Billie Joe Armstrong, the youngest of six kids, was born on February 17, 1972. His mother, Ollie, was a part-time waitress at various local eateries like A Place at the Point, and later Rod’s Hickory Pit, where Sweet Children would eventually have their first gig. His father, Andy, was a Truck Driver for Safeway as well as an amateur Jazz musician. Ollie and Andy’s shared love of dancing and music meant an almost instant attraction right from the beginning.

With six kids and two adults, the Armstrong household was fairly crowded, but for Ollie and Andy this was nothing special. “My Mom is one of twelve kids,” reported Billie Joe’s older sister Anna. “My Father was one of eight. So there are a lot of Aunts and Uncles, and I think at this point twenty-three or twenty-four grandkids. Big family gatherings.” Marci, David, Holly, Anna and Allen (who, by the time Billie Joe was born had already moved out), made up the rest of the family.

Music played an important part in the Armstrong family, with Andy teaching both David and Billie Joe drums at a young age. Each of the six kids could play at least one musical instrument. When he was five, Billie Joe recorded his first song, Look for Love, for local record company Fiat Records. His father would take him around hospitals and Retirement villages to sing to sick or old patients. “The older ladies just absolutely adored him,” remembers Marie Fiatrone, owner of Fiat Records. When he was seven, Billie Joe got his first guitar, a cherry-red Hohner, from his parents. George Cole, a local musician, was left with the job of focusing Billie Joe’s raw ability.

Unfortunately, Andy Armstrong died of esophageal cancer on September 1, 1982, only four months after diagnosis. He was the center of the renowned song, Wake Me Up When September Ends, written 22 years after his death. The loss of a father rocked the close knit family, and ended up pushing a 10-year-old Billie Joe further into his music for escape. It meant that Ollie had to work twice as hard in order to support her kids, and David, still a teenager himself, had to make sure the younger of the family kept in line. Billie Joe was only ten years old at the time.

Billie Joe gradually became fixated with his teacher’s own guitar, a powder blue Fernandez Stratocaster, which he simply called ‘Blue’. “I don’t know how my Mom did it, but she got the money together and bought ‘Blue’ from George,” David Armstrong recalls. “At the time we were struggling, and the three or four hundred dollars that it cost wasn’t money she just had sitting around.”

At around the same time, Billie Joe met Mike Dirnt in the school cafeteria. The two were inseparable right from the word go, playing old heavy metal records while sleeping over at each other’s houses. The two eventually uncovered the magic of punk rock, traveling to Berkeley most weekends in order to see their favorite groups light up the stage. Together, they finally decided to start their own punk band, Sweet Children, renamed Green Day just before the release of their first EP. Billie Joe dropped out of high school in his final year, one day before his 18th birthday, in an effort to focus all of his attention on his musical career.

In 1990, original drummer Al Sobrante left the band in order to pursue his education. Tre Cool was recruited as the drummer for Green day’s second album, Kerplunk!, and remained as a permanent member of the Green Day team. During one of Green Day’s early tours through the Mid-West, Billie Joe met Adrienne Nesser, a beautiful punk rocker from Minneapolis. “There was definitely an attraction from the beginning,” remembers Adrienne. After kissing her for the first time, Billie Joe returned to California and wrote 2000 Light Years Away. “It was a very sweet song…Him writing a song for me was very romantic!” Billie Joe and Adrienne then spent some time apart, both dating other people. Adrienne even managed to get engaged to someone else. Coincidentally, he was also called Billy. Billie Joe and Adrienne finally got married on the second of July 1994, the same year Dookie was released. “She got a ratty little dress, and we got married in my backyard.”

A day after the wedding, the newlyweds found out they were expecting a child. The following February, Joseph Marciano was born, and three years later, on September 12 1998, Jakob Danger was added to the Armstrong family. The four are currently living together in Berkeley, California.

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Billie Joe and Adrienne have co-ownership of the label Adeline Records along with pro-Skateboarder Jim Theibaud. Billie Joe is also thought to be linked with band The Network, as well as playing and writing for Pinhead Gunpowder. He was the main character on John Roecker’s gory, pornographic puppet movie, Live Freaky Die Freaky, and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity along with his and Jason White’s family.

By: Paige

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