Billy Joe Armstrong is an American musician, singer, composer and actor. He is better known as lead vocalist and guitarist for the punk band Green Day. Armstrong was also a guitarist in the bands The Longshot, The Network, Rancid, Foxboro Hot Tubs, Pinhead Gunpowder.
Punk music is essentially a riot, a challenge to the usual foundations. However, almost from the moment it appeared, it has become part of a gigantic business that has entered the concert show industry, production of disks, and the printing industry. The paradox is that rebellion has become the direction of business life. A lot of money is earned on it, like on any other musical style.
Music forever
The musician was born in 1972 in the small town of Auckland. Armstrong was born on February 17th. Billy became the youngest in a large family. He has a sister and four older brothers. The father of a large family worked as a trucker. He worked part time in local clubs, performed jazz.
Little Billy also liked to sing. He spoke to patients in hospitals, which was very entertaining for adults. At the local studio "Fiat Records" was made and the first recording of the guy. The composition was called "Look For Love". On the cover was the name of the artist, supplemented by a boyish photo and the name of the song.
Mother worked as a waitress. Father died when the future celebrity turned ten. His departure greatly shocked the boy. Another big blow was the fact that after a couple of years the mother got married again.
In 1986, a teenager wrote his first creation, “Why Do You Want Him?”. This was a kind of rebuke to the mother. From that moment on, Billy Joe Armstrong appeared. The biography of the musician began his protest in his youth.
The teenager realized the pain of injustice in a form accessible to him. Bill demonstrated his attitude to officialdom in an interview from him, kicking the trash can with his foot. When a fan tried to repeat his act, Billy noticed that fashion is not rock.
Direction selection
The singer hates flatulence. He does not want to speak about famous people, celebrities without special need. With a considerable degree of irony, the musician reports that he also does not like himself, because he himself refers to celebrity.
Eleven-year-old Billy was presented with an electric guitar. The boy called his first instrument Blue, sad. The guitar turned out to be of such a high quality that to this day the musician uses it. The guitar even starred in several video clips on the most famous compositions of its owner.
Billy had already learned to play by that time. He had a good command of the acoustic Cherry Red Hohner inherited from his father. He was taught music for a long time by local guitarist George Cole. He put his hands on the boy. It was he who sold the mother of the boy a guitar named sadly.
Previously, its owner was the musician of "Santana" David Margen. Cole guy did not teach the notes. The guitarist thought it was superfluous. Armstrong himself shared the same opinion.
He reasoned that through study they reach perfection. But for some reason, for the time being, he has never seen perfect people. Therefore, even school education went to him.
The teacher’s guitar for the student has become the benchmark. No matter how he struggled, he could not get an equally impressive smooth sound from his instrument. With a future companion, Mike Durnt, Billy met at ten.
Peer boys quickly found common interests. They both liked Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Def Leppard.
Successful take-off
At that time, the “Bay Area” group simply thundered on the alternative scene. With obvious irony, the new group grew up guys in 1987 called "Sweet Children".
Very soon, the group expanded by drummer John Kiffmeyer, Al Sobrant on stage. In this composition, the team rushed to the heights of success. The guys started on the club scene "Rods Hickory Pit In Vallejo". Billy liked the class so much that he happily left school.
He even managed to star in several films and television films. Their criticism did not consider masterpieces, and the performer himself did not apply for awards at prestigious festivals. Basically, the musician had to play himself. One of the areas of talent application was voice acting. Armstrong's talent manifested itself in the production of punk bands.
The musician admitted that not everyone likes his work, and he perfectly understands this. But he cannot justify a biased attitude towards his direction. Billy Joe claims that he destroyed punk with his own hands.
The musician was part of many groups. After "Sweet Kids" followed by "Rancid", "Foxboro Hot Tubs", "The Lookouts", "Blatz". In 1990, in Mankato, the musician met his beloved Adrienne Nesser.
