It all started when Billie Joe bought a blue electric guitar from the guy who was teaching him to play. It was just before BJs father died when he was 10.

Billie Joe is the youngest of 6 kids in the Armstrong family. His mother got less strict with each kid so Billie had it pretty easy.

One day at lunch, in the 6th grade, Billie met Mike in the cafeteria. They started talking about rock n' roll. The friendship that developed that day is still there.

When Mike and Billie were in high school, they started a band called Sweet Children. They played their first gig together in the lounge of Rod Hickory's Pit, a roadside cafè in Vallejo where Billie's mom was working. After that, they played anywhere they could.

Their first record appeared in 1987. The Sweet Children EP released on the Skene label was sold primarily by the band themselves.

The two started to use the phrase "Green Day" after mike's mom had moved out of town and Mike moved into Billie Joe's spare room for $250 a month. They heard the phrase on Sesame Street. Ernie used it in reference to a lazy, do nothing day.

That was all during their freshman year of high school.

During their sophomore year, Billie and Mike left Rodeo and the Armstrong home and moved into a squat in west Oakland - a move which inspired "Welcome To Paradise." When they moved, both started jamming with other bands, but began to take Green Day VERY seriously. They hooked up with a drummer called John Kiffmeyer and decided to go after a record contract. There was only one obvious choice - Berkeley's foremost punk label, Lookout! Records.

At first, Larry Livermore was unimpressed. He hoped to put the trio off by insisting they make The 200 mile trip north to Mendocino county to audition for him in a little shack. Luckily, the band agreed to his terms.

When they got there, he was nowhere to be seen, so they were left standing in the rain. To get out of the rain, they broke into the shack, quickly concluding there was no roof and the electricity had been cut off. To other bands, this would spell defeat, but not Green Day, with Livermore's help, They rigged up a generator and played for an audience of 12 kids, each holding a candle.

Livermore was very pleasantly surprised.

This sudden interest in their music put new pressures on Billie and Mike who were still in high school. Billie dropped out of high school on February 16,1990, one day before his 18th birthday, midway through his senior year and seven days before the debut Green Day album arrived in record stores.

While John and Mike continued at school, Billie concentrated on booking a 1990 summer tour for the band. The day after Mike's graduation, they left Pinole for a 45-date tour. The tour seemed to be too much for John. After that tour, he left the band, leaving Billie and Mike looking for a new drummer. This made mike and Billie need to search for a permanent drummer. They didn't have to look far.

New guy frank Edwin wright III grew up in Willitis, CA. at The age of 12 Frank, stumbled across his nearest neighbor - about a mile away from home - the 30-year-old Lawrence Livermore.

When Livermore's band The Lookouts was in need of a drummer, the singer invited his pubescent neighbor to join them, rechristening him Trè Cool. When The Lookouts recorded their first album, the first release on Lookout! Records in 1986, 12-year-old Trè was there behind the drum kit.

924 Gilman street isn't much to look at, but to Mike and Billie, it's a very special part of their lives. For Trè, the feeling was equally magnificent.

Trè had known Green Day for some time as part of the tight-knit Gilman Street scene. So, when recording for Kerplunk! began in May 1991 and Green Day was without a drummer, Billie and Mike signed Trè cool. Green Day as we know The band was born.

With the release of the new album, Green Day's popularity was growing nationwide. Already Lookout!'s most popular signing to date, requests for live appearances were coming in everyday.

Touring wasn't easy for the band. On their first trip to Canada, they traveled in such a compact car, that they had to sit with their instruments on their laps.

The band always traveled pretty light - unlike some leather-clad metal rockers, They didn't bother with a truckload of colored lights and 6ft tall bass cabs. Their motto has always been "Have Geetar, Will Travel"

On the next big us tour, Trè's dad became the official driver, buying up an old library truck from Phoenix, ripping out the insides and installing bunks and equipment racks.

They have never been shy about discussing their use of drugs - over the years they developed a reputation on the East Bay scene as notorious dope smokers, a relished rep. The bands name itself is a tribute to drug use.

After Kerplunk! was released, the boys did a lot of touring, 7 months out of the year they were on the road.

After three years on Lookout! Records, a lot of things changed for Green Day. Billie and Trè were now sharing a basement apartment about a mile off the UC Berkeley campus.

In 1993, when they signed a contract on Reprise Records, they were criticized for "selling out" to a major label.

In the later months of 1993, the boys began work on their 3rd album Dookie. It took 5 weeks and 12 hours a day to finish recording. Full of tracks about teenage boredom and drug abuse, the singles "Basketcase," "When I Come Around," and "Longview" instantly hit the airwaves making Green Day a hit.

In May of 1994, the song about masturbation rocketed to the top of the Billboard Modern Rock chart for 2 weeks, eventually notching up enough sales to rate as the #3 Modern Rock Single of 94.

The video for "Longview" became an instant fave on MTV, quickly being playlisted for heavy rotation and eventually becoming #18 out of the end-of-the-year on MTV.

The extra pressure did no harm to the sales of Dookie, which sprawled uncontrollably upward. but The touring never let up. Green Day joined Lollapalooza for the second month of the Alternative Extravaganza. In 94, they joined L7, A Tribe Called Quest, George Clinton, The Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins in an all day lineup.

In the midst of all this madness, Billie Joe married his long time girlfriend Adrienne. There really was no "ceremony" to speak of, they simple complied speeches and pounded beers, then went to the hotel and "fucked like bunnies."

The next day Adrienne said she wasn't feeling good, so they got a pregnancy test, sure enough, Billie was gonna be a daddy (aww!!)

After Green Day's LEGENDARY performance at Woodstock II Dookie sales finally inched above 2 million.

After that fabulous show, Billie's mom was NOT pleased seeing her son butt naked on stage on pay-per-view.

Released in August, close on The heels of "Longview", Green Day's next cd single stayed lyrically on familiar territory. "Basket Case" had more tales of repression and manic depression in the bay area suburbs.

The new single featured some new tracks for fans who were desperate for more. "On The Wagon" was the first original Green Day track to appear since Dookie's release. Alongside this was a faithful tribute to The Kink's classic "Tired of Waiting For You" and a new version of their own minor classic "409 in your coffeemaker."

Green Day's success grew and grew. The "On The Wagon" single spent a spectacular 6 weeks at number one in the US Modern Rock Chart in August and September 1994 and was overall #4 in the year-end countdown of Billboard's Modern Rock Chart.

1995 began with The VERY successful release of "When I Come Around" - a distinctly more accessible and jaunty sound for Green Day which guaranteed saturation radio play and instant success, topping Billboards Modern Rock Chart for seven consecutive weeks.

Although the band has always remained true to their fans, the last past year has left them feeling drained. They now have someone answering their mail full-time. Most likely, you'll get a letter telling you to join The Idiot Club for $20 and see what you get.

The January 26,1995 edition of Rolling Stone was the annual awards issue - a very significant landmark in the world of style-conscious corporate rock.

In 95, the plaudits came thick and fast. "Longview" was nominated for a Grammy award for best HARD Rock performance and rated by Rolling Stone writers as The 3rd best single of the year. It was overall, #3 in the Modern Rock Chart for 1994. The readers of Spin magazine voted the single #5 in the end-of-the-year poll.

"Basketcase" was nominated for a Grammy in 1995 for Rock Performance by a duo or group with vocal and readers of Rolling Stone voted it 5th best single and 5th best video. It was #4 in the Billboard Modern rock chart for 94.

According to Billboard Magazine, Dookie was the #1 album for two weeks, January 29 and February 4, 1995, as it approached the end of its first year on the charts. It was the 24th in the year's best-selling albums according to Billboard, although Spin Magazine's own chart placed it much higher at #5. The album was nominated for a 1995 Grammy award for Best Alternative Music performance and voted the year's #1 by readers of Rolling Stone magazine in the categories: Best Album and Best Album Sleeve.

The band was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist and swept the boards at the Bay Area music awards (The "Bammies") at The Warfield Theater in San Francisco, in march of 1995.

Dookie won Outstanding Album Award and Green Day were named outstanding group, while Mike and Trè were voted outstanding bassist and drummer respectively.

Green day were also The #2 Modern Rock Artists of 1994, according to billboard, and they were nominated for an American Music Award in the category Alternative Artist, which was won by Counting Crows.

In MTV's year-end rundown, Green Day had the #1 video ("Basket Case"), along with the #18 ("Longview"), and #70 ("When I Come Around")[Live at Woodstock II]. Dookie was voted best Rock CD of the year by Time magazine, who said: "Do you like playing your car stereo so loud that cars in back of you flash your lights?? If the answer is yes, then Green Day is for you."

Perhaps the ultimate tribute came from the novelty/experimental band Creedle, who in the spring of 1995 released a single entitled "It's Not Cool to like Green Day Anymore"!!

After Dookie, came Insomniac; full of awesome tracks. Radio quickly picked up on "Geek Stink Breath" and an edited version of "Brain Stew."

Insomniac was released in September of 1995 with "Brain Stew" and "Geek Stink Breath" singles.

Once Insomniac came out, Mike wrote a new song, JAR, for he Angus Original Soundtrack. The song was named after the band's lontime friend, Jason Andrew Relva, who died in a car accident.

Green Day was then featutred on a compilation disc called "Generations 1" with a lot of Indie bands in early 97.

In March of 1997, the soundtrack to the new Howard Stern movie "Private Parts" came out. And of course, it has a song by Green Day. It's a remake of The Kinks song "Tired of Waiting for You" on it.

April 97: The boys are back in The studio recording album #5 as green day. It should be out in August

Labor Day 97: The first single off the upcoming Green Day CD NIMROD is released featuring the hit "Hitchin A Ride" and two b-sides "Sick" and "Espionage."

October 14, 1997: The long awaited 5th green day CD, nirmod. is in stores. It contains 18 tracks with a mix of ska, punk, rockabilly and classic Green Day.

November 97: Green Day do voice-overs on he Fox show "King Of The Hill" as a local garage band. Trè does almost all of the talking. They also appear on David Letterman and Conan O'Brien's late night talk shows.

Green Day is fined $7000 after a show at Tower records got "a little out of hand." "NIMROD" and "FUCK" were sprayapainted all over the merchandise. Green Day will not be invited back to play.

Jan 29, 1998: nimrod. has gone platinum!! This makes it Green Day's third platinum album in a row.

A Green Day boxed set with 7 singles is released for $75. Since it's not on sale in The US, you can only get it from CDNOW.

Feb 28: GOOD RIDDANCE is number one on Casey Casem's countdown on the alternative charts

March 10: New US and Canada tour dates are announced.

March 12: The Redundant video is shot. It should premiere on MTV in two or three weeks.

March 13: Green Day decides not to headline at this years Lollapalooza tour.

March 15: Last night on ABC, during an OUT THERE special, Green Day's PANIC SONG was played when they were talking about a life-or-death kayak ride in Borneo.

March 23: Green Day will be featured on an MTV show called "Live From The 10 Spot" on April 17, 1998.

March 30: A Green Day home video/DVD will be released September 22, 1998 (tentative).

Green Day have canceled 9 of Their US dates and added 3.

April 3:Green Day's latest single, Redundant, has been released and played by many radio stations and the video will be out sometime in the next couple of weeks (more on that when info becomes available).

April 6: Green Day will be making several media stops upon their return to the US including an LaLive webcast on April 8th, and a live concert broadcast on MTV April 17th from San Francisco.

The band will Then make appearance on David Letterman playing 'Good Riddance' May 7th and on Howard Stern May 8th.

'Redundant' has now been officially released to radio stations and the video will be out within the next couple weeks although a date has not been set for it's premier.

April 8: Mike Dirnt's December interview with LaLive is now archived at their web site. You can view pictures, video's, or listen to the interview in RealAudio.

April 16: "Time of Your Life/Good Riddance" was sung on ER last night and will more than likely be sung again on next week's show.

Green Day appeared on MTV's LIVE FROM The 10 SPOT on April 17 ... during The show, Mike slammed his face into his bass and got a bad nosebleed, resulting in a borken nose. Don't worry, he's ok.

Mike hasn't had the best of luck lately. At the KROQ weenie roast, one of the members of 3rd Eye Blind smashed a beer bottle over mike's head, causing him to get stiches around his ear.

Green Day has been nominated for 2 MTV video awards. Both are for Good Riddance aka Time Of Your Life. The catergories they are nominated in are for Viewers Choice and Best Alternative Performance.

Slingerland Drum Company is debuting its Tre Cool Signature Spitfire Drum Kit. It will be made to Tre Cool's specifications.

Green Day's going to be on HBO's REVERB on Aug. 7th at 12:30 A.M.. It's 90 minutes long, and two bands are playing it; Green Day and the Foo Fighters.

In an episode to be shot on August 24th, Billie may make a cameo appearance on the Drew Carey Show in an episode where Carey's band is auditioning for a new guitarist, but they are unable to find anybody bad enough to match the talents of the other players. Other's who have been asked to appear include; Slash, Joey Ramone, Lisa Loeb and Jonny Lang. It's is not currently known whether or not Billie will accept the role or not.

Green Day's recent release of a live version of 'Time Of Your Life' played on electric guitar, is #13 on the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart. The song is also said to be receiving very heavy airplay

Green Day will release their Bside "Desensitized" on 'South Park - The album,' scheduled to be released by Colombia in October.

Green Day, playing the V98 festival in England at the two venues on the 23/24 August will be webcast live. Further details are available from http://www.v98.com. Usual real audio plugins will be required.

Billie Joe Armstrong and Adrienne are expecting their second child in September, and the band will take a break from the road in mid-August to address those family matters. The couple are already parents to a three-year-old son, Joey.

The band has been touring almost non-stop for the last six months, and fans won't have to wait too long to see Green Day live, as the band hopes to return to the road in the early winter.In the meantime, Green Day is up for a pair of MTV Video Music Awards, "Best Alternative Music Video" and the "Viewer's Choice Award," for "Time of Your Life," with the festivities and awards slated to be handed out on September 10.

For un-disclosed reasons Billie has decided to decline the opportunity to make a guest appearance on an episode of the 'Drew Carey Show' this season.

The rumoured GD e.p. with all the bands b-sides is a complete hoax, don't believe it.

Green Day picked up one MTV video award for Best Alternative Video. Even though they were leading for the most part during the viewer's choice voting, they ended up losing to Puff Daddy.

Jacob Danger Armstrong, Billie and Adrienne's second child was born on or around September 17th.

The "Nice Guys Finish Last" video shoot, scheduled for the weekend of November 22 and 23 was cancelled due to failure to acquire a filiming permit. Reprise records released two announcements regarding the shoot; one telling about it and one regretfully cancelling it.

Green Day has been nominated for an American Music Award in the Best Alternative Group catergory. The awards will be broadcast January 11, 1999.

Green Day was also nominated for a Billboard Music Award, but lost to Everclear.

In another attempt to win an award, Green Day was beaten by Pearl Jam for the American Music Award for Best Alternative Band.

January 13, 1999- According to Amanda Cagan, the band's publicist at MSO, Green Day have dropped out of their opening slots on the Rolling Stones' upcoming arena tour, opting instead to remain in California and begin work on their follow-up to 1997's Nimrod. Green Day will do some shows on the road however.

January 31, 1999-Green Day is heading into the studio again soon. The band should be working with Rob Cavallo again, who worked with Green Day on the last 3 albums. The band will head into the studio shortly to get some rough stuff on tape and then head back in a couple months to begin work on the album.

February 28, 1999-The 'Nice Guys Finish Last' single will be out March 2. And in other news Green Day helped Cinderblock celebrate their tenth anniversary with a two hour set a couple days ago during a secret show. Billie's wife Adrienne used to work part-time at Cinderblock as a silk-screener. The party was broken up by the Oakland police after locals complained about the noise.

March 20, 1999- Green Day is taking a break after a long year of touring. They have been a band for 11 years now and so they are working on putting together a fanzine full of pictures.

May 12,1999- According to Jeff at Reprise Records,Green Day is around 60% complete in the recording of their new album which should be released sometime in December. Rumor is that the title of the album is "Wasted!" It will feature a few tracks like "Good Riddance", but most will still be the same Green Day we all know and love with tracks like "Pressure" and "Personal Security". Two more tracks have also been named, "Gullible" and "In No Time"(a song that was recorded for nimrod but scrapped before release).

June 10,1999- The Green Day b-side, "Espionage" is featured on 'Austin Powers-The Spy Who Shagged Me' movie soundtrack.

October 5,1999- Green Day released another video from Nimrod. It is for the instrumental song "Last Ride In". Apparently, it features the band waterskiing.

December 26,1999- Billie Joe has said that Green Day has a new producer named Scott Litt. And they're going to begin recording in march and April in East Oakland,CA and they are going to make a documentary of the making of this album. The lyrics are a bit more positive this time around. Also, they're still in the process of making a photo magazine for fans that covers their ten years as a band.

January 6,2000- Green Day has been nominated for a Grammy for the song "Espionage" from the Austin Powers (The Spy Who Shagged Me) movie soundtrack! The category they are nominated for is 'Best Rock Instrumental Performance' (which includes rock, hard rock and metal instrumentals, singles or tracks only).

March 7,2000- According to CD Now Allstar News, he married his girlfriend, Claudia at a mansion in Brisbane, California, according to a source close to the band. The newlyweds are off for a two-week honeymoon in Hawaii. After he returns, Green Day will start recording their fourth Reprise Records album on March 27 in a studio in Oakland, Calif. Now that the band is no longer working with producer Scott Litt, it's not yet determined if the band will self-produce the album or hire another producer. Grammy-winning producer Rob Cavallo will be involved with the recording, but to what extent isn't known yet.

Summer 2000 finds Billie Joe, Mike and Tre hitting the stage again with the Vans Warped Tour. Fans have called their performances "perfect 10s" and "classic Green Day." Also, Green Day has announced that their upcoming album (the bands 6th release), "Warning" will be the most ambitious album yet. While previous CDs have made their way up to an 8 or 9, "Warning" is sure to pass number 10 on the volume knob.

(biography taken from add some green to your day)