Green Day Stays Simple: Pure Pop for Punk People

By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
November 21, 1995

Punk rock, the first time around, was anger and mayhem. The Sex Pistols scared parents everywhere in the 1970s as they spit out songs, shot up heroin and thumbed their noses at authority.

Then there’s Green Day, heralded as Generation Y’s answer to punk rock. Green Day members lace their punk-pop songs with anger and tell cheering crowds to “- – – – off.” But they’re the type of boys who buy health insurance for their families.

Welcome to the ’90s.

“We never really went around saying we’re a punk rock band,” said bassist Mike Dirnt, who along with singer Billy Joe and drummer Tre Cool was barely out of diapers when the Sex Pistols’ career was taking off. (The eldest Green Day member is 23). “We’re a rock ‘n’ roll band.”

But just about everyone else is calling what they do punk, and expecting that onstage sass – furious playing and streams of cussing – to carry over into their offstage lives.

Not so, Dirnt said.

“I guess we’ve always felt that we’re not news. The music we do is news,” Dirnt said. “Dee Snider from Twisted Sister showed up (at a Green Day show) the other day with his wife, and she was telling my fiancee how it was really boring and quiet backstage.

“That happens quite a bit. People come backstage expecting a rock ‘n’ roll party and end up leaving disappointed. They end up going back into the crowd for fun.

“We’re trying to keep it pure.”

It wasn’t just their rainbow-colored hair that made Green Day stand out in this latest wave of punk. Unlike Offspring and Rancid – who also are riding the wave – Green Day has a penchant for creating classic pop melodies that are the foundation for their fervent songs.

Their first single, “Longview,” was such a catchy tune that listeners almost forgot it was an ode to the slacker lifestyle and its various proclivities.

“I got no motivation; Where is my motivation?; No time for motivation,” Billie Joe sings.

And then, too, there are their live shows, which often are as frenetic for the band members as for the moshing audience. Dirnt broke five teeth at Woodstock, not after stage-diving into the audience, but when he was jostled by security guards who mistook him for a fan and wouldn’t let him get back on stage.

The three San Francisco musicians in Green Day now are out promoting their latest CD, “Insomniac.”  The band’s “Dookie” CD went platinum last year.

No, Dirnt says, they aren’t millionaires . . . yet. But they could be living it up instead of living on their tour bus. They stay in hotel rooms only once every 1 1/2 weeks while on the road to keep tour costs down, enabling them to make ticket prices more affordable for their young fans, Dirnt said. Tickets to the band’s sold-out UIC Pavilion show Wednesday, for example, were $15. (By comparison, Jethro Tull’s tickets ranged from $21.50 to $41.50, while Shane MacGowan and Boy George both charged $18.50).

With his “Dookie” money, Dirnt eschewed the rock star mansion for himself and bought a house for his mother, as well as health insurance for all of his family members. He purchased a used motorcycle for himself.

“We have certain ideals and ethics that we carry with us,” Dirnt said. But “everything else comes second to the music.”