled “Amy,” it’s a posthumous homage to Amy Winehouse. “I saw a video of her singing and playing guitar,” Armstrong says. “I didn’t realize how great a guitar player she was. And that inspired me to write that song, kind of sending my condolences.”

And “Amy,” Armstrong says, served as a catalyst for the opening track on ¡Tré! “Brutal Love” is a searing R&B ballad in the style of the late Otis Redding. It’s a song that demonstrates Green Day’s remarkable range. Few, if any, of their pop-punk peers could pull off anything remotely like this, complete with a horn chart right out of the Stax Records heyday, no less.

“In the past, whenever we did horns or strings, the person who was doing the orchestration had to fit the arrangement inside the melody and all the guitars and try to get it heard,” Armstrong says. “But this time I talked to Tom Kitt, who did the all the arrangements, and I said, ‘I’m gonna leave it wide open so you can do whatever you want.’ So he wrote all the arrangements to just a bare-bones vocal and guitar track. That let him build that tension on ‘Brutal Love’ and give it that Otis Redding kind of feel.”

If ¡Uno! is the disc that will appeal most to Dookie fans, ¡Tré! is the one most likely to win approval from those who prefer the Green Day of American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. The final disc of the new trilogy closes with “The Forgotten,” a piano ballad embellished with lavish strings.

Certainly, it’s not every day that a band records three albums of new music. To commemorate the occasion, Green Day are preparing a documentary film on the making of the discs. “I really like certain surf documentaries, like Sprout, Seedling and One California Day,” Armstrong explains. “We wanted to do a film like that, capturing the spirit and lifestyle of the band. We didn’t want to do something where you just sit down and talk and it’s just your face on the screen. So there’s not really a narrative behind our film; it’s just more about what went on while we were making the album. We had a pirate radio station and we built a skateboard ramp. There’s surfing and us jamming, of course, playing throughout the whole thing. We wanted to make something that looks really good, almost like an art documentary in a lot of ways.”

Meanwhile, the world awaits another new film release, the American Idiot movie, which is likely to include a screen role for Armstrong. “It’s all in the works right now,” he says. “It’s just about that long process of movie making. I think I might play Saint Jimmy for the movie. There are talks about that. The great thing was to be able to do it onstage first and not be in front of the camera right away. But I got the acting bug a little bit, and I’m kind of easing my way into it. I want to learn more about it and learn from my friends who are actors. That’s kind of where I’m at with it now, just asking questions. I’ll start getting into it more and more after we do this wild run.”

The “wild run” in question is the marathon Green Day tour behind ¡Uno!¡Dos! and ¡Tré! which kicked off in August. “We’re touring our asses off,” Armstrong confirms. “We’re looking at anything from playing festivals and arenas to clubs and theaters. The idea is to design our production to be able to fit into all those different kinds of buildings. I can’t wait. You get to the point where you’re just talking about your new record, and now I just wanna get out there and play the new stuff.”

But he does have one last thing to say about Green Day, the Gilman Street punk band that became one of the most significant rock and roll bands of the 21st century. “It’s weird when people ask me, ‘Are you still a punk band?’” Armstong says. “I don’t know! I don’t know if we were ever really a punk band to begin with, because we’ve always loved melody. We’ve never really been like Minor Threat. I love Minor Threat, but I never wanted to be that. My favorite stuff was the Undertones, Generation X and the Ramones. The Ramones wrote melodies like the Beach Boys. So is that punk? And some of the later Clash records—do you consider that punk? A song like ‘Bankrobber’: Is that a punk song? It’s backward reggae! I’ve always loved power pop and I’ve just tried to push it forward, see how far I could take it and make it even more powerful. I just feel like we’ve continued this tradition of rock and roll and punk rock and made it better. I mean I’m slightly biased, but…”