Hi, we are Green Day,

and this is the Wired Auto Complete interview.

[upbeat music begins]

I do not Google myself ever in front of people.

[upbeat music continues]

All right, let’s do this Wired Auto Complete.

Does Green Day do weddings?

Yes.

We will do weddings.

I’ve done a few weddings.

[Billie Joe and Mike laugh]

Oh, you mean other people’s weddings?

[Billie Joe and Mike laugh]

Did Green Day ever break up?

No.

Not in the cards.

Nope.

We have always been together.

Nope, we’ve been playing our own wedding

for 30 some years.

We’ve forced other bands to break up.

[crew and Mike laugh]

Yeah.

[Mike] Does Green Day have any love songs?

Yeah, embarrassing ones, too,

that I don’t even want to think about.

Yeah, it goes back, that’s the first thing

we ever did was write love songs.

It was all like teenage feelings and stuff like that.

I still write love songs.

Of course, yeah, love, love, love.

Let the boy watch.

[Tre] Okay.

[Billie Joe] does Green Day support AI?

I love American Idiot, I think it’s a great record.

[crew laughs]

Absolutely.

In fact, not only support it, but we wrote it.

It’s great. Yeah.

AI can’t throw a television out a hotel room window.

But an American Idiot can.

Yeah.

[Billie Joe laughs]

This one is spent.

Oh, wow, here we go.

What was Green Day’s original name?

Our original name was Sweet Children,

but there was another band in our local scene

called Sweet Baby Jesus,

and also we knew that name was going to time out

pretty quick.

So like the night before we recorded our first seven inch,

this gal came out in front of Gilman Street

and she said, You know, I work at UCSF radio station,

and I think you guys have that song, Green Day.

I think you should name your band Green Day.

And we were like, Well, it’s better than the one we got.

And that’s how we landed on Green Day.

What does Green Day mean?

You’d have to Google it.

[Mike and Billie Joe laugh]

We were stoned

listening to Siouxsie and the Banshee’s version

of Dear Prudence.

And that was the kind of the influence

behind the song, and we decided to name our band after it.

So there you go.

What Green Day song has the most swears?

Probably a song called Platypus.

Oh, yeah.

[beeps] head, [beeps] face, [beeps] smoking mother

[beeps] hole, dirty [beeps], waste of cum, I hope you die.

I think you covered all of them.

[Billie Joe laugh and crew laugh]

What is Green Day When I Come Around about?

Oh, God, it’s, who cares?

[band laughs]

It’s about being over it.

Yeah.

[band laughs]

I first wrote that song off of like

these little piano chords that I was messing with.

Kind of wrote it about like a girlfriend

that I’d been seeing at the time.

So yeah.

Ooh, we got more.

Where’s Green Day most popular?

Come to Brazil.

I mean, it’s a tough one, you know?

We just played Mumbai for 70,000 people, that was amazing.

We got Italy.

I think it’s most popular

in the hearts and the minds of people who are alive today.

Yeah, throw a dart.

[Billie Joe laughs]

We love you.

Why Green Day is the best?

Must be true, it’s on the internet.

Why Green Day rushed off stage?

Oh God, someone had like a drone and it just got too close.

And then security was like,

Get off the stage right now, immediately!

It could have been that

or one of us really had to go to the bathroom.

[Mike and crew laugh]

Either way, it’s a major safety concern.

Will Green Day ever release Cigarettes and?

[Billie Joe] And Valentines.

[Tre] Valentines.

No, never will.

It will be hidden in our catalog closets.

We smoked all the cigarettes

and we burned all the Valentines.

[Billie Joe laughs]

[Billie Joe] When does Green Day movie come out?

Nimrods comes out August 14th.

Very soon.

AMC Theaters.

AMC Theaters.

All that.

You can pre-buy your tickets right now,

and go with a bunch of friends,

and get there before everyone else.

Make it a Rocky Horror event.

Have fun.

Oh, here we go.

[Mike] What’s Green Day’s most popular song?

The Basket Case.

Basket Case?

Or American Idiot.

American Idiot.

Boulevard, or Holiday, or, gosh.

Good Riddance.

Platypus.

I think everybody has a different.

It is now.

Most favorite Green Day song, you know, to them.

I love playing the song Jesus of Suburbia.

It’s epic, and it’s a long song,

and I think it feels like victory.

What is Green Day Time of Your Life about?

This was actually on Jeopardy a couple weeks ago.

Yeah?

It’s about a girl that I was dating

and she moved to Ecuador.

And so I wrote the song for her trying to be levelheaded,

but my heart was broken.

So that’s what that song’s about.

Damn college, college kids.

[Tre] What is Green Day heaviest song?

[Billie Joe vocalizes melodically]

March of the Dogs is pretty heavy.

I hear people like just booming Brain Stew

down the road.

Yeah.

I’ll pull up next to them and I just hear them

just rocking out and blaring it.

And I’m just gonna lean back a little

bit and enjoy it from afar.

Every once in a while I’ll look over and go like,

Hey man, turn it up.

What is Green Day up to?

Promoting our new movie, Nimrods, out August 14th.

[Billie Joe] What did Green Day just say?

[crew laughs]

Serious XM, Idiot Nation, Channel 314.

Here we go.

[Mike] Who is Green Day’s American Idiot about?

It was written about George W. Bush

and the Bush administration when we went to war in Iraq.

We don’t need to keep talking about that.

[Tre] Have Green Day changed music?

Absolutely.

How?

[Billie Joe laughs]

[Billie Joe] How was Green Day at Super Bowl?

I thought we were fantastic.

Yeah.

We were really good.

I remember I was hitting.

[Mike] Is Green Day a punk band?

Where should we put that?

Yes, I think so.

The question is, yeah, it’s so loaded.

I like to think of myself still as a punk, that’s for sure.

[Tre] Can kids go to Green Day concert?

Absolutely.

We have all ages venues.

So anyone from 15 to 55, come on out.

And older and younger than that if you want to.

That’s true, you can’t drink

and you can listen to all the cuss words you can muster.

I’m not saying mom and dad won’t rip you out of there.

It does happen.

It’s more, should kids go to Green Day concerts?

And the answer is, hell yes.

What is Green Day about?

Some people think I’m about 5’7,

but I think I’m about 5’8.

When I’m sad, I’m 5’7.

When I’m happy, I’m 5’8.

I’m about it.

I’m just about it, you know what I’m saying?

He’s all about it.

I’m out and about.

All right, let me see. [Mike laughs]

What’s Green Day’s best album?

Best album.

Throw a dart.

[Tre laughs]

I think our best album

is the one that you’re playing at the moment.

[Billie Joe] What did Green Day change the lyrics to?

Oh, I changed the lyrics to Basket Case.

I had a long night writing that song

in the first draft of it, and I hated it by the end

because of certain substances that were involved.

And then changed the lyrics later on

when different substances weren’t involved.

So it wasn’t, yeah, so, and then it became Basket Case.

It’s very substantial.

Mhm, you know.

What are Green Day fans called?

Idiot Nation.

[Billie Joe laughs]

That’s true. Idiot Nation.

Idiot Nation.

Do it.

Yeah!

Nobody ever asks what your favorite food is anymore.

Or like, What’s your favorite color?

Lucky number?

Things like that.

Yeah.

[Producer] What is your favorite food?

Lasagna.

Pizza.

Sushi.

All right, that’s the end of the questions.

Thanks everybody.

And. That’s a wrap.

Thank you, Wired.

Yep.

Awesome.

[upbeat chime warbles]