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I don’t want to live in an ivory tower, being the songwriter who just turns inward.

Billie Joe Armstrong

Minority is about being an individual. It’s like you have to sift through the darkness to find your place and be that individual you want to be your entire life.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Darkness Individuals Minorities Place
For some young people, their first experience ever hearing punk rock music was playing the Green Bay Packers on ‘Madden’.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Green People Rocks
I identified with the exhaustion and klutziness that comes with being a parent, and how he’s just a rock-and-roller at heart. For me, it was fun to kind of imagine whether or not this could’ve been the path I went on, or not.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Come Imagine Klutziness Rock Roller
Nobody leaves this band unless it’s in a coffin
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Anything Better Making Mistakes
I sound like an Englishman impersonating an American impersonating an Englishman.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Englishmen Impersonating Sound
When we were making the record, I just decided, at the last second. I thought, “This song [“Ordinary World”] makes a lot of sense, being on the album [Revolution Radio].”
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Ordinary World Radio Song
We stayed very close to each other [with Leek Kirk], and Lee was amazing.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Able Important Together
I think that’s the big difference between this one [Ordinary World] and a lot of the other rock ‘n’ roll movies. They’re playing to tape, but Fred Armisen and I were actually in a rock ‘n’ roll bad together.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Character Country Differences Thinking
I think the working-class part of me comes out. Sometimes the people who have the loudest mouths are upper-class, upper-middle-class.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Class Middle People Thinking
Songs are like a form of chaos that you can control. It’s a form of intelligence that maybe you only understand and you hope that someone else can understand.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Emotional Gutters Song
They have bad taste. I am not a good-looking guy.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Good Guy Looking Taste
I wrote a song called “Green Day” because I was smoking a lot of dope.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Dope Smoking Song
I threw a big-ass party. It turned out a bit different from Perry’s [in That’s Ordinary World], but it was pretty nuts. It wasn’t me that threw it though, my wife threw me a surprise party. So [unlike Selma Blair’s character] she didn’t forget.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Character Nuts Ordinary Party World
The quietest are often working-class people, people who are broke. There is a fear of losing whatever it is that you have. I come from that background.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Background Broke People Quested The Question
We’d go through the script together, rehearsing it before every shot with the other actors. He was just easy to work with. We were able to put it in my language, which was really important.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Actors Importance Language Script
You have to search the absolute demons of your soul to make a great record.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Demon Records Soul
The thing is, acoustic could be like a four-letter word to a lot of kids.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Acoustics Four Kids
What I see in a lot of music movies, or rock ‘n’ roll movies, that feature a band is that they’re lip-synching.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Band Rocks Roll Synching
You can’t go voicing something if it’s just not right.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Right Something Voicing
I can’t sleep very well at night. It takes me a while to get to sleep. I could just be nocturnal. I have my nighttime witching hour where I hang out, listen to records or watch TV.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Listen Night Nocturnal Record Sleep
Moshing and broken glass just don’t go together.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Broken Heart Glasses Together
She smashes her knuckles into winter As autumn’s wind fades into black She is the saint of all the sinners, the one whose fallen through the cracks… (iViva la Gloria!)
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Autumn Wind Winter
To me, it doesn’t feel like it’s just another rock record that somebody put out. It feels like we taped into the culture a little bit
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Culture Records Rocks
It’s better to regret something you have done than to regret something you haven’t done.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Done Havens Regret
My brother David was a great athlete and I knew there was no way I could live up to that.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Athlete Brother Way
I don’t care what you do, I just don’t want to be a mud hippie like you. [From 1994 woodstock]
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Care Hippie Want
Some times I need to apologize, sometimes I need to admit that I ain’t right, sometimes I should just keep my mouth shut, or only say hello, sometimes I still feel I’m walking alone.
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Apologizing Mouth Needs

I don’t want to live in an ivory tower, being the songwriter who just turns inward.

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I don’t want to live in an ivory tower, being the songwriter who just turns inward.

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