1972: Everyone is born: Billie Joe in February, Mike in May, and Tre in December. 1977: Billie, then an angelic kid with ringlets, records a seven-inch single called "Look For Love." 1979: Mike smokes his first joint, with a friend of his mom's. 1982: Billie's career as a flasher begins at a swim meet in Crockett. He takes off all his clothes and streaks around the swimming pool. 1982: Billie and Mike meet in the school cafeteria and discuss songwriting. 1983: Mike sleeps over at Billie's house. They learn to play "Ain't Talking About Love" by Van Halen, "Photograph" by Def Leppard, and "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne. 1985: Armed with screwdrivers, Mike and his friend Jason break into newly built houses and dismantle them. 1986: Billie's sister Anna buys the replacements Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. Then she pounds on Billie for scratching the record. 1987: Billie and Mike, as Sweet Children, play their first show at Rod's Hickory Pit, where Billie's mom works. Thirty friends show up. 1987: Billie sells joints at school for two dollars apiece. He is called Two-Dollar Bill. 1989: Billie and Mike tour for the first time in different bands. Billie plays guitar for Corrupted Morals. Mike sings for Crummy Musicians, since the real singer's mother won't let him go on tour. 1989: Billie writes an article on how to be a couch potato -- root beer, pizza, and TV -- for his friend Eggplant's fanzine, Absolutely Zippo. 1990: The band released "39/Smooth" to go along with their E.P.'s, "Sweet Children", "!,000 Hours", & "Slappy". 1990: Billie drops out of high school the day before his eighteenth birthday. 1990: First Green Day tour. The day after Mike graduates from high school, they hop into a van and do forty-five dates across the U.S. 1990: Original drummer John Kiftmeyer leaves for college. His drum teacher, Tre Cool, joins the band. 1990: Billie and Tre get a job selling newspaper subscriptions outside Safeway. They end up ditching the papers and smoking weed the rest of the day. They are fired. 1991: Billie has a peculiar speed experience, smashing beer bottles and screaming "God damn Van Damme!" He has never seen a Van Damme movie. 1992: The band released "Kerplunk" and begin to achieve minor fame. 1992: Tre's dad buys a disused bookmobile from the Phoenix library system. It becomes Green Day's new travelling home, with Mr. Cool Sr. as driver. 1993: Green Day decide to leave Lookout! Records and join a major label. There is a huge bidding war amongst the labels but Reprise Records comes out on top and signs the band to a 5 record deal. 1994: "Dookie" is released and thanks to MTV's heavy play of the first single "Longview", Green Day's popularity sky-rockets. 1994: During the coarse of the next two years, Green Day appear on several magazine covers but most notably Rolling Stone and Spin. They also appear on talk shows like "The Late Show with David Letterman", "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brian". 1994: At the Woodstock reunion festival, Green Day increase their popularity by starting a huge mud fight during their set. 1994: Green Day slips through MTV's no-drug-references policy by talking about burning Jurassic monkeys, their personal slang for joints. 1995: The bands "Insomniac" album is released and is loved by reviewers but fails to come close to the sales of "Dookie". 1995: During a European tour, Green Day packs up and heads home claiming exhaustion. During the next year, Billie Joe writes around 50 songs in preperation for Green Day's next release, "Nimrod". 1997: Green Day record their new album, "Nimrod", with very high expectations. No Doubt members help out with the music on two songs. 1997: Under the alias "The Nimrods" Green Day play a secret warm-up gig at Johnny Depp's "Viper Room" in LA. The band used the gig to warm up for the Mt. Fuji Rock Festival that they agreed to play. The Fuji Fest appearance is cancelled after a typhoon hits Japan. Green Day spend the day at an amusment park instead with members of Beck, Prodigy, the Foo Fighters, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Tre later shoots the Foo Fighters drummer with a BB-gun and Billie Joe has to step in and break-up the situation. 1997: Green Day make headlines for 'destroying' Tower Records when they trash the store and Billie writes "Fuck You" and "Nimrod" on the windows in black spray-paint. Later at KROQ's annual accoustic Christmas, the band agains makes headlines when they thow the stage Christmas tree into the crowd. Once again Billie wrote obscenities on the stage and apparently there was a fight backstage with KROQ workers. KROQ called the police but no charges where laid. 2000: Green Day headlines the Van's Warped Tour with such acts as Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Jurassic 5, Long Beach Dub Allstars, The Donnas, MXPX, and NOFX, from late June until August. 2000: Green Day release their 6th full length album, "Warning" on October 3rd. 2001: Band
launches it's "Warning" tour in St. Paul, MN.
|