Green Day

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Billie Joe Armstrong playing Steve Jones' Les Paul on a stage in Paris

“One of his guitar geek dreams was to play this guitar”: Billie Joe Armstrong just played Steve Jones’ iconic Sex Pistols Les Paul – which recently sold for $390,000 – with Green Day in Paris

By Janelle Borg published

Armstrong used Steve Jones’ 1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom to play Green Day protest song Know Your Enemy

Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Anthony playing on stage

“I wanna say thank you Michael for an unbelievable catalog of music that has changed the history of rock 'n' roll”: Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt play Van Halen hits with ex-VH bassist Michael Anthony

By Janelle Borg published

Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt’s side-project, The Coverups, also covered Kiss, Nirvana, and David Bowie this past weekend

Billie Joe Armstrong live in 2004 on the American Idiot Tour.

“Every band wants to have a Sgt. Pepper’s type of moment. And American Idiot was that moment for us”: Billie Joe Armstrong on the making of the magnum opus that saved Green Day

By Richard Bienstock published

The world's biggest punk band faced a crossroads in 2004 and it was a case of go big or go home. Armstrong explains how they supersized their sound – and saved the band

Billie Joe Armstrong

“I know my limitations, but at the same time I’m really pushing myself to be a better guitar player”: Billie Joe Armstrong on ripping solos like Angus Young – and what Green Day have in common with Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran

By Richard Bienstock published

Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong reveals the origin story behind Saviors, the punk superheroes’ first new album in four years, and looks back on the making of 1994’s Dookie

Billie Joe Armstrong and Eddie Van Halen

“I loved Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. Then something happened where it was like you had to be in the guitar Olympics”: Billie Joe Armstrong explains why he rekindled his relationship with the guitar solo on Green Day’s newest album

By Matt Owen published

Saviors might be the band’s most solo-heavy record to date – a result of Armstrong re-embracing lead playing and, as he tells Guitar World, putting “a spotlight on a little bit more of what I’m capable of”

The cover of Guitar World's March 2024 issue

Green Day, Ace Frehley and George Harrison's last Beatles guitar – only in the new Guitar World

By Damian Fanelli published

Plus! Code Orange, Johnny Marr, Chelsea Wolfe, Eddie Martinez, Marty Friedman, Adam Jones and the sad tale of Ted Nugent's original Gibson Byrdland

Eddie Van Halen and Billie Joe Armstrong

“He looked at me and he goes, ‘You’re the only one that understands me. People think I’m an alien because of the way I play’”: Why Eddie Van Halen cried when he met Billie Joe Armstrong

By Matt Owen published

A 12-year-old Armstrong cried when he witnessed Eddie Van Halen play live for the first time in the '80s. Years later, the roles would be reversed

Axl Rose (left) and Slash perform onstage with Guns N' Roses

Three “God-like guitarists” join forces and stadium-conquering rockers channel their inner spy: This week's essential guitar tracks

By Michael Astley-Brown published

Must-listen-to tunes from Guns N' Roses, Architects, IDLES, The Libertines, Devon Ross, Ryujin and many more

Annie Shred

“Because I started on the piano, my dexterity was already developed. I loved playing scales, so it was fun to whip my fingers all over the neck of the guitar”: Meet Annie Shred, the former pianist who’s revolutionizing guitar

By Joe Bosso published

How the irresistible world of shred guitar claimed yet another former piano player in Annie Grunwald, the Berklee-trained virtuoso behind Shadow Cliq’s “future metal” sound

Billie Joe Armstrong guitars

Billie Joe Armstrong set to sell rare prototype Gibson guitars and tour-used gear in new Green Day Reverb Shop – and one of them will cost you nothing

By Matt Owen published

Over 100 pieces of studio-used and stage-played gear – including the Gretsch from the Back in the USA music video – are going up for sale… and one lucky fan can win a one-of-a-kind Les Paul Junior

Mike Dirnt of Green Day

“On Longview I used a Gibson bass. Then I broke the neck in half”: Mike Dirnt on the making of Green Day’s breakthrough single

By Nick Wells published

Despite his legendary status with Fender, Mike Dirnt’s most memorable bassline was recorded on a mid-70s Gibson

Drug Church

“It’s all about what sounds cool… Not theoretically what you’re supposed to do”: How guitarists from Drug Church, Militarie Gun and Scowl are leading the melodic movement in hardcore punk

By Jim Beaugez published

Nick Cogan of Drug Church and Militarie Gun joins Malachi Greene of Scowl to share the state of play in U.S. hardcore, a formerly rules-based art form that is now a free for all creatively

Billie Joe Armstrong: MXR has reissued his signature Dookie Drive for 2023

Get Billie Joe Armstrong’s explosive Green Day tone in a compact pedal as MXR brings the Dookie Drive back – again – for a limited time only

By Jonathan Horsley published

New enclosure art, same great amp-stack crunch – the limited run sees the return of the punchy drive that was first launched in 2019 to celebrate 25 years of the band's landmark Dookie album

Green Day's Dookie album

Green Day's Mike Dirnt wrote the bassline for Longview on LSD: "Later, it took me a long time to be able to play it, but it made sense when I was on drugs"

By Mike Brooks published

In praise of Dookie, the 1994 album that put Green Day on the pop-punk throne

Gibson Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior 2023

Gibson Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior review

By Dave Burrluck published

The Green Day leader gets a new signature in typical showman style, with a fresh pickup design that dates back to the late ’50s

Mike Dirnt of Green Day performs onstage at House Of Blues on April 16, 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Mike Dirnt: “Even Flea told me he wanted to play a P-Bass live”

By Nick Wells published

Green Day’s Mike Dirnt reveals why so many top bass players switch back to Fender

Gibson Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior 2023

Gibson unveils new Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior, complete with the pinkest hardcase you’ve ever seen

By Matt Parker published

The Green Day leader returns with a new single-pickup signature model, packed with a P-90 and a none-more-pink Protector case

Green Day

10 times fans played guitar onstage with their heroes – and absolutely killed it

By Sam Roche published

These fans were plucked from the crowd by their guitar idols, and answered the call in roof-raising style

Billie Joe Armstrong

Billie Joe Armstrong says he plans to renounce US citizenship in the wake of Roe v Wade repeal

By Sam Roche published

“I'm not kidding. You're gonna get a lot of me in the coming days,” the Green Day leader told the crowd at London Stadium

Billie Joe Armstrong

Green Day cancel upcoming Moscow show due to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine

By Sam Roche published

The situation is “much bigger” than stadium rock, the band write, adding that they're “confident there will be a time and a place to return in the future”