The first time Green Day heard the Sex Pistols: “It just had a huge impact”
The launch of the Sex Pistols may as well be ‘The Big Bang’ for punk rock music. Outside of the progenitors of the genre like Iggy Pop and The Velvet Underground, the unapologetic snideness from Johnny Rotten’s voice made fans out of every kid born to break the traditional rules. Though The Pistols launched legions of bands out of England, a young impressionable teen in California was also paying attention.
From an early age, Billie Joe Armstrong expressed an interest in music, making one of his first songs when he was barely out of diapers. Despite his great stage presence as a child, Armstrong started to venture towards heavier music as he got older, trading in his love for acts like The Beatles for Van Halen and AC/DC.
It wasn’t until he hit his teens that Armstrong started to get more into punk, remembering the moment that he was played the Sex Pistols for the first time. Armstrong recalled the vivid memory of hearing the sound of ‘Holiday in the Sun’, telling Rolling Stone: “The first thing that popped into my mind when I heard ‘Holidays in the Sun’ is how those guitars sounded so gigantic and real. (Also) Hearing Lydon’s vocals, how he was just sort of this anti-singer [laughs]. For me, it just had a huge impact. Everything about it, from the lyrics to the guitar sounds to the songs. I thought was just perfect”.
Operating out of the San Francisco Bay Area, Armstrong started playing with fellow misfit Mike Prichard, nicknamed Mike Dirnt because of the sound his bass would make when it wasn’t plugged in. After getting into underground punk acts like Crimpshrine and Sewer Trout, Armstrong started writing his stabs at punk rock, making a pop-ified version of his favourite acts on Green Day’s first handful of records.
Although things were gelling melodically, it wasn’t until the band got Tre Cool behind the drum kit that they found the drive to make something different, with Kerplunk selling much better than their label Lookout could support at the time. Green Day was quickly outgrowing the punk underground, but the next phase would divide their punk purists.
After talking to different bigger labels and even being offered a trip to Disneyland, the punk rock trio signed with Reprise Records for their blockbuster album Dookie, which gave a slightly polished version of their sound. While Dookie might have become their massive crossover in the late ‘90s, Armstrong’s heroes were not impressed.
When asked about their influence, John Lydon wasn’t kind to the next generation, calling them “plonk, not punk”. Even with inspiration wanting nothing to do with his band, Armstrong remained a fan of The Pistols, remarking later, “When I’m trying to create something, I always refer to The Sex Pistols because they show you what the possibilities are in music. You don’t have to emulate them, but thanks to them, you can take it anywhere”. Green Day’s career trajectory has changed drastically since their days on the streets of California, but Armstrong never forgot the one record that set his world on fire.
