Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt is said to have got his stage name from his habit of playing air bass with a pick and muttering ‘dirnt, dirnt, dirnt’. Once up and running in the renowned power trio, he found a superb, scooped tone that cut clearly through guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong’s riffs.

Shedding the rock-opera theatrics and dramatic orchestration of their albums of the 2000s, Dirnt, alongside Armstrong and drummer Tré Cool, took it back to their punk-rock roots as a trio in 2016 and effectively created the band's best album since – dare we say it – 1994's Dookie.

Featuring 12 tracks that could each be radio singles, Revolution Radio showcased Dirnt's signature, rabid-picking bass tone, which holds up the foundation whether he's riff doubling, chugging along with Cool's manic kick, or stepping out into the forefront with his speedy counter-melodies.

“For Revolution Radio it was simple,” Dirnt told Bass Player back in 2016. “Use the right bass and design the right amp, and Fender delivered on both counts.

“I knew the sound I wanted, I had it in my head, and I worked with Fender until we got it. In that sense, I guess it wasn't simple. The amp part took a lot of work.”

Working with Fender to build a rig that would satisfy his taste for a gritty yet balanced sound, Dirnt helped introduce the Bassman 800 series of amps, which produced his ideal tone while allowing him to ditch distortion pedals altogether.

“I wanted a distortion that would go anywhere from Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit in the Sky to Metallica’s Anesthesia Pulling Teeth, but I didn't want to use pedals because I'm sick of losing my signal through the chain. Fender built in vintage overdrive and preamp channels, and problem solved!

“The amp has a LOW pull-knob that drops my sound to a whole other world. It also has a clean top end that never gets muddy and enables you to hear the click from my pick. The results were so good I ended up using only the Bassman 800 and my signature Precision for that whole record.”

Some of your tone must come from your heavy picking style.

Absolutely; a lot of my sound comes from my wrists. It also has to do with Billie and I picking the same way together for so many years. He's a master of downstrokes, but I've come to be able to mimic his downstrokes perfectly using alternating up- and downstrokes. It prevents me from having pain in my wrists.

I see a lot of bass players trying to play our stuff using all downstrokes, and I think to myself, ‘You're going to ruin your arm.’

That actually happened to the first bass player in American Idiot on Broadway, He was playing all downstrokes because he thought I did, and he hurt his arm. I told him, ‘Naw, man, that's Dee Dee Ramone, not me!’

How is your bass playing different on Revolution Radio?

I caught myself wandering more and ending up somewhere new, from riff to riff. I deviated a lot throughout the album – more than ever before. I was taking a sort of John Entwistle approach – not that I could ever play like him.

At this point I don't question myself. When your arm and your wrist are bouncing along and you're not thinking about it, that's when the magic happens.

You went back to recording as a trio. Did that give you more freedom?

Playing in a trio is great for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it's easier to call band practices! What I like most about it is the opportunity to carry a full load and to be able to play a part that picks up the slack rhythmically and harmonically.

It doesn't matter if I'm playing an intricate run, or even the little eyebrow-raise I do on When I Come Around. Those are just my personal touches. And if those touches are hooks, that's all the better. Good songwriting to me is like sticking your hand into a tackle box: just hooks everywhere.

One of the most ambitious tracks is the near-seven-minute Forever Now.

That song comes from us knowing an album should have a journey. A lot of our favorite records throw the kitchen sink out of the bedroom window, and we wanted that. Recording a song like that in the studio, you have to let out the little kid in you and picture yourself doing cartwheels onstage.

It takes the band back to your early punk roots. Was that intentional?

It wasn't a conscious decision; I think getting together when we were inspired led to everything falling into place naturally, and the results were explosive.

It's the picking style; it's Tré riding on top of the beat, and all of us driving at full speed. We just plugged in and let it rip, which is what gives the album a punk-roots feel.

Amp Week 2026: After a false start as a teenage hair metaller, Butch Walker formed power-pop outfit The Marvelous 3, enjoying a hit with 1998’s Freak of the Weak. His 2002 debut solo album, Left of Self-Centered, wasn’t a commercial smash – but it found a fan in Avril Lavigne, who employed Walker as a producer for hits like My Happy Ending and When You’re Gone.

From there he’s developed an extensive resumé in pop (Pink, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift), pop-punk (Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Weezer), and a diverse spread of other artists including Jewel, Frank Turner and The Wallflowers. In 2025 he became the new guitarist with platinum-selling rockers Train.

As a singer-songwriter, Walker is known for never making two albums in the same style, although his love of Elvis Costello and Cheap Trick is rarely far from the surface.

Decades of recording guitars have given him strong ideas about what an amp should sound like and his new ÷13 BW1969 signature model represents the best bits of all his favourite products.

Its novel power amp section can switch between EL84 and 6L6 tubes for midrange sweetness or low-end thump. The front end has a six levels of input gain for that magical always-on boost without a pedal.

What was the thinking behind your ÷13 BW1969 amp?

My three favorite amps are a Fender Bassman, a top-boost AC30 and a Marshall JMP. I’d like to have an amp that’s the best of all three. So what we came up with was two 6L6s, which is what's in a Bassman, and then an EL84 section as well, which is your classic British AC30.

You can combine the EL84s and 6L6s together, which is unique. At the same time, it's just a good classic rock sound. I like an amp that lets you roll your guitar volume down halfway and get a great clear clean sound. I don't like to channel switch. I like to be expressive with one guitar and one volume knob, so it’s very simple.

A lot of classic Marshalls had EL34s. Did you try a prototype with an EL34 power stage?

No – I love the sound of an EL34’s midrange, but I’m getting that with the EL84 power section. To me they’d be too similar. The bottom end of a 6L6 gives it the oomph that EL34s might be lacking, but making up for in midrange.

Because these are very mid-forward amps anyway, I feel like a 6L6 marries best with the tone stack. When I switch to the EL84 it’s very much a different sounding amp, and that's what you want.

Are there particular amps you always use in the studio?

I have my go-tos. I've gotten to the point where, if somebody comes in and they have a certain style I immediately go, “This is straight-up Princeton with a Tele,” or, “This is straight-up JCM800.” There’s not a lot of guesswork, because of years of being an analog recordist, and knowing how to get good sounds and mic things up.

And sometimes it’s not even real amps or cabinets. I do a lot of direct stuff with my Fractal rig; I do a lot of recording with real amps going into IRs, and then I also have cabinets mic’ed up all over my studio.

How did you get into EL84 amps?

I went straight to hard rock and metal when I was a teenager in the 80s. I gravitated towards tons of gain, hot rod amps. After our band, Southgang, broke up in like ’91 or ’92, the music all over the radio had bluesier guitar tones that I was really craving to dive into. My playing was getting better, and I was relying less on distortion.

I remember playing at a gig once with somebody’s old AC30. I played so much better that night – I was way more expressive. Of course, I had to turn the amp round to the wall because I had it at least halfway up. That EL84 sound, that class of amp really started to resonate through me.

How did you get the tones on the Marvelous 3’s breakthrough Hey! Album?

I was broke as a joke when I made that record, before we got signed. I had one mic and preamp, a $200 Rolls tube mic preamp and an Audio Technica 4033. I had a little EL84 amp, a Trace Elliott Velocette 15, and a 60s Hagstrom hollow body Viking.

That Hagstrom was given to me by my old guitar tech, who went on to be more successful than I was! It was given to him by Tom Petersson from Cheap Trick. I can’t believe I don't have that guitar anymore, because now I’m friends with Tom.

There was something about that EL84 driven sound. The Viking had like Filter’trons or Gold Foil-type pickups: very open and microphonic and expressive. That was just a great combo.

Your first international hit as a producer was Girl All The Bad Guys Want by Bowling for Soup. What was the recording chain for that?

It was a Bogner triple Ecstasy. I wasn’t into the Triple Rectifier thing that everybody was using – I was more into the Marshall, Bogner, Soldano kind of midrange thing. I had a ’66 335, a ’78 hardtail Strat, a Les Paul of some sort, and then lots of PRS. This was before the fire in ’07 that wiped my entire guitar collection out, and everything else.

On Green Day records and stuff, the rhythms would be quadrupled. I was pretty purist. I did usually two rhythm guitars paying left and right – I liked that sound. I’d put the rhythms hard left and hard right, then up the middle in the choruses.

I’d double the rhythms with something completely unique, like a baritone guitar through a distorted amp, through like a high gain amp, and that would just lift the image of the chorus to the to another level.

Then for clean guitar parts, depending on the song – like for arpeggiated things – I’d do a stereo double of those and have those panned medium left and right, and then try to find space in the stereo spectrum for everything.

On that song [Girl All The Bad Guys Want] the riff was one baritone guitar up the middle, and that became the riff that you hear by itself at the top. Then the rhythms come in when the band kicks in, hard left and hard right. Sometimes we’d reinforce the melody riff up the center with a stereo set of those as well, depending if it needed to be bigger or more pronounced.

It just depends what the song needed. Sometimes that dry guitar straight up the middle sounds really small by itself, but makes the whole thing sound really big when those choruses kick in.

After that you worked with Avril Lavigne. What gear were you using then?

It would have been the same setup. At that time I was using the same shit for every record. I mean, I was doing a lot of similar-sounding records. It wasn’t much different doing a Bowling for Soup or an Avril Lavigne production, except I was doing some keyboards and programming on the more pop stuff.

I did my first solo album, Left of Self-Centered, at home with my newly-configured studio. That sound became something that people wanted me to do for them. I did the [Baltimore band] SR-71 hit off their first record. Then Bowling for Soup, Avril, Pink and several others. I had a little bit of a sonic blueprint, I guess.

You mentioned the fire that destroyed your guitars in 2007. After that fire, Pink bought you a guitar, right?

The house and studio burned to the ground while we were in New York. When we got off the plane and went to where our home had been, Pink was sitting in the driveway. It was a very emotional moment – we’d lost everything we’d ever owned. That’s heavy when you when you take it in for the first time.

Pink insisted we come live with her. We went to her house, and she went into the next room and came back carrying a Gibson guitar case with a bow on it. It chokes me up thinking about it. It was a beautiful, VOS Custom Shop R0 tobacco sunburst Les Paul standard.

That was ironic, because it was the first Les Paul I ever saw, and it made me want to learn to play because Ace Frehley played one. Pink didn’t even know that! Funny enough, I’d never had one – and there it was sitting on the kitchen counter at her house.

My ’62 Hummingbird with the Dove tailpiece, which is obviously not correct, is the only thing I have that I owned prior to 2007. It’s in the shop getting cracks repaired. I recorded and wrote every song of the early 2000s on that guitar. I found out it was Toy Caldwell's from the Marshall Tucker Band, who was the main songwriter and guitar player. That was cool to learn.

How was it working with Green Day on Father of All…?

I love that record, and I know they love that record. What happens when a band comes to you and says, “We don’t want to sound like this,” but you love the band? Do you chicken out and go, “I’m not touching that – I don’t want to get yelled at by your fans”? Weezer is the same way, and both of those bands came to me when they were ready to do something different. I thought that was really fun.

There are some things that people can be set on, especially guitars. Billie liked to quadruple the rhythms instead of double. We did that, but we used different kinds of amps. Almost everything was still his gear. He had a ÷13 that he loved. We even used the Dookie Marshall. It wasn’t like we changed everything up. It was just a different approach to songs and how they were recorded.

He was very particular about his guitar parts, because he’s the only guitar player and because he had come from producing the last handful of Green Day records. I think some guitars ended up on there that were my parts. When we demoed the songs I’d play a guitar part on top of something, and he liked a lot of it and wanted to keep it. But nine times out of ten, the guitars on those records are Billie: Billie’s gear, Billie’s guitars, Billie’s amps.

A lot of the guitars on that record were the demo guitars, because they recorded them so well. Chris Dugan, who engineered and mixed several Green Day records, he's Billie’s studio guy. So when I get their demo parts, they’re recorded as good as anybody’s ever going to record them. It’s a producer’s job to say, “If I mess with this, I'm just doing it for my ego’s sake, which is never good.”

Is it true you had the chance to buy Peter Green’s Greeny before Kirk Hammett did it?

My buddy was a guitar broker, and it started circulating that Gary Moore was going to sell. I was actually more psyched that it was Gary’s – he was one of my big influences growing up. But I just wasn't ready to spend $250,000 on a guitar at my stage in my life and my career. I highly regret not coming up with the money somehow. Obviously, that was just a lunch tab for Kirk Hammett!

Were you tempted by any of the more recent Gary Moore auctions?

I was – but I just took such a blow financially after the first fire. We burned again in 2018 in the same town, from wildfires both times. It makes going out and trying to replace all that stuff not so fun these days. I just shifted my mindset a little bit that I didn’t need trophy guitars. I just wanted guitars for functionality. You stop being as sentimental when everything of sentimental value is taken away from you in one day.

• More information on Butch Walker’s new signature amp, the BW1969, head to Divided by 13.

What is it?

Similarly to Green Day’s musical output, there are a couple of eras to bassist Mike Dirnt’s gear choices, and they largely coincide. Post-American Idiot, Dirnt has most often been seen clutching a Fender Precision Bass. Indeed, he even collaborated with Fender and Squier for signature versions.

However, rewind a little and fans will most closely associate Dirnt with his Gibson G-3. This three-pickup, natural-finished powerhouse took its shape from Gibson’s Grabber - introduced during the Norlin-owned era in 1975. The original Grabber made use of a Bill Lawrence-designed sliding pickup, which allowed you to reposition it from neck to bridge position (or any point in between) by simply grabbing the pickup – hence the Grabber name – and moving it.

The G-3 differs by using three pickguard-mounted single coils, and Dirnt’s G-3 fuelled the low end at Green Day’s live shows throughout their ascent from Gilman Street punks to arena-filling rock stars in the mid-late ‘90s.

For the Mike Dirnt signature Grabber G-3, Epiphone has employed a trio of Gibson USA single coils but unlike the original, Epiphone and Dirnt have made the standard finish option a cool-looking Silverburst, with a Natural version available as an ‘Exclusive’ finish direct from Gibson’s website and via selected retailers.

So, with a pick in hand, it’s time to explore a replica of the bass that propelled some of the best-loved basslines in pop-punk.

Specs

• Launch price: $1,299 | £1,199 | €1,399
• Made: China
• Type: 4-string electric bass
• Body: Maple
• Neck: Maple, C-shape
• Fingerboard: Ebony, 12.5-inch radius
• Scale length: 34”/864mm
• Nut/width: Bone, 41mm
• Frets: 20 medium jumbo
• Hardware: Open-gear ‘Clover’ button tuners, Leo Quan Badass II bridge
• String spacing at bridge: 58mm
• Electronics: 3x Gibson USA G-3 single coils, 1x Volume, 1x Tone, three-way selector switch
• Weight: 9.8lb/4.4kg
• Options: N/A
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Silverburst, Natural (exclusive to Gibson and selected dealers)
• Cases: Hardshell case included
• Contact: Epiphone

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆½

Epiphone has caused more than a few eyebrows to head skywards with price increases in the last couple of years, and it’s not alone. The Mike Dirnt model comes priced to rival eastern import models from Sterling, Spector, Schecter and more.

But while the prices have raised, they’ve brought an uplift in quality with them, and in the case of the Mike Dirnt, Epiphone has done a great job at setting out its stall. The included hardcase feels like you’ve made an investment, and taking the Grabber out for the first time, it’s only really the Epiphone logo on the headstock that gives it away as ‘not the real thing’.

The finish looks great, and on the Silverburst review model, it's almost a shame that so much of the silver center is taken up by the black pickguard. In a strangely ironic way, the Silverburst removes some of the ‘signature’ element of this guitar for those who might be bigger fans of the Grabber than Green Day, while maintaining the association for die-hard Dirnt enthusiasts.

Speaking of which, supplied inside the case is a blank truss rod cover, so if you want to play-down the signature element of this bass, you can swap it. One of the most notable inclusions is the dark ebony board, which on this review model is rich and even throughout, and the frets are polished to a nice sheen to boot.

The neck is finished in satin, and it’s been executed without any areas for complaint, and this extends to the rest of the hardware, with the Epiphone open-gear tuners mirroring the formation of the V-shaped headstock nicely, all squared-up as they should be.

My only gripe, and it’s one for the big guitar builders in general, is the over-liberal use of protective plastic film. Here, it’s wrapping the scratchplate entirely, and to fully remove it would mean unscrewing the pickguard and lifting it out. In the case of this review, the film is removed for photography, but if I were buying this bass, I’d be faced with that option, or leaving the unsightly strands of film to wear away on their own over time. Overall, though, there’s nothing to complain about here.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆½

With a 34-inch scale length, 20 frets and a C-shaped maple neck, the Grabber feels instantly familiar to play. Epiphone’s take on a C-carve feels slightly less rounded than an equivalent P-Bass, for example. But the first highlight is the physical feel of the satin-finished maple, which has been smoothed-out beautifully.

Dirnt is known for playing busy runs, and the neck finish makes it a joy to traverse. Similarly, the 12.6-inch radius applied to the tasty looking ebony leaves plenty of space for executing Dirnt-style pull-offs on the first string (see When I Come Around, for example), and likely contributes to some of that less acutely rounded feel from the neck overall.

Thanks to those cutaways, reaching the higher frets is unhindered, albeit with a traditionally square-shaped heel. It’s not exactly light, weighing in at 9.8lbs but it does sit comfortably in the lap while balancing quite well on a strap.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆½

Before I even plug in, there’s a noticeable tonal boost coming from the bass, and it comes in part from the bridge. Not only is it strung thru-body, but the strings are sat atop a Leo Quan Badass II bridge. If you’re not familiar, the Badass takes the crown as the original beefed-up bridge, using high-density zinc to ensure greater vibration transfer for enhanced sustain. Here, you can feel the combination of the bridge and stringing rattling through the body wood into your ribcage, which bodes well.

Plugged in, it’s time to get into the G-3’s electronic configuration. The three-singlecoil layout uses Gibson’s traditional three-way switch to offer three individual sounds, but they aren’t necessarily as you might expect.

In the neck position, the neck and bridge pickups are both activated like a humbucker, and the bridge position on the switch offers the same, using the middle and bridge pickups. In the middle, you get all three pickups together, colloquially known as a ‘buck-and-a-half’, (a humbucker and a single coil engaged together).

Tonally, the ‘neck’ position throws up perhaps the biggest surprise, with some noticeable additional lower midrange around the 300-500Hz area. It responds well to overdrive and while in isolation it does add a little more ‘honk’ to the sound, it’s actually primed to deliver a little extra cut in a mix. With the tone rolled back, the high end is tamed further, and played clean I get a strong fundamental that lends itself nicely to thick, dubby/soul sounds.

Conversely, at the opposite end of the switch that bump is removed, and there’s more presence around the 2-3KHz area. The result is a punchier, clearer tone with a bit of a scoop to it.

On his original, Dirnt favors the middle position combining all three pickups together, to the point where (as he showed Rancid’s Matt Freeman in a 2025 video interview, below), he physically stops the switch from engaging the other two positions by winding tape around it. And it’s easy to see why when you select this voice. It’s closest in response to the ‘bridge’ position pairing, but comes with an extra sense of the scoop and high end being enhanced.

Now, as mentioned, the middle pickup is always present, and due to the hum-cancelling effect that it introduces, it means that adding gain to the Dirnt signature is free of inherent noise. Naturally, this calls for some heavy drive, and thanks to the grit from my Ampeg SGT DI and myriad options in the Tonex Bass, I’m free to smother it in everything from light, rattly overdrive to Sabotage levels of fuzz-wrapping, and it’s addictive.

The middle and bridge positions offer the most fun, with the scooped and extra presence bringing out the G-3’s bite. But with that said, the overall tonality of this bass in all positions, as you might expect from a Mike Dirnt signature, leans towards the brighter side of things. It’s simultaneously weighty, but with plenty of spike.

Verdict

The sticking point for some will be that this is an Epiphone instrument, at a price that we’re all slowly getting used to becoming the norm. There’s a debate longer than this review to be had involving origin, headstocks and price, not to mention that Gibson doesn’t currently make a bolt-on neck bass. So, for fans of basses from this era, Epiphone is the only option. Thankfully, the execution is of a high standard here.

Signature gear is often divisive - if you’re not a fan of the artist then it’s easy to ignore. But, as has been proved plenty of times before, to do this is a mistake. Yes, the Mike Dirnt G-3 serves up exactly what you’d expect, but the voicings from the three pickups add some interesting extra dimensions.

Guitar World verdict: No question, it’s a bass crafted for rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s certainly not limited to pop-punk. From the sounds to the playability to the visuals, this is a bass that will be right at home in more aggressive styles too.

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• Best bass guitars

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.

Epiphone has partnered with Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt for a signature version of his cult classic Grabber G-3 bass.

For the launch, Dirnt looked back on his early bass days and recalled the exact moment he pivoted from six strings to four, and set out on the low-end path that's defined his entire career.

"I was introduced to bass via playing guitar," he reflects in an interview with Epiphone. "First, my mom had an old pawn shop bass. All it had was a flatwound E and A on it, and I would screw around on that thing.

"But our friend Sean – we were at band practice, he was our old bass player – had a dentist appointment, and he took off. I kind of looked at the bass, Billie [Joe Armstrong] looked at me. I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm gonna pick it up. Let's play.'

"The second I picked it up, I was like, 'Oh, wow, this is fun.' I look over Billie, and Billie's like, 'Oh, boy, we found something here.' And I was like, 'Did I just become a bass player?'"

The Mike Dirnt Grabber G-3, which comes in Natural and Silverburst finishes, arrives after the double-cut bass was reprised by Gibson in September 2024.

As one of the Grabber’s foremost players, Dirnt was an obvious choice for a signature version. The 34” build gets a maple body and three-piece maple neck, and either a maple or ebony fingerboard. Both iterations come with 20 medium jumbo frets and abalone dot inlays.

Tonally, a trio of Gibson G-3 pickups is on hand. Wired in a quirky “buck-and-a-half” configuration, they’re joined by a three-way pickup switch for engaging the neck, middle, or all three humbuckers simultaneously. There are also Master Volume and Tone controls.

Hardware choices include open-gear tuners with “historic” clover buttons on the V-style headstock, a bone nut, and a Leo Quan Badass II bridge. It’s a string-through-body system, which further adds to the G-3’s hearty sustain.

The Epiphone Mike Dirnt G-3 is available for $1,299/£1,199. The Natural finish is available exclusively on the Epiphone website.

Head to Gibson for more.

Speaking with Bass Player earlier this year, Dirnt got forensic about tone and detailed the making of their massive rock opera, American Idiot.

When you think of iconic acoustic guitars, vintage Martin dreadnoughts or classic Gibsons often come to mind. However, you might be surprised to learn that some of your favorite acoustic songs were actually recorded on a more humble instrument: an off-the-shelf, late 90s Taylor. Yes, that’s right.

Our story starts with Rob Cavallo, an extraordinary record producer whose name is synonymous with some of the most recognizable sounds in modern music. Cavallo has worked with a dazzling array of celebrated artists, helping them to craft their signature sounds. Among his many tools of the trade, one instrument stands out: his cherished Taylor guitar, affectionately nicknamed Excalibur.

At first glance, Excalibur may not seem impressive, but its bright, shimmering tone has inspired countless players to pick up the guitar and embark on their own musical journeys. Speaking in a video on the Taylor Guitars YouTube channel, Rob reveals that the instrument has been featured on numerous hit songs, saying, “This actual guitar has been on something like 10 number one records.”

As for the build, the Taylor 514C is a quintessential model from its era. Produced between 1995 and 1997, it features the classic Grand Auditorium body style that Taylor is known for. With a mahogany back and sides, a western red cedar top, a tropical mahogany neck, and an ebony fingerboard, this guitar is as beautiful in construction as it is in sound.

Join us as we explore Cavallo's deep connection with Excalibur, unveiling a treasure trove of songs you probably didn’t know were recorded with this fabulous Taylor guitar. Get ready to discover the stories behind the music and the magic of a guitar that has quietly left an indelible mark on the acoustic landscape.

Green Day

It could be argued that Green Day’s Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) has sparked the sale of more beginner acoustic guitars than any other song from the late '90s. In fact, it was the very first acoustic piece I ever attempted to play. For those wanting to delve deeper than strumming along, the music video might seem to be a helpful resource for identifying the guitar and replicating that iconic sound. However, as you've probably guessed, that isn't the case.

While Billie Joe is seen playing a Gibson acoustic guitar in the video, specifically a Gibson J-45, the actual recording features Cavallo's Taylor 514C. The guitar’s bell-like chime and crisp top-end are so distinctive that it’s hard to envision the song being captured with anything else.

Billie Joe and Co. would enter the studio again with Cavallo for 2004’s American Idiot, and yet again they called on the tone of Excalibur to grant them another hit, Boulevard of Broken Dreams. It would actually be this very recording session that Billie Joe would bestow the name of the legendary sword of King Arthur onto this guitar.

Goo Goo Dolls

It's hard to overestimate the impact that Iris had on the Goo Goo Dolls. Released as part of the soundtrack for the 1998 film City of Angels, the song also found a home on their sixth studio album, Dizzy Up the Girl.

Iris quickly became a massive hit, a song so universally recognized that even those who don’t know the band often find themselves humming its melody. Frontman John Rzeznik shared some insights with Guitar World in issue 0581, highlighting the pivotal role that producer Rob Cavallo played in its success. “When I was making the demos, I was laying down the string parts with a synth", he says. "But the way that Rob Cavallo took the song and brought in a really powerful string section — that was a major shift," Rzeznik recalled, marking it as a significant turning point.

At its core, Iris revolves around a simple yet captivating acoustic guitar sequence, once again featuring the beloved Taylor 514C. This combination of heartfelt lyrics and a hook that refuses to leave your head after the first listen created a lasting resonance that still captivates listeners today.

Eric Clapton

While Blue Eyes Blue may not be Eric Clapton's most celebrated acoustic masterpiece, especially when compared to the emotional depth of Tears In Heaven, it still made a notable impact. Written by the talented Diane Warren specifically for the 1999 romantic comedy Runaway Bride, starring the charming duo of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, the song found its way onto the charts in many countries, including the US and Canada, and reached number one in Japan.

The song was recorded by Eric Clapton and Cavallo – and yes, yet again they used Excalibur. Cavallo recalls that Clapton was especially enamored with the song's tone.

In fact, Clapton loved the richness of the Taylor guitar so much that he asked to borrow it, and wouldn't give it back for nearly nine months while he worked on writing and recording a different project. As you can imagine, this left Rob in suspense, wondering if he would ever see it again. Thankfully, Eric returned the guitar, and it would continue its journey from hit to hit.

Alanis Morissette

One of the standout tracks from the City of Angels soundtrack is Uninvited, performed by Alanis Morissette. Originally written for the film, the song transcended its cinematic roots to become a powerful anthem in its own right. Morissette, known for her emotive vocals and introspective lyrics, wrote and co-produced the song with Rob Cavallo.

Uninvited features a haunting piano line that perfectly complements Morissette's poignant delivery. The song’s instrumentation, while primarily centered around the piano, also includes Cavallo’s deft guitar work, adding depth and texture to the arrangement, and yes, you guessed it, the guitar being played was the same Taylor 514C.

The combination of the delicate piano and the subtle, yet impactful, guitar creates a moody atmosphere that reflects the song's themes of longing and vulnerability. Upon its release, Uninvited received widespread acclaim and even bagged Alanis the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in 1999.

Shinedown

Second Chance, released by Shinedown in 2008 as the lead single from their album The Sound of Madness, marked a pivotal moment in the band's career. The song, with its powerful blend of hard rock sensibilities with a light acoustic backing, made it a mainstay on rock radio and remains a fan favourite to this day.

You can clearly hear the Taylor 514C being strummed delicately at the top of the song, and it continues to lay foundations for the heavier elements as the track continues.

Speaking to Total Guitar in issue 0233, guitarist Zach Myers tells us what it's like to work with Cavallo on the track. “He’s a bit of a guitar titan – a really, really good guitar player. When he does a record, he’s really into the whole record, but guitars get the most attention because he’s a guitar player."

Second Chance achieved impressive chart performance, reaching the top ten on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and earning multi-platinum status.

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.

A host of music icons – including the first-time duo of Dave Matthews and John Mayer, Joni Mitchell, Billie Eilish and Finneas, Lady Gaga, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sting, Stephen Stills, and Green Day – are coming together for the fundraising mega-event FireAid, to support relief efforts for the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.

The star-studded benefit concert is set to take place on January 30 at L.A.'s Intuit Dome and Kia Forum, just three days after this year's Grammy Awards.

Furthermore, FireAid will also be broadcast in select AMC movie theaters, as well as on numerous other platforms, including YouTube, Apple Music, Prime Music, SiriusXM, Paramount+, and iHeartRadio.

Other stars joining the lineup include Stevie Nicks, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gracie Abrams, Gwen Stefani, Jelly Roll, Katy Perry, Lil Baby, P!nk, Rod Stewart, and Tate McRae, with more artists set to be announced in the coming days. While the Eagles are not scheduled to perform, they have already pledged a $2.5 million donation to the cause.

It's a remarkable roster of artists. So much so that Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick badged it “on a level of Live Aid, mid-'80s” in a comment on John Mayer's Instagram post about the event.

The ultimate aim of the event is to motivate viewers across all platforms to contribute donations, with proceeds benefiting numerous California relief initiatives and organizations, under the advisement of the Annenberg Foundation.

The event is being produced by longtime artist manager and music industry powerhouse Irving Azoff, alongside his wife, Shelli. Live Nation and AEG Presents are also involved, while the Los Angeles Clippers, the pro basketball team that moved into the Intuit Dome last fall, are set to “cover the millions in expenses associated with the event.”

According to the event's organizers, proceeds from FireAid will “focus on rebuilding infrastructure, supporting displaced families, and advancing fire prevention technologies and strategies to ensure L.A. is better prepared for fire emergencies.”

Tickets for FireAid go on sale through Ticketmaster on January 22 at 12 p.m. PST/3 p.m. EST.

Aside from FireAid, Guitar Center, Fender, the NAMM Foundation, Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, and MusiCares are among the many music companies and organizations that have launched initiatives to support musicians, music education programs, and music professionals impacted by this large-scale tragedy.

Remember 1994? Relentless airplay from MTV and modern-rock radio, along with a headline-grabbing mud melee at that year's Woodstock festival, injected Green Day's intoxicating brew into the mainstream.

Adolescent America was hooked, buying up eight million copies of the band's major-label debut, Dookie, and propelling them into the stratosphere with three top-20 hits.

“Dookie was exciting," Mike Dirnt told Bass Player. "We knew we were onto something new for us, taking us to a new level, but you don't know when you're going to write a seminal record that's going to change your whole career.”

The catchy, swinging bassline that anchored Dookie's first single, Longview, burst out of stereos and TVs that summer and instantly added a clamorous new color to the punk bass palette, painting itself into the hearts and minds of millions.

“I happened to be playing a lot of jazz when we did Longview. I'd sit in at jazz clubs and read off the Real Book. We'd do tunes like Green Dolphin Street, or Take the A Train. You can really hear it on Longview. It has a sort of shuffle beat.”

Dirnt is as serious about all aspects of his craft – from gear to conceptual approach – as any stuffed-shirt jazzer. Craving an instrument that blended the look of a Fender Telecaster Bass with the tone of a Precision Bass, he spent two years designing a Fender signature model, obsessing over details like tone-control capacitor values and tuner brands.

Dirnt can even pinpoint the frequency that captures the pickstyle click he craves on records: 2kHz. His thoughtfulness is not limited to his gear either. "Now I'm more about the song than me. That's a big part of being a mature musician."

The following interview from the Bass Player archives took place in September 2004, following the launch of the band’s “punk-rock opera,” American Idiot.

Green Day describes American Idiot as a punk-rock opera. Why?

“The album is thematic. There's an underlying story throughout the whole thing, and several of the songs blend into each other. It's open for interpretation, but it's basically the story of a contemporary character. It's about his political, personal, and emotional trials and struggles. It's a really personal record.”

Did you change your songwriting method to accommodate that concept?

“We didn't go into making the record with the concept in mind. Initially, we just wanted to remove all the rules. We went into the studio, started hammering stuff out, and ended up with about 20 songs.”

“It was an ugly process at times, but we got to a point where we had the same intense energy that we had when we did Dookie. And once Billy wrote the song Jesus of Suburbia, the music took a turn. So instead of screwing around, we started writing for the record, keeping the same energetic approach.”

How do you describe your tone?

“It's funny – I'm not known as a technical bass player, but I think I have an almost autistic understanding of what my speakers and strings are going to do. Usually, I'm contending with a huge guitar sound, so I try to cut through with midrange. I also like my sound to be round and warm.

“I also like a tic-tac click, like the sound of the baritone guitar parts on old country records, where it would double the bassline. I like the ice-pick-in-the-ear upper-midrange sound, and I like my bass to have punch.”

What's important to you in a bassline?

“I try to be percussive with my right hand, finding something that has its own motor, with a bounce to it. I think it's all the little ‘ands’ and in-between notes that create a solid rhythm.”

How do you capture those ideas and help turn them into songs?

“Composing is a matter of following through on that initial inspiration. And don't be afraid. You just need to be honest with yourself. I mean, there's some shit on the cutting room floor that still makes me cringe, but fear of failure is the biggest impediment to success.”

“I had an idea for a song that sounded like Sabbath mixed with Iggy Pop. In the end, it ended up sounding more like a pile of dog shit! I remember everyone coming into the studio and listening in total silence. But there's really no such thing as a stupid question or idea.”

Describe your musical relationship with Tré Cool. What are you thinking when you're trying to lock in with him?

“From playing together for so long, we've developed an incredible relationship. It's at the point where I'm feeling more than I'm thinking. It's a natural thing; if it's working right, it shouldn't require too much thought.”

Do you always play with a pick?

“Yeah. It's a product of starting on guitar. It just seemed more natural, since my rotation with my fingers isn't that good. You might catch me playing slap bass and fingerstyle before practice, but not onstage.”

How has your gear evolved as the band's sound has changed?

“When I was working on my signature bass with Fender I spent some time at Fender headquarters in Arizona. They showed me the new Fender Bass Amplification line, and I was like, ‘Yeah, whatever – Fender bass amps.’ But they played it and my bass tech looked at me and said, ‘Holy shit! They did it!’”

“I don't need to endorse anyone. I can afford to buy any amp I want, and to tell you the truth, I'd just as soon tell everyone to fuck off. But the Fenders sounded so great. It was like an Ampeg 8x10, but it sounded like it was coming from two feet closer; a little more present and immediate. I like the Ampeg cabs' low-end response, but the Fenders give me the attack I'm looking for.”

What do you think of the current crop of bass players?

“Scott Owen from the Living End is amazing. I also like Nate Mendel from the Foo Fighters; his bass just warms everything up. It's not out there on Broadway, but without it, everything would fall apart.”

“I appreciate bass players who really stick it out there, but who support the song. There's this new movement of bands that don't seem to think they need bass players. To them, I say, ‘Fuck you!’”

What advice would you give to up-and-coming players?

“Even if you don't feel like practicing, it's important to sit on your couch and noodle, because you're developing muscle memory and other skills that you don't even realize.

“We would play and practice because that's all there was to do. We weren't good at sports. I'm not a big guy, so what's my way to look cool and maybe impress some girls? I'm going to play bass! And it was cool. It was something that we could call our own.”

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.

Hello, and welcome to Essential Guitar Tracks. As you may well know, every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Our goal is to give you an overview of the biggest tracks, our editor’s picks and anything you may have missed. We’re pushing horizons and taking you out of your comfort zone – because, as guitarists, that’s something we should all be striving for in our playing. 

So, here are our highlights from the past seven days – now with a Spotify playlist…

Unprocessed – Die on the Cross of the Martyr (feat. Tim Henson & Scott LePage)

As one commenter kindly put it, the latest Unprocessed cut sees “three God-like guitarists” team up for a generational display of guitar playing prowess. Henson and LePage lend their boundless soloing chops to Manuel Gardner Fernandes, whose own trademark percussive approach keeps the track ticking along. Each player is pushing the boundaries of guitar music in their own respective ways. When joined together, it makes for one mesmeric listening experience. (MO) 

Today Was Yesterday – Grace (feat. Alex Lifeson)

Since Rush came to a close, the Canadian prog icons’ guitar hero has been busy… very busy. His industrial project, Envy of None, released their debut album, he guested on a Tom Morello track, and just last week, he launched his own gear company. 

For his next trick, Lifeson has collaborated with Today Was Yesterday, the project by prolific sidemen Ty Dennis and Angelo Barbera, who are now taking the spotlight. Lifeson appears on six of 10 tracks on the duo’s forthcoming debut album, while Robby Krieger also appears across the tracklisting.

Musically, Grace is right in Lifeson’s wheelhouse: it’s classic prog in the vein of Genesis, Yes, and, indeed, Rush, with mind-bending riffs, panoramic guitar soundscapes, and dynamic shifts aplenty. All of which serves as a reminder that Lifeson’s tonal palette remains truly timeless. (MAB)

Guns N' Roses – The General

Three decades ago, Guns N' Roses famously put their own spin on Paul McCartney's iconic Bond theme, Live and Let Die. Carrying with it a great sense of occasion, an air of mystery, and plenty of action, the stadium-conquerers' new single finds them channeling their inner spy once again. Can't go wrong with that wailing, wah-ing Slash solo, either... (JM)

c – Deconstruction (ft. Serj Tankian, Tony Iommi & Cesar Gueikian)

The Gibson Band is a new concept from the iconic guitar brand, set to feature a revolving cast of big-name endorsee talent and Gibson’s own in-house team. So, if you’ve ever pondered what Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian would sound like on a track with System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian and a guest solo from guitar icon Tony Iommi – well, wonder no more! Proceeds raised by the single, alongside an auction of Tankian’s original artwork and a custom-painted Gibson Les Paul, are all going to support a worthy cause, in the form of the Armenia Fund’s Artsakh Refugee Initiative. (MP)

Architects – Seeing Red

The UK metalcore heavyweights’ first output since the departure of Sylosis shredder Josh Middleton takes them back to their roots, deploying pummeling breakdowns, an arms-aloft chorus, and Sam Carter’s guttural screams. Gotta love that Gojira pick-scraped riff from Adam Christianson, too. (MAB)

IDLES – Grace 

A relative slow-burner by IDLES’ own energetic standards, Grace is a track that “came from nowhere and everything,” ramping up the tension across its bass-laden procession to a detonation of gain-drenched noise that serves as a “new manifesto of love triumphing over nihilism.” (MO)

The Libertines – Night Of The Hunter

Known in their early days for their ultra-catchy, ramshackle garage-rockers (and constant presence in the tabloids) the Libertines have clearly grown quite a bit over the decades, and for the better. Night Of The Hunter – the second single from All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade, their first new album in nine years – is simply beautiful, with a memorable lead motif that sounds straight out of a Spaghetti Western. (JM)

Slift – Nimh

We couldn’t get enough of Slift’s previous single Illion – the eponymous taster of an album due to land early next year. This follow-up from the French psych-metal trio has them rubber-stamped as ones to watch in 2024. A dynamic, densely woven entanglement of monstrous fuzz, chiming arpeggiated guitar and complex, grooving bass parts. It moves as a seething, organic mass – a titan laying waste to all and, occasionally, pausing for breath. (MP)

Devon Ross – Killer

When she’s not stalking the catwalk as a Gucci model or acting in the likes of HBO’s Irma Vep, Devon Ross can be found thrashing out ’70s-vibed post-punk on a Fender Mustang. A guitar player since childhood, Ross’ angular chord stabs are indebted to Patti Smith and Television, but her effortless cool cuts its own sonic figure. (MAB) 

Ryujin – Gekokujo

Guitarist and frontman Ryoji Shinomoto may pull on traditional Japanese influences (not to mention a smattering of dragon flute) in his writing for Ryujin, but his sound borrows a few tricks from Scandinavia, too. Not least, In Flames’ melodic menace and Alexi Laiho’s raucous leads. His solo on previous effort Raijin & Fujin (featuring Trivium’s Matthew K. Heafy) just made our best of the year list – and for good reason. (MP)

Green Day – Dilemma

A quintessential Green Day offering, released ahead of the band’s 14th studio album, Saviors, which is due in just a few weeks. Expect angsty outbursts of thrashing chords and moody palm-muted progressions aplenty, with the odd broken arpeggio thrown in for extra punctuation. (MO)

Also on this week’s playlist…

• Caligula’s Horse – The World Breathes With Me
• Sjowgren – newrules

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.

It’s the perfect musical success story: three guys get together, write a bunch of noisy songs, get signed, and wake up to discover their debut album has snagged Time magazine’s award for best rock record of the year. That’s exactly what happened to Green Day, the punk trio from Berkley, California. 

Dookie was a fixture on the charts for months and contains what many regard as the best of the early ‘90s post-punk, post-grunge songs by any artist. But what it lacks in stylistic diversity and sophistication, it makes up for in raw energy.

For bass players, it’s hard not to notice the album’s breakthrough single, Longview, which is built around Mike Dirnt’s catchy walking bassline. “That was me at the height of getting into jazz,” said Dirnt in the November ’94 issue of BP. “I had a friend who was a jazz guitarist and I was playing a lot with him out of the Real Book. I had a rapport with certain songs that I knew: Blue Dolphin, Domino Biscuit, A Train. And I’d go and play at little jazz pubs and stuff like that. So really Longview started as a jazz shuffle.”

Dirnt also told BP that he was tripping on LSD when he came up with the bassline. “For that song we had the drum part and chords worked out, but I hadn’t come up with a bassline. One night I dropped acid, and I was playing my bass flat on my legs. Bill came in and I said, ‘Dude, check out this bassline!’ It all came to me in one go; we let the rest of the song come very naturally, too. A lot of people seem to get a kick out of the sound – and they really notice the bass.”

During a 1994 TV appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, Dirnt was seen thrashing an aluminium-neck Kramer, an axe he wielded while his main axe at the time, a mid-70s Gibson G3, was in the shop. “The Kramer must weight around 20 pounds; it’s really sturdy, but it’s like a log with strings. I recorded most of Dookie with an ’85 Precision, but on Longview I used a Gibson. Then I broke the neck in half.”

Dirnt also confessed that he has no direct influences and has never sat down to work out bass parts from a record. “Doing that might have influenced me a little too much. I think my method has helped me to formulate my own style.”

That style involves playing with a pick, with most of the picking motion coming from Dirnt’s arm rather than his wrist. “A lot of pick players have really limber wrists, but I don’t – I just play really hard.”

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

The likes of James Jamerson and Donald ‘Duck' Dunn may have been among the first to relay the sound of Fender’s Precision Bass to the airwaves back in the '60s and '70s, but Green Day’s Mike Dirnt is a new breed of P-Bass champion. “Billie bought me my first P-Bass, a 1969, and I’ve been hooked on them ever since,” said Dirnt in an interview with Bass Guitar magazine. “I have other basses, but nothing works as good as a P-Bass.”

It was put to Dirnt that a lot of top bass guitar players eventually return to Fender after a few years away. “Yeah. A lot of incredible players switch back to Fenders after a while. Even Flea," says Dirnt. "He told me he wanted to go to a P-Bass and an Ampeg live. Les Claypool is another example. I'd go fishing with him sometimes, and he’s such an incredible player, but he’s struggled with his sound. He played a Jazz Bass in Sausage, didn’t he?”

Needless to say, Dirnt has acquired some veritable bass gems on his travels. “I’ve got some really great ’60s Precision basses. My wife wanted to buy me a great bass, so she found a ’58 Olympic White model – it eats my friends alive that I take it out and play it live! A few years back, Darryl Jones sold me his ’64 Jazz – it’s sick. I also have a ’62 Jazz in Olympic White.”

Several Mike Dirnt Signature models have also been produced by Fender. The current version features an ash body with a thick C-shaped maple neck in Sunburst and White Blonde finishes, as well as the Road Worn treatment to simulate years of wear and tear.

“In the beginning I asked the Custom Shop to make me a 1951 P-Bass, which is the Telecaster-looking bass, with a rosewood fretboard,” says Dirnt. “They were all freaking out, because apparently no-one had ever made one with a rosewood fretboard before. Then I added the ’55 cutaway, so you’re not rubbing your arm on that sharp ridge, and the pickups we put in are 1959 vintage-style split single-coils. I tell people that I built a Ford F-150 truck, only it looks like a Chevy!”

Last of the American Girls is probably the most overt example of Dirnt’s overdriven P-Bass tone on a Green Day recording: loaded with driving eighth notes and propelled by the super-tight rhythm section of Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool, the Green Day sound is unmistakable. 

Green Day's 2020 album, Father Of All Motherf***ers is out now.

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.

What guitarist hasn't stood in front of their bedroom mirror, imagining the unlikely scenario of playing onstage with their guitar heroes?

For most players, it's nothing more than a pipe dream, but some are lucky enough, be it by happenstance or careful planning – holding up a sign that reads, “can I play guitar with you?”, or giving a quick elevator pitch of their six-string abilities at a meet and greet – to get the chance to grace the stage with their idols.

And when they do make it to the stage, there's the small matter of making sure they seize the moment and nail the guitar part they've been invited to play. Fortunately, the fans in the following list were well-rehearsed by the time they answered the call.

Here are 10 times fans were invited to play guitar onstage and absolutely killed it.

1. Tom Morello lookalike plays Bulls on Parade with Prophets of Rage

Let’s be honest, if you’re someone who looks like Tom Morello at a Prophets of Rage gig, just stand reasonably close to the stage and you’re bound to be noticed by the band. That’s exactly what happened to Mike Svensson at the supergroup’s show in Stockholm, Sweden on June 26, 2018.

Towards the end of the set – which included a selection of Prophets of Rage originals and Rage Against the Machine and Public Enemy covers – Morello sought to take a short break from performing to rest his hand, which was recovering from a fracture at the time.

Spotting his doppelganger, the guitarist plucked Svensson from the crowd, equipped him with his signature Arm The Homeless electric guitar, and invited him to play RATM classic Bulls on Parade with the band, where he nailed the Evil Empire cut note for note while busting some serious moves. We’re not quite sure how many hours Svensson spent in front of the mirror rehearsing that moment.

2. Fan brings the house down at a Steve Vai show

Back in July, Steve Vai played the final show of the European leg of his Inviolate World Tour at the Teatro Tivoli in Barcelona. Vai had planned to make his own way to the venue, but an “excited cab driver” spotted him and insisted on taking him there. When Vai was in his car, the cabbie took the opportunity to show him a clip on his phone of his son playing For the Love of God – from Vai’s 1990 album, Passion and Warfare.

Later that night, while Vai played the encore track of his set, Fire Garden Suite IV – Taurus Bulba, he noticed the taxi driver and his young son sitting in the audience. Assured by the prowess displayed in the video clip he had been shown just hours earlier, Vai walked into the crowd and handed the boy his guitar.

The kid subsequently brought the house down with his formidable shredding, and even ran to the stage to revel in the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“I decided to make his day,” Vai said in a social media post, “and he certainly kicked some ass! It was a splendid way to cap off an outstanding tour.”

3. Kid joins Green Day for a stellar performance of Jesus of Suburbia

Green Day have brought fans onstage numerous times in the past, but few moments have been as killer as when Billie Joe Armstrong invited a young boy to play American Idiot epic Jesus of Suburbia with the band in Chicago in 2009.

Oftentimes, the authenticity of such interactions is thrown into question, with some accusing artists of planning them in advance. But this moment is certainly legit, as Armstrong can be seen in footage asking the boy to confirm the song’s key, to which he replies correctly: “C#”

After pulling the kid onto the stage, Armstrong seats him on a stage monitor, hands him his Gibson Les Paul Junior, and plucks out and discards his earplugs. “We want it loud,” he exclaims.

Armstrong then offers the boy some brief guidance, before realizing he needs no such help. The child plays the near-10-minute song all the way through with ease, at times taking a moment to look at the crowd and take in the once-in-a-lifetime moment.

4. 11-year-old plays Van Halen’s rendition of You Really Got Me with Steel Panther

11-year-old Aidan Fisher attended a Steel Panther show in 2013 at the Midland Theater in Kansas City, Missouri, and during the band’s set, held up a sign that said: “I challenge Satchel to a guitar solo.”

After spotting the young buck and his somewhat confrontational placard, Satchel granted him his wish and welcomed him to the stage, handing over his signature Kramer Pacer and inviting the boy to play a cover of Van Halen’s version of You Really Got Me.

But before launching into the track, the boy let loose with a face-melting solo loaded with precise alternate picking runs, insane two-handed tapping passages and whammy bar dives, prompting Satchel to retreat off stage in utter defeat.

5. Young boy plays Belief onstage with John Mayer

An adolescent John Mayer fan’s dreams came true when he was given the opportunity to play onstage with the guitar icon in 2010. Austin Christy’s night went exactly to plan, after standing in the crowd at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia near the stage holding a sign that read: “Can I please play Belief with you?”

After spotting the boy, Mayer chose to make his night – and quite possibly his entire life – by calling him up to the stage, saddling him up with his red Fender Stratocaster Plus and inviting him to play the 2006 Continuum cut.

Fan-shot footage from the event shows Mayer’s acoustic guitar strumming as a backdrop, while Christy nails the track’s smooth and subtle clean leads.

The interaction clearly lit a fire in the young Christy, who continues to make guitar-based music to this day.

6. Fan plays Catfish Blues with Gary Clark Jr.

Gary Clark Jr. has made a habit of inviting fans onstage to jam with him at his shows, but no such moment has been as memorable as when he played Catfish Blues with a young fan named Jeff at Philadelphia’s The Met in 2019.

After blazing through the likes of Bright Lights, Low Down Rolling Stone, When My Train Pulls In and This Land, the bluesman called the fan to the stage during the show for the most wholesome interaction.

In footage from the event, Jeff is seen shaking hands with every member of Clark Jr.’s backing band before strapping on a Gibson SG for a healthy dose of attitude-heavy blues. Expectedly, the crowd goes nuts.

7. Kid joins Foo Fighters onstage to jam Metallica classics

An exuberant youngster named Collier was welcomed to the stage during Foo Fighters October 12 set at Kansas City’s Sprint Center. After confidently announcing to the thousands of fans in attendance, “I know a lot of Metallica songs,” Dave Grohl handed him his Pelham Blue DG-335 signature model, whereafter the boy truly made the stage his own, launching into the main riff of Enter Sandman and bringing Taylor Hawkins, Chris Shiflett and Nate Mendel along for the ride.

After showcasing more of his ‘Tallica riff knowledge – playing Welcome Home (Sanitarium) and Wherever I May Roam – Grohl capped off the boy’s experience by sending him back to his mother in the crowd, still with the DG-335 in his hands.

“If I see that shit on eBay next week I’m gonna find you,” Grohl told the boy, to the amusement of the crowd.

8. Metallica invite young band to play Seek & Destroy in Philadelphia

There must be something in the air at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia – now the Wells Fargo Center – as Metallica, like John Mayer, also made the dreams of young fans a reality at the venue.

In 2004, while the thrash titans were touring in support of their polarizing 2003 outing St. Anger, James Hetfield invited a young band called Break the Chair – its members aged between nine and 14 – to the stage to jam the intro section of Kill ‘Em All classic, Seek & Destroy.

Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo and Lars Ulrich all vacated their posts, allowing the fresh-faced troupe to showcase their musical chemistry and chops to the thousands in attendance.

Metallica took over shortly before the first chorus, but we’ll bet the kids left the stage with enough adrenaline to last a lifetime.

9. Fan kills the lead lines of Avenged Sevenfold's So Far Away

Avenged Sevenfold are another act who often relinquish musical duties to eager members of the crowd. There is no shortage of such clips on YouTube, including one where a fan plays drums to Second Heartbeat in Puerto Rico, and another in which an audience member replaces Synyster Gates to play the lead guitar of Unholy Confessions. 

But few moments match up to the time a fan jumped onstage in 2011 to play lead guitar for Nightmare ballad So Far Away.

In the footage above, the fan, armed with Gates’ pinstripe-finished Schecter signature model, plays the track’s emotive leads and textural clean chords with astonishing accuracy, and even takes the opportunity to stroll about the stage to get up close to his idols.

10. Fan nails the solo of Misery Business live with Paramore

One of the biggest songs in Paramore's catalog, Misery Business has been a staple of the band's setlist since its release on 2007's Riot! That is, with the exception of a period of several years starting in 2018 when the song was temporarily retired due to a few controversial lyrics.

And of the hundreds of times the track has been played, many have seen the band welcome audience members to the stage.

In 2010, after meeting Paramore at a meet and greet prior to a show – and telling Hayley Williams he could play “all of their songs on guitar” – one fan was summoned to the stage during Misery Business, where he was equipped with Josh Farro's guitar, before absolutely nailing the track's guitar solo.

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”.

Green Day have canceled their forthcoming show in Moscow in response to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The show at Spartak Stadium – a 45,000-capacity venue in Russia's capital – was originally scheduled to take place May 29 as part of Green Day's ongoing Hella Mega Tour with Fall Out Boy and Weezer. At present, the date has been removed from the tour section of Green Day's website.

“With heavy hearts, in light of current events we feel it is necessary to cancel our upcoming show in Moscow at Spartak Stadium,” the band wrote yesterday (February 27) on Instagram.

“We are aware that this moment is not about stadium rock shows, it's much bigger than that. But we also know that rock and roll is forever and we feel confident there will be a time and a place for us to return in the future.” The band added that refunds for the show are now available at the point of purchase.

Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has been met with widespread condemnation from the international community. Alongside Green Day, other music artists who have canceled appearances in Russia in support of Ukraine include American indie pop trio AJR, who say their decision was based on Russia's “unprovoked and criminal behavior."

Prominent Russian rapper Oxxxymiron has also canceled shows in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. “I cannot entertain you when Russian missiles are falling on Ukraine – when residents of Kyiv are forced to hide in basements and in the metro, while people are dying,” he said in a recent Instagram video (per Music Ally).

And in other music-related news regarding the crisis, it emerged over the weekend that Russia is to be banned from 2022's Eurovision Song Contest.

While many artists who are scheduled to play in Russia have yet to comment on the status of their upcoming shows, they may be forced into postponing or canceling them, as many western airlines may soon be banned from flying in Russia's airspace.

Currently, carriers based in the UK and much of Europe cannot fly in Russia's airspace, after a series of retaliatory measures were imposed by the Kremlin. At the time of writing, Russia's airspace remains open to US-based airlines.

Hard-rocking flash mobs are nothing new. In recent years, we've seen hundreds of guitarists, bassists, drummers and singers team up to cover classics by Nirvana, Metallica and Rage Against the Machine.

Famously, a 1,000-strong ensemble in Cesena, Italy so moved the Foo Fighters after their cover of Learn to Fly went viral that the Dave Grohl-led group went on to play a show at the small city.

Still, these mass covers are always a delight, and a new one – which brought 150 musicians together at Bánffy Castle in Bontida, Romania for a version of Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams – is no exception.

You can check out a professionally-shot video of the performance below.

The group was assembled by CityRocks, a group that calls itself "the biggest rock band in Central Europe." Aside from the aforementioned Nirvana and Metallica covers, the group has also tackled classics by the likes of Linkin Park, blink-182, Bryan Adams and many more.

For their part, Green Day are fresh off a new single, Holy Toledo! An infectiously bouncy pop-punk number of the highest order, the song features prominently in the soundtrack of the film Mark, Mary & Some Other People.

It was the band's third stand-alone single of 2021, following Here Comes the Shock and Pollyanna.

Green Day have completed a hat-trick of singles for 2021 with their new track, Holy Toledo!

Following Here Comes the Shock and Pollyanna – released in February and May, respectively – Holy Toledo! sees the power trio – composed of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool – serve up a true-to-form selection of danceable rhythms, bouncy powerchords and infectious hooks, demonstrating once again that over 30 years into their career, they still know how to write a knockout pop-rock song.

The track is set to be featured in the upcoming rom-com movie, Mark, Mary & Some Other People, which hit cinemas today (November 5). Check it out below.

Green Day also recently announced a new live album, The BBC Sessions, a 16-track collection of performances cut from their appearances at BBC's Maida Vale Studios in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2001, respectively.

Set to drop on December 10 via Warner Records, the album marks the first time the recordings have been mastered for an official release, and will arrive with liner notes from BBC Radio 1 host Steve Lamacq, who saw each performance in person.

Songs on the live album are taken from across the band's early catalogue, including Basket Case, Walking Contradiction, Stuck With Me and Nice Guys Finish Last.

The album is available to preorder now via Green Day's website. Check out its track list below.

1. She (Live at the BBC June 8, 1994)
2. When I Come Around (Live at the BBC June 8, 1994)
3. Basket Case (Live at the BBC June 8, 1994)
4. 2000 Light Years Away (Live at the BBC June 8, 1994)
5. Geek Stink Breath (Live at the BBC November 3, 1996)
6. Brain Stew/Jaded (Live at the BBC November 3, 1996)
7. Walking Contradiction (Live at the BBC November 3, 1996)
8. Stuck With Me (Live at the BBC November 3, 1996)
9. Hitchin’ A Ride (Live at the BBC February 12, 1998)
10. Nice Guys Finish Last (Live at the BBC February 12, 1998)
11. Prosthetic Head (Live at the BBC February 12, 1998)
12. Redundant (Live at the BBC February 12, 1998)
13. Castaway (Live at the BBC August 28, 2001)
14. Church On Sunday (Live at the BBC August 28, 2001)
15. Minority (Live at the BBC August 28, 2001)
16. Waiting (Live at the BBC August 28, 2001)

Green Day have announced a new live album, a 16-track collection called The BBC Sessions.

Set for a December 10 release via Warner Records, the album is comprised of recordings of four sets the band played at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios – in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2001, respectively.

The album marks the first time the recordings have been mastered for official release, and comes with liner notes by Steve Lamacq, who – in his capacity as host of BBC Radio 1's Evening Show – saw each performance in person.

You can check out a preview of the album – a buzzy, airtight 1994 performance of 2000 Light Years Away – below. 

The BBC Sessions contains renditions of one song from the band's 1991 album, Kerplunk, three cuts from their 1994 classic, Dookie, and four tracks each from 1995's Insomniac, 1997's Nimrod, and 2000's Warning.

You can check out the album's cover art and track list below, and pre-order the album via Green Day's website.

It will be available in CD, digital and limited-edition 2LP vinyl configurations – including Sea Blue/Hot Pink vinyl for the band’s official store and Milky Clear Color vinyl for indie retailers.

Green Day – The BBC Sessions:

1. She (Live at the BBC June 8, 1994)
2. When I Come Around (Live at the BBC June 8, 1994)
3. Basket Case (Live at the BBC June 8, 1994)
4. 2000 Light Years Away (Live at the BBC June 8, 1994)
5. Geek Stink Breath (Live at the BBC November 3, 1996)
6. Brain Stew/Jaded (Live at the BBC November 3, 1996)
7. Walking Contradiction (Live at the BBC November 3, 1996)
8. Stuck With Me (Live at the BBC November 3, 1996)
9. Hitchin’ A Ride (Live at the BBC February 12, 1998)
10. Nice Guys Finish Last (Live at the BBC February 12, 1998)
11. Prosthetic Head (Live at the BBC February 12, 1998)
12. Redundant (Live at the BBC February 12, 1998)
13. Castaway (Live at the BBC August 28, 2001)
14. Church On Sunday (Live at the BBC August 28, 2001)
15. Minority (Live at the BBC August 28, 2001)
16. Waiting (Live at the BBC August 28, 2001)

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.

At long last, the much-delayed Hella Mega Tour – a seismic touring event spearheaded by Green Day, Weezer and Fall Out Boy – finally resumed on July 24, after being put on hold for over 12 months by the Covid pandemic.

Despite the promising start, having played to crowds in Arlington, Atlanta and Houston, the three bands were met with yet another uncontrollable curveball after a member of Fall Out Boy tested positive for Covid, forcing the group to pull out of upcoming dates last minute.

In an effort to ensure that the eager crowd at Citi Field, New York, received their expected fix of Fall Out Boy, and as a show of solidarity to his tourmate, Rivers Cuomo took to the stage for a solo rendition of the band’s track, Sugar We’re Goin Down.

Armed with nothing but a purple crackle-finished Jackson Rhoads electric guitar and the voices of thousands of thankful fans, Cuomo launched into a stripped-back take on the track, calling upon the crowd on more than one occasion to help him out with the vocals.

“So they can hear you!” encourages Cuomo at one point while the crowd sings the chorus unaccompanied – clearly in an effort to send support to Fall Out Boy – with the Weezer man’s nonchalant, bite-y strumming offering up a fresh take on the decade-and-a-half old track.

The untimely test result meant that Fall Out Boy were forced to miss two successive show dates – the August 4 show at Citi Field, New York, and the August 5 one at Fenway Park, Boston – though the shows managed to survive with full sets from both Green Day and Weezer.

“Out of an abundance of caution, Fall Out Boy will not perform at the New York or Boston shows of the Hella Mega Tour due to an individual on the band’s team testing positive for COVID,” a statement posted to the tour’s official Instagram account read.

“It’s important to note that everyone on the entire tour, both band and crew, are fully vaccinated,” it continued. “Each band and their crew have operated in a bubble independently to safeguard everyone as much as possible.”

As well as performing his take on Sugar We’re Goin Down on both of the above dates, Rivers Cuomo also led Weezer through a number of their seminal hits, including El Scorcho, Hash Pipe, My Name Is Jonas, and Buddy Holly.

The next Hella Mega Tour, scheduled for August 7 at Grand Theater at Foxwoods, Mashantucket, will see Fall Out Boy return to the lineup.

For a full list of dates, head over to the official Hella Mega Tour website.

The guitar solo has been declared dead many times. Late-70s punks actively tried to kill it, bored by 20-minute stadium rock indulgences. 

In the early 80s, some critics declared that the electric guitar itself was finished, replaced by the synthesizer. That prediction turned out comically wrong as the decade produced shred, Johnny Marr and a US alt-rock scene that went mainstream in the 90s.  

In the 90s, according to critics, solos were facing the mortuary slab once more. This did not, however, stop them from appearing in the biggest alternative rock hits of the decade, such as Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, Pearl Jam’s Alive, or even Weezer’s Buddy Holly.

Dying, it would appear, did little to deter the guitar solo. In the early 2000s, having recovered from nasty bouts of death in the preceding decades, solos again looked old hat.

Who could forget Kirk Hammett’s crestfallen face in Some Kind of Monster as his bandmates told him the new album would contain no solos? In the event, Metallica produced their most reviled work. Young bands like Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold promptly filled the vacuum, ripping out the kind of solos we wished had been on St Anger.

Now the guitar solo again looks ill-fated. Last year, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong appeared on Total Guitar’s cover proclaiming the era of the anti-solo – going so far as to say, "I just feel like no one’s got the time to listen to a guitar solo anymore." A 2019 Rolling Stone editorial pondered the end of the era, pointing out that guitar solos on mainstream records are now vanishingly rare.

When Jack White collaborated with Beyoncé in 2016, arguably the 21st century equivalent of EVH teaming up with Michael Jackson, the resulting track didn’t even have a solo. After decades of crying wolf, have the guitar solo’s prophets of doom finally got it right?

Even if reports of the guitar solo’s death have so far been greatly exaggerated, one day it will be gone. Maybe that day will be in 7.5 billion years, when the sun swallows Earth, or perhaps that day is upon us.

The first popular electric guitar went on sale in 1936. The Stratocaster is now old enough to collect its pension, and original Les Pauls are worth more than your house because they are virtually antiques. Many of the all-time great soloists are no longer with us: Van Halen, Hendrix, BB King, Chuck Berry, Dimebag, SRV.

Today, learning rock ’n’ roll means learning history. At the start of rock ’n’ roll, guitar solos were the sound of revolution, but it’s hard to think of them that way when the instruments themselves are older than your grandparents.

If you plugged in a guitar in 1952, virtually anything you played would have been an unprecedented new sound. Today you could play non-stop for a year without stumbling upon something that hasn’t been done. But it’s a mistake to think the guitar is a spent force, because you never know when a visionary will upset everything you think you know.

There’s a reason we think of Hendrix, Van Halen, and Tom Morello so vividly. Each arrived when we thought we had a handle on what guitars could do, and each shredded our preconceptions.

One day, maybe every variation of sound it’s possible to get from an electric guitar will have been made. But the electric guitar’s appeal has never been pure novelty, or it wouldn’t have had such a world changing first century.

The blues greats, who gave us the guitar solo as we know it, were famed for their emotional connection with the instrument. Lead guitar offers a raw form of expression, with musicians communicating their deepest feelings. That isn’t going away.

#GuitarSolo has 2.7 million posts on Instagram and 207 million views on TikTok. Searching ‘guitar solo’ produces 50 million hits on YouTube. Clearly, guitar solos are alive. What they are not, however, is mainstream. It is hard to imagine Cardi B or Billie Eilish employing Nita Strauss for a face-melting modern equivalent of Beat It.

But worrying about this ignores two facts: first, electric guitar music has always been in the minority on the radio. Guitarists remember the 1980s as a halcyon decade, but from 1980-1989, not a single end-of-year UK chart topper featured a lead break.

Second, nothing is mainstream anymore. There’s no TV channel everyone watches, no radio station everyone listens to. There are a million Spotify playlists for new music, and no one is on all of them. The electric guitar is a minority interest, but so is owning a hamster. This does not mean that hamsters are dying out.

When people proclaim the death of the solo, they mean it is over as a cultural force, that it will never again be the voice of youth. Kids in the 1960s loved rock ’n’ roll in part because their parents hated it. When your dad is encouraging you to take guitar lessons so you can learn Sweet Child O’ Mine, the vibe is not the same.

One band who recognises the need to shake things up is Polyphia. “The only way to keep shred alive was to kill it and bring it back to life our own way,” says guitarist Scott LePage. It’s this attitude that makes their music so fresh.

It’s a view shared by blues upstart Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram, who told us, “I can’t be the kid wonder forever. We’re all evolving, and I just want to keep playing and keep pushing forward.” Listening to the next generation of guitarists, you get no sense that there is nowhere left to go.

There’s one really good reason to think that guitar solos can still surprise us. Until now, the famous ones have been made almost exclusively by men, mostly from the US and UK.

It’s notable that some of the most exciting guitarists of today are women: Nita Strauss, Erja Lyytinen, and Yvette Young among them. The internet means that guitarists from more countries are coming to prominence as well, including Brazil’s Mateus Asato and Lari Basilio, Japan’s Ichika Nito, and Niger’s Mdou Moctar.

That increasing diversity means a bigger pool of ideas and more chances for new sounds to emerge. It would be arrogant to assume all the guitar’s possibilities have been explored when so far only a tiny slice of the population has even tried.

Growing diversity mean that we have to expand our ideas of what a ‘guitar solo’ sounds like. Yvette Young’s inventive breaks bear no resemblance to blues rock, but there’s no doubt they are dazzling pieces of solo guitar.

It’s telling that Yvette says she never listens to guitar music. “I only listen to bands and composers. My piano upbringing – the two-handed tapping I play, I approach the guitar just how I’d approach writing polyphony on a piano.” If you want innovative guitar music, you shouldn’t be surprised when the results don’t remind you of Eric Clapton.

Other cultures could introduce brand new sounds. In October 2020, users in Nepal were among the most likely to Google ‘guitar solo’. Nepalese music commonly uses microtones (pitches in between the frets). There is still miles of potential for guitar innovation.

One avenue for originality is actual solo guitar – unaccompanied pieces. Besides Eruption, almost all classic guitar ‘solos’ are played with bands. Innovators like Mateus Asato and Ichika make stunning compositions for guitar alone.

Without having to blend with other instruments, they are free to roam wherever they please, but they also have to find new ways to fill the space normally occupied by the rhythm section. And by becoming stars on social media, they’re also changing ideas about where we find guitar heroes. There’s also the possibility that we’re just looking in the wrong places.

When guitar solos disappear in one genre, they usually pop up in another. In the late 90s, the metal press wondered where all the guitar solos had gone, with Korn and Limp Bizkit playing as though their top three strings were missing.

Yet on 1999’s biggest single, Smooth, Carlos Santana barely stopped soloing long enough for Rob Thomas to get the lyrics out. Meanwhile in 2021, if guitar solos are out of vogue someone should have told country musicians.

More electric guitars have been sold in the last 12 months than ever before. There’s every reason to expect that one of those guitars has gone to the next Matt Bellamy or Yvette Young.

But more importantly, all of them have gone to people who will use the instrument to express themselves and make themselves happy. Ultimately, guitar solos come from rebellious subcultures, so it would be weird to care what anyone else thinks.

Do you still like guitar solos? Cool. Us too.

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. 

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.

Mike Dirnt is an often-cited bass guitar influence in these pages and beyond, responsible for drawing many a young player into the joys of bassdom. Furthermore, he blew away the definition of a ‘punk bassist’ years ago. 

The man has far more artillery in his cannon than that, as we discovered when we caught up with Dirnt for a much-needed update and some enlightening conversation. With their new album Father Of All Motherf***ers recently unleashed on the world, Green Day are in a good place. 

The new record covers a lot of ground, as Dirnt confirms: “There’s definitely some 1950s rock ’n’ roll in there, and we’ve got some 70s glam in there, too; a little bit of Phil Spector and I’m playing with some newer tones that are pushing forward. What was nice was that I was able to play a lot lower, a lot of deeper notes, and drop more actual sub-low bass than I ever have before.”

Sounds intriguing... “Well, I’ve always gone back and forth between the punk side of where we come from and old-school rock ’n’ roll. Much of this album was split between one of my signature series basses and an old flatwound-equipped Fender Mustang, which gave me a kind of old-style Hofner tone. To record that, I was running through one of my Fender Super Bassman amps.”

Having been together for well over 30 years now, Green Day have a familiar way of working that seems just fine for singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, drummer Tre Cool and Dirnt. Even when they’re not recording or touring, the guys are still working together. 

“Up until the !Uno! !Dos! !Tre! albums that we did in 2012, we would practice together four to six days a week between tours and records. It shocked me when you’d speak to other bands. I’d be genuinely surprised, like ‘You mean you don’t practice every day?’”

He continues: “After the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 2015, I realized that we’ve been practicing four to six days a week for our whole f***ing career! But we don’t have to do that now. We know how to write together, and how to work on songs from different angles.

“Billie will send playlists of what he’s listening to, because it comes from Billie’s core as to what he’s feeling. He’ll work on songs and send us the early demos so we’re all in the loop. When we’re ready to lay down the proper demos, we get together and then he can manipulate it from that point.

“Part of it is not overthinking it, because demos can sound really good these days. I’ve actually used stuff from my phone before. I’ve got a great collection of ideas, melodies, bassline ideas, guitar riffs all on my phone – but you have to keep your ears open for new stuff too.”

With so many miles on the clock together, do tensions ever run high? “Well, I’ve been playing with Billie since I was 10 and a half and I’m 47 now. The thing is, we’re friends and we grew up a long time ago -–so if s*** gets difficult or awkward, we can have a general conversation. 

“We’re all different people, but there’s a commonality with music. Billie has grown into a phenomenal songwriter but when we get together, he knows he can depend on Tre and I to get our parts down and lay it out for him. He’s a good drummer too and sometimes he might suggest something – but he knows we’ll play it differently and get all of the juice out of it.

As for studio craft, Dirnt points out that even when you think a song is finished, it isn’t necessarily the case. 

“I don’t like to over-listen to something – I like to keep the original inspiration, because you don’t get a first listen again and again,” he explains. “I’ll listen and take notes based on what I’m thinking, play it once or twice and then walk away to let the song evolve. 

“When we get to the studio, I might write it out 18 different ways until I get it how I want it, but even then I might not know exactly which road we’re going down with it until I actually lay it down.

“On Junkies On A High for example, there’s a section where the bassline enhances the verses - but not so much that it takes away from the song. Then, on Meet Me On The Roof, that rhythm can be played so many different ways. 

“I wrote it a few ways and recorded the whole thing, but when I got in there, I said ‘You know what? The pocket is actually here,’ because I was feeling it differently. At the end, I just opened it up and walked it – turned around into a sort of jazz-walk! –and the guys said ‘What the f*** was that?’ But that was how I felt it.”

Green Day have hit considerable highs throughout their career, to say the very least – most notably with the Dookie (1994) and American Idiot (2004) albums, where their progress was tangible – but it hasn’t all been plain sailing, as Dirnt is quick to point out. 

“It’s kinda weird,” he muses, “because you don’t know when you’re going to write a seminal record that’s going to change your career. Both of those albums were exciting, and we knew we were onto something new for us, taking us to a new level – but it’s not the easy stuff that tests your mettle.

“After Dookie, we wanted to get right back into the studio, because we’d signed to a major label [Reprise/Warners], so everyone was freaking out, and we wanted to show that we weren’t a one-trick pony. 

“By the time we recorded American Idiot, we said ‘We don’t care what the world thinks. We’re either going to swing from the heavens or we’re going to strike out –and that’s it. There’s nothing in between.’

“That tour was immense. Those were truly epic shows for us. The Bullet In A Bible documentary was spot on, the sun came out and the planets aligned. That film documented our step up into the next league, playing major stadiums and festivals around the world. It was a pivotal moment for Green Day.”

He continues: “The follow-up to American Idiot was probably the hardest writing and recording cycle of our careers – because we’re just not built for mailing it in, and we could have done that. There was a lot of pressure, because there was nothing on the table ready to go.

“Our next album, 21st Century Breakdown (2009), was the perfect continuation – and we put our heads down and went to work. After the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction, I wanted to channel our energy into putting something new and great out, to let people know – again – that we’re not done.”

Moving on to bass gear, Dirnt’s signature Fender Precisions have proved incredibly successful since their launch in 2004 – but they started life out of necessity rather than as a commercial enterprise. Dirnt’s intention was to prevent vintage instruments from being bastardized, as he explains.

“One of the reasons I went for the Tele headstock was to stop people buying up the original Telecaster and Precision basses and ruining them, routing them out for a pickup they were never designed for. 

“I remember the day I paid Fender to make one of these basses: they sent me several variations before they came to me around 2003 to do a signature model. Nothing happened for around a year, so I made one with my tech and one of our engineers.”

We love the pickup he uses, we tell him. “That’s a ’59 Custom Shop wrap – and it’s a great pickup,” he enthuses. “I love to give them to bassists who are much better than me and watch them go, ‘Oh s***!’ What else is in the signal chain, Mike?'” He laughs as he tries to recall what’s behind him onstage.

“I usually play four or five basses per show,” he says. “We have a lot of older songs tuned down to Eb, but with the newer stuff, for simplicity, I’ll play in regular E tuning. I have a little Fender Mustang for things like Macy’s Day Parade and other songs that have a different tonal requirement. It’s a simple setup.”

Asked about the Fender Super Bassman amps which he uses, he tells us: “I love that amp, and I know Fender redesigned it around six years ago, as they were heading in the wrong direction. I wrote them a letter saying ‘I’d be happy to champion that amp, but here’s what it needs’ – so I sent them a bunch of my old amps for specification purposes.

“I wanted the DI from an old amp, and I wanted the bass and treble knobs to have the push/pull functions that they used to have and to restore the blend option, so I didn’t have to go through a pedal to distort. That way I could have my clean tone and a distorted tone running side by side, so when I hit the button, I wasn’t losing any of the signal from my cable.

“I’m still using Fender 45-105 strings, Ultimate Ears for my IEMs and standard yellow [0.73mm] Dunlop Tortex picks. I move my arm a lot, but my sound really comes from my wrist. I don’t actually hit the strings as hard as people think I do, because I’ve figured out how to get the same attack without going so far through the strings. I like to let the pick move between my thumb, finger and wrist.”

Needless to say, Dirnt has acquired some veritable bass gems on his travels. Prepare to drool, folks... 

“I’ve got some really great ’60s Precision basses. My wife wanted to buy me a great bass, so she found a ’58 Olympic White model – it eats my friends alive that I take it out and play it live! A few years back, Darryl Jones sold me his ’64 Jazz – it’s sick; very nasty. 

“I also have a ’62 Jazz in Olympic White with a magical neck on it. You play a note on that thing and it sounds like a sine wave, I’ve never heard that much attack. The lows are really low and the highs are almost bell-like. I give away more basses than I buy; I give a lot away to charities and schools.”

With Green Day’s rescheduled ‘Hella Mega’ world tour starting in November and running through mid-2021, Dirnt is going to be exceptionally busy – but that’s what he wants, right? With a chuckle, he says: “Anything is possible at this point, which is exciting for Green Day and for me. We can do whatever we want.”

• Green Day's new album, Father Of All Motherf***ers is out now on Reprise.

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.

In today's digital age, it's seemingly easier than ever for artists to put out material with greater regularity. The biggest names in the world of guitar seem to be releasing albums and singles left, right and center - and we've never been happier.

In the past week alone, we've been treated to plenty of fantastic new music. From Code Orange's industrial, synth-infused Swallowing the Rabbit Whole to Stone Temple Pilots' shift from amps to nylon strings, there's been an abundance of both electric and acoustic guitar mastery to admire.

We've put together what we think are the most essential tracks from the last week. If there's any you feel we've missed, rest assured: they were considered.

Loathe - Screaming

While we lie in wait for the new Deftones album, Liverpool’s brightest metal upstarts are here to fill the void with one I Let It In And It Took Everything, one of 2020’s best albums thus far.

But while the band’s cannonballing baritone riffs and dream-like vocals recall Sacramento's finest, their breakdowns owe more to djent and metalcore, lending a sharper edge to their already well-honed craft. Ignore this band at your peril. (MAB)

Green Day - Meet Me on the Roof

Pop-rock's most arguably influential trio returned last week with Father of All Motherfuckers, an upbeat, infectiously feel-good 10-track record which clocks in at a mere 26 minutes and 16 seconds.

Steering away from the politically charged themes of albums past (think American Idiot), the album brings a welcome dose of escapist positivity to our increasingly uncertain political climate.

Still, the opening guitar riff of Meet Me on the Roof, while simple, harks back to the Green Day of the 2000s, beautifully utilizing nostalgia to drive home those evocative pop-punk hooks. (SR)

Sylosis - Empty Prophets

The modern-age disciples of thrash metal are back with their first album in five years, Cycle of Suffering. Having taken time out to tour and record with British metalcore frontrunners Architects, guitarist and frontman Josh Middleton returns to Sylosis with renewed vigor.

The album opens with Empty Prophets, which hits like a freight train, setting the stage for the rest of the album with a rapid-fire opening riff that locks in tightly with the machine gun-esque drum work. The section is followed by a pounding half-speed riff that's certain to get your head moving, followed by an impressive harmonized solo section. To a guitarist, this track has everything, and we dig it. (SR)

Stone Temple Pilots - Perdida

The ’90s alt-rock stalwarts made the surprise move to ditch the amps for their second record with new singer Jeff Gutt - and the results are quite spectacular.

The ever-underrated Dean DeLeo picks up a nylon-string to lend the album’s title track a distinctly cinematic feel, with a nuanced, performance so chock-full of flair, it’s hard to believe this is the band’s first all-acoustic affair. (MAB)

Tyler Larson - Eighty-Nine (ft. Tomo Fujita)

The lauded YouTube tutor, PRS endorsee and former GW columnist unveiled his debut EP this week, with a series of videos on his Music Is Win channel. Entitled Nashville Noises, the release showcases five original songs recorded in five different studios in Nashville, with guest appearances from the likes of Adam Neely and Andy Wood.

Eighty-Nine starts in pure fusion territory, balancing funky rhythms with gnarly fuzz tones, before Larson and special guest Tomo Fujita exchange licks over a backing track that recalls ballads by the likes of Joe Satriani - who himself is one of Larson’s all-time heroes. (MAB)

Code Orange - Swallowing The Rabbit Whole

You'd be forgiven for assuming straight off the bat that Code Orange's Swallowing the Rabbit Whole is built on an odd time signature, but this is due to, as the song's music video might suggest, a possible new and unnamed drummer's ability to shift and sway around 4/4.

The track quickly kicks into gear, with a tension-building palm-muted guitar section that couples nicely with the drums, climaxing with one of the most unusual and incredible guitar riffs we've heard in a while.

The rest of the track is an instrumental masterclass, with a particularly standout moment in the breakdown section. Guitar, bass, drums and synth marry together perfectly, seemingly unconfined to any tonal region, creating a beautiful sonic cacophany that's certain to open up the pit. (SR)

Godsticks - Surrender

Wales’ premier prog-rock-metal outfit returns this year with Inescapable, their most refined effort yet.

In Surrender, the band conjure a desolate, uneasy atmosphere, as time signatures simmer and sway, and arpeggiated chords rise and fall, all building towards a climactic wah-drenched lead from six-string-toting frontman Darran Charles - the kind of virtuosic delivery that has also seen him sought after by Bruce Soord-fronted progsters The Pineapple Thief. (MAB)

Machine Head - Circle the Drain

The longstanding California metal quartet have returned with a new standalone single, Circle the Drain. The track appears to mark a sonic change of direction for the band, with catchy, melodic chorus vocals and an instrumentally stripped-back verse. 

But fear not - hardcore fans will not be left wanting, as a Machine Head-signature, natural harmonic-infused riff follows frontman Robb Flynn's "I bring the hammer down" vocal cry. And we can confirm - he certainly does.

Following last year's Do or Die, new guitarist Wacław Kiełtyka comfortably fills the void left in 2018 by long-serving six-stringer Phil Demmel, delivering the pounding riffs with satisfying accuracy and confirming that Machine Head, despite their line-up changes of late, are stronger than ever. (SR)

Some bands are destined to release a single great album in their career; others, more than one. But few bands can top themselves as successfully as Green Day has in the last eight years.

American Idiot, the 2004 punk-rock concept album that became a hit Broadway musical, sent Green Day’s career into overdrive and took its power-punk message of alienation to the mainstream.

Five years later, 21st Century Breakdown was the impossible follow-up: smart, catchy, and successful. So how do you relax and savor success after you’ve hit two home runs? You hit three more, of course.

At an age when many punk-rockers are ready to begin slowing down, Green Day is releasing three albums that prove the band still has plenty of fire. The snotty brats who ruled the ’90s with snarling tracks like “Longview” and then went Broadway and political are cock-walking into their 40s full of piss and vinegar, perhaps none more so than Mike Dirnt.

Over the course of eight albums—39/Smooth, Kerplunk, Dookie, Insomniac, Nimrod, Warning, American Idiot, and 21st CenturyBreakdown—Dirnt has emulated the great punk and rock bassists of the ’70s while continually experimenting with his tone, approach, and gear.

The defining characteristic of Mike’s work just might be his melodicism: He can downstroke 16th-notes with the best of ’em, but his favorite bass lines are their own catchy little hooks, a fact that’s gloriously evident on Green Day’s trio of new albums, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré!.

As he’s been doing on the band’s last couple albums, Dirnt spends plenty of time on ¡Uno! serving the song, sticking out just enough to remind us he’s there. But on songs like “Nuclear Family,” he’s fast and loose, putting cool fills and riffs in just the right places.

His tone is beefy yet blended on “Stay the Night,” and he takes it to the dance floor on “Kill the DJ.” ¡Dos! is even more jam packed: “Nightlife” finds him loud and proud over a hip-hop beat, “Lazy Bones” is a great showcase for his new, buff tone, and “Drama Queen” gives Dirnt a chance to pay tribute to Sir Paul McCartney—on a Höfner, no less.

¡Tré! is an epic and anthemic New Years present to Green Day’s fans, and on tracks like “Dirty Rotten Scoundrel” and “Stray Heart,” Dirnt throws down like a champ.

A quarter-century into his career, nothing is as important to Dirnt as his partnership with singer/guitarist Billy Joe Armstrong and drummer Tré Cool. “I can’t see myself ever not doing Green Day,” he says. “There are side projects I have fun with, and I like doing interesting things, but Green Day will always be my world and my pièce de résistance.”

How did you begin writing for these new albums?

During our last tour, on our days off , we rented little studios all over Europe and demoed stuff . After we had gotten home and taken a couple months off , we started band practices; we got into a groove, playing five days a week in Oakland and just feeding off each other.

We had [additional guitarist] Jason White jamming with us the whole time. I played though my Fender Super Bassman and one of my custom Mesa Boogie 6x10 cabs; the guitarists were using smaller amps, and Tré used a smaller kit so we could hear and play off each other.

How often do you write songs for Green Day?

I’m always writing songs; I could write melodic riffs and tracks all day long. Obviously, Billy is the main songwriter in this band, but there are lots of great collaborations all over our records.

I was talking to my daughter Stella on the phone one day and playing bass at the same time, and I wrote something, recorded it on my iPhone, and brought it up to Billy’s house that night. It ended up being the main chord structure for a new song, “Missing You,” and the breakdown to the song.

How does the band write songs together?

I know how to bookend a song, tear it apart, and put it back together a million ways from Sunday, and Billy does, too. We’ll bring in bits and pieces or the middle of a song and then put it together in rehearsal. For this album, we kept writing, recording, and trying out songs at shows in Southern California, New York, and Austin.

Was the process different with Breakdown?

When we came back from the American Idiot tour and found ourselves looking at a blank piece of paper, it was terrifying. 21st Century Breakdown was the hardest record we ever wrote. No band in the world wanted to follow American Idiot, and only one band could. It was our job to either phone it in or to really go for it, and it’s just not in our DNA to mail in a record. This time, we had a lot of fun, and we did things in a really organic, blue-collar, super-fun way.

These albums sound relaxed, too.

I purposely kept my playing loose, because the studio can take that from you. Even if something wasn’t perfect, if it had a character, I’d just leave it. When you’re making your way through 37 different tracks, you just gotta let some serendipity happen.

How did you decide to put out three albums?

Even when we whittled down our list of 70 songs to about 28, we knew we still had some good songs in the pipeline that we just hadn’t worked out yet. Making one super-long record sounded stupid, and everyone’s done double records.

Billy came up with the idea of doing a trilogy, and I loved it. Plus, by the time we got down to 20 songs, we were really starting to write in three directions. The first one was full of grab-life-by-the-horns power-pop songs, with classic Green Day flair. The next record was like more like a party that’s the greatest time you’ve ever had, but the worst thing you’ve ever done to yourself.

And then the third record was more reflective; the songs were epic, with a bit more of American Idiot’s grandeur. It was my idea to put one of our faces on each album, kind of a lighthearted take on what Kiss did when they released their four solo albums on the same day back in the ’70s.

American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown both contained some fiery political commentary, but the new albums don’t really go there. We’ve never wanted to pigeonhole ourselves or write from only one position; we don’t want to be pundits or spokespeople. There was a time when we felt like we were fed up with shit, and we’re in a transition period in this country.

Our band is kind of in a transition period, too, but things are moving well. Songs like “Kill the DJ” do address fighting the static, though—the bullshit that surrounds us and invades our minds. The other major political song is obviously “99 Revolutions,” which wrote itself pretty quickly around the Occupy movement.

There are several distinct eras of Dirnt tone. What was your setup on Kerplunk?

My secret weapons were Yamaha G100 guitar heads from the late ’70s and early ’80s, which I used to play through my custom Mesa Boogie 6x10 cabinet. That’s what started my love of 6x10 cabinets. I used that Yamaha and 6x10 on every record except this one, and occasionally, I’ve used an Ampeg, too.

On Insomniac, I played my Gibson G3; you can really hear it on Kerplunk and Insomniac. It’s distinctive, like on the intro to “No One Knows.” On Nimrod, that was mostly my ’69 P-Bass and a ’52 Precision, I think.

You seem to favor passive basses.

Some guys have gotten great active sounds, but that’s just never been my world. Actually, on Dookie, I played an active P-Bass that I rented from SIR, because my basses were broken and thrashed from touring. That bass had P/J pickups, but the way I had it set, it might as well have just been a P-Bass.

It went through an Éclair Engineering Evil Twin tube DI, and then my 6x10, and an Ampeg SVT. I had the Ampeg for the low end and the extra sub-lows, and then the 6x10 for that classic punch.

Between the transition from there to Warning, I started working with Mesa Boogie, and that’s when I ended up using two 6x10s sitting on top of an 1x18. I was also using a Sunn head, and I had Mesa make me a 4x10 cabinet that I could use for the high end, to get that click, like tic-tac bass.

Sounds like quite a setup.

It was. After Warning, I just wanted to go “less is more.” Honestly, I probably way over-thought my bass tone back then, but I learned so much throughout that process. When you’re young and something gravitates toward you, go for it, because that’s part of finding your identity; it’s your own journey.

Whatever floats your boat, chase it down, because that’s gonna become part of your style. There’s some kid in his garage right now, figuring it out his own way, and he’s just fuckin’ it up—he doesn’t even realize it [laughs]. But that’s how the next rad dude is created.

Between Warning and American Idiot, I began working with Fender on my signature bass. I’m super proud of the tone I have right now because I worked closely with Fender’s R&D department on the new Super Bassman line. I pushed for the amp to have a killer DI [output].

Manufacturers don’t put enough emphasis on how good a DI in the back of an amp needs to be. That’s your signal, and if you don’t have a good DI, you’re gonna lean on the microphone, which has all that stage noise going through it. The other thing I wanted was great distortion.

I’ve used a series of pedals over the years, and every one of them cut my signal. I wanted to have the clean channel be crystal-clear and unbelievable, and I wanted the overdrive channel to have exactly the same tone, but with bitchin’ distortion; I did not want to lose my low end. And Fender nailed it. The overdrive on the Super Bassman is so cool that lots of people, like Brandon [Campbell] from Neon Trees, just leave it on all the time.

What are your main basses these days?

My signature bass is a big part of the sound of the new record—it’s between that and my ’71 P-Bass with a maple neck that I call “the Weapon.” They’re based on my ’69; that’s Stella, named after my daughter. And I play a Höfner on one song, “Drama Queen,” which has really fat bass.

I actually made Paul McCartney a bitchin’ bass years ago. I had Fender put an ƒ-hole and classic binding on one of my tobacco-burst signature basses, and it had a pickup switch that went between a Höfner sound and my sound. I made one left-handed and one right-handed, and I sent him the other one. He was really stoked.

I wrote him a letter with it that said, “On behalf of Green Day and all the other bands you’ve influenced, thanks.”

How is it to play with Tré after all these years?

When Tré first started playing with me and Billy, on Kerplunk!, he was a sick drummer, and I had to get better, quick, to keep up with him. By the time we started nailing it with songs like “Welcome to Paradise” and “Eighty,” Tré and I got a thing going, and now it’s to the point where I’ll play something that forces him to do something or accent it, or he’ll play something that forces me to accent it. I’ve learned how to play drums so I could tell him what beats I want him to play.

But Tré hasn’t picked up bass, has he?

Actually, Tré has played bass on a song, and I played drums. He played my Candy Apple Red ’65 Jazz Bass, which I’ve never played on a song. It’s an unreleased B-side, but it’ll come out one day. And we switch instruments pretty often at band practice. I’ll go jump on drums, or I’ll jump on guitar, and Billy gets on bass, too.

Who was an early bass hero to you?

Cliff Burton. I met him when I was in fifth grade. He was walking through San Pablo, carrying a boom box and listening to metal, wearing his jeans, and I was with my cousin, who knew him. I didn’t even know who Metallica was. And then I go to [concert series] Day on the Green with a buddy, and Metallica comes out, and I’m like, Holy shit! I met that guy!

Let’s face it—he was a ridiculous bass player. Honestly, there are only two guys of that caliber: There’s him, and there’s Entwistle. You can put other guys in there, too, but as far as the aggression … and if you ever looked up their bass solos, you’d see the similarity. They were both super-fast and distorted.

Did you practice hard so you could play fast lines?

I’d probably be a lot better if I had actually studied more when I was a kid. You wouldn’t have caught me in my room practicing scales—I was too busy trying to figure out other things [laughs]. I’ve worked for everything I play. Like on “Panic Song,” from Insomniac, where I do that fast line for a minute and 57 seconds before the song really kicks in—I couldn’t do that before then. I earned that from playing it on tour.

Those bass breaks on “Dirty Rotten Scoundrel” are pretty tasty.

That’s probably the fastest stuff I’ve ever played on record. I didn’t think I could do it, but the other guys were pushing me. I was like, “Nah, it’s too noodly,” and they were like, “Just fucking go there!”

You’ve got to let your fingers fly sometimes [laughs]. And there are the occasional times when I have to be really creative about a part. I soul-searched to find just the right part for the beginning of “Basket Case,” for example.

If not “the fastest,” what title do you aspire to?

I want to be the catchiest. If we’re all out there writing our parts, I want to be the guy everyone ends up playing along with, because I wrote the hook. That’s what my angle has always been. I never claimed to be the best—I just want to be the catchiest. It’s never been anything more than that.

Gear

With their slab ash bodies, 1955- era arm contours, and classic 1951-shape pickguards, Mike Dirnt’s Fender and Squier signature basses are inspired by the original ’51 Precision Bass, as well as classic ’50s and ’60s colors. The Fender Dirnt bass has a rosewood fingerboard, Custom Vintage 1959 PBass pickup, Leo Quan Badass Bass II bridge, vintage-style ’70s Fender stamped opengear tuning keys, and a thick, C-shaped maple neck modeled after Mike’s ’69 P-Bass.

His signature-model Squier P-Bass, meanwhile, features an agathis body, a standard P-Bass pickup, standard 4-saddle chrome bridge, and a thick, C-shape maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. All of Dirnt’s basses, as well as his ’69 P-Bass (“Stella”) and ’71 P-Bass (“the Weapon”), are strung with Fender Super 7250 roundwounds gauged .045–.105. His collection also includes a Höfner, a black 1982 Gibson Victory bass, a ’65 candy-apple red Jazz Bass, and an Olympic white ’62 P-Bass that “sounds like a Steinway.”

Dirnt’s journey with Fender amps began around 2003 with Bassman Pro and TB-1200 heads and 810 8x10 Pro cabs. In 2010, he became involved in helping Fender design a new bass head; artist relations manager Billy Siegle says they talked about “impactful bass, transparent high end, warm midrange, and overall, a classic yet refined tone.”

The result of that collaboration is the Super Bassman. “I’m very proud of the tone we came up with,” Dirnt says. “Plus, these amps look bitchin’ and sound amazing.” On tour and in the studio, Dirnt uses Super Bassman heads and 610 Neo 6x10 cabs.

Fender has announced the Fender Play Foundation, a new non-profit initiative providing resources and music education opportunities to equip, educate and inspire young players.

The company also announced the first round of artist ambassadors to work alongside the foundation, which include Chris Stapleton, Avril Lavigne, Ashley McBryde, Panic! At the Disco’s Brendon Urie, Green Day’s Mike Dirnt and Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz; more will be added for 2020.

The artist ambassadors will donate their time to the foundation in a variety of ways, including through surprise instrument drops in their local communities, providing guidance and awareness and donating signed instruments and memorabilia for auction and more. 

Additionally, Fender says it will support artist ambassador charities that align with the foundation’s overall mission. 

Fender has pledged to raise $3 million, with an initial donation of $1 million, to educational institutions and organizations that provide youth with opportunities to learn how to play.

Support for music education programs will start near the company’s Los Angeles, Nashville and Scottsdale offices, with plans to expand to more cities in 2020. 

For more information on the rather cool initiative, head to Fender.

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.

This past Sunday, August 26, an all-star cast gathered at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery to pay tribute to Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone, who died from prostate cancer in 2004. Organized by his widow, Linda Ramone, the annual event  benefits the Johnny and Linda Foundation and Dr. David Agus at the Center for Applied Medicine, and features art installations, movie screenings and memorabilia displays. But the highlight this year was undoubtedly an acoustic jam that brought together Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong, Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and actor Fred Armisen for a set that included “Rockaway Beach,” “Danny Says” and “Judy is a Punk,” among other songs.

Said Armstrong about the Ramones in an interview with Forbes: "They seemed like a family, with the name and a gang or something like the Del-Lords or some kind of New York bunch of barbarians that could wield around a baseball bat.

“They're known, just the leather jackets, the jeans and the thing I liked about them is they didn't really play up the fashionable English mohawk punk. They were very American and very Americana. They got what the aesthetic was, especially for Johnny, who was a very proud American. So that sort of symbolized the Ramones."

Check out some highlights from the performance below:

Last Friday—the 148th anniversary of the opening of the Suez Canal—Green Day premiered the official music video for their new song, "Back in the USA."

It's one of two brand-new tracks featured on Greatest Hits: God's Favorite Band, which came out last week. The other new tune is "Ordinary World," a duet with country music star Miranda Lambert. The rest of the album is packed with 20 hits from the band's impressive 31-year career. You can check out a track list below.

Greatest Hits: God's Favorite Band Track List:

2000 Light Years Away | Longview | Welcome to Paradise | Basket Case | When I Come Around | She | Brain Stew | Hitchin' a Ride | Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) | Minority | Warning | American Idiot | Holiday | Boulevard of Broken Dreams | Wake Me Up When September Ends | Know Your Enemy | 21 Guns | Oh Love | Bang Bang | Still Breathing | Ordinary World (featuring Miranda Lambert) | Back in the USA

For more information, visit greenday.com.

Today, GuitarWorld.com is happy to premiere the latest episode of String Theory, starring Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt.

A web series created by Ernie Ball, String Theory explores the sonic origins of influential and innovative musicians.

Here are five surprising facts revealed by Dirnt in the episode, which you can watch below.

1. Guitar was his first instrument, then he moved on to bass (1:00): “My introduction to playing music was probably when I realized that most of the bands I liked played guitar. So I actually started off playing guitar. Then my mom had an old pawn shop bass, and I jumped on that. It had two strings—an E and an A.”

2. Early in their career, Green Day would play literally anywhere (1:55): “You know, when we were kids, we would try to play anywhere we could. The school dance, to the little keg party, to somebody’s backyard. That same ‘play anywhere and everywhere’ carried over into touring. We’d play vet’s halls, to living rooms, to really anywhere we could.”

3. Ernie Ball strings hold up to Green Day’s relentless touring and Dirnt’s hard-driving playing (2:30): “Last few years, I’ve been playing Ernie Ball strings on my basses. They have a great, even sound across them, and you don’t get a dead string, ever. And, you know, I’m not breaking them, which is good, because I put them to the test.”

4. It was early on that Dirnt realized he was actually playing in one of his favorite bands (3:20): “It wasn’t until we wrote and recorded our second record, Kerplunk, with Trey—and the way we were playing and gelling—that I realized, ‘Wow, I’m in one of my favorite bands.’”

5. What he likes most about being a musician is putting out material that will last (4:10): “I think my favorite part of being a musician is the satisfaction that we get when we’ve written a song or an album that you know is going to stand the test of time.”

Of course, these are just five facts pulled from the clip. Be sure to watch the entire episode below.

For more information, visit ernieball.com.