Billie Joe Armstrong on “the most confrontational” singer ever
Rock and roll has never been known to be a nice genre. As much as artists may have a more friendly demeanour than others, the entire ethos of rock has been about disrupting the status quo and going against the grain in an attempt to open people’s eyes to what music can do. While Billie Joe Armstrong had his own way of rebelling against the system as the frontman of Green Day, he admitted that no one pushed back against authority quite like Iggy Pop.
When Iggy Pop was first starting out in the music scene, there was no such thing as traditional punk rock. Even though there were heavy strains of rock coming out of bands like The Rolling Stones, the garage rock movement was still getting born, with bands like The 13th Floor Elevators just beginning to make their ramshackle approach to rock and roll.
Inspired by the sounds of artists like The Doors and the artistic side of rock, Pop put together the kind of band that was meant to push against the traditional sounds of rock. While still being blues-based, many of the songs found on the band’s debut album sound like they’ve crawled out of the gutter, especially with the nervy energy behind tracks like ‘No Fun’ and ‘1969’.
Even though the band could claim to be one of the most caustic bands on record, it paled in comparison to what Pop could do once he hit the stage. Turning every show into a weird piece of performance art, Pop put his body through absolute hell to give his audience a good show, including iconic shots when he’s walking on people’s hands as well as many nights where he cut up his torso amid the sonic mayhem.
For a kid just starting to listen to heavy music, Armstrong was mesmerised by what he saw. As opposed to The Beatles looking to win over the crowd by singing peppy songs about love, Pop was tearing down every preconceived idea of what a catchy tune was supposed to be and daring the audience to test him.
When Armstrong reminisced about seeing Pop, he thought that the frontman was one of the most intimidating figures that he had ever seen onstage, telling The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “The Stooges are like a battering ram. Iggy is the most confrontational singer we will ever see. He is at war with the crowd, and his body is the battleground, and he still manages to have one of the prettiest smiles in the history of rock and roll”.
Even though Green Day was far more commercial compared to what The Stooges were doing, it’s not like Armstrong wasn’t paying attention to what Pop was doing. During their infamous Woodstock performance in 1994, Armstrong was practically at war with the crowd the same way that Pop was, engaging in a massive mud fight in the middle of their set that brought all of the music to a halt.
Once the band started to wane in the early 2000s, it took that rebellious spirit on American Idiot to put them back on top, with Armstrong rallying against political figures with the same kind of sarcastic tone Pop had used on ‘Search and Destroy’ decades prior. Rock and roll may have its lighthearted moments, but Armstrong and Pop have made a living out of shaking people up rather than having them rest easy every time they take the stage.
