This page is not like regular biography pages. Mostly because I'm writing this directly from my memory. I've read a lot of stuff about Green Day over the years and I figure that if I don't remember it, it can't be very important, right?

Green Day's first official album was Kerplunk, but their earliest songs were recorded on the compilation album 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. Back then, Green Day was called Sweet Children and the group was composed of Billie Joe Armstrong (this is his real name, despite rumors to the contrast), Mike, and John (also known as Al). Thankfully, the group changed their name to Green Day and ditched John/Al for Tre Cool, who got the name because apparently that's what he is (cough, cough). I forget exactly what Green Day means, but I know it has something to do with drugs (possibly pot), which the members of the band do a considerable amount.

Kerplunk was an underground success, but produced no well-known singles. Then Dookie came along, following a similar genre of titles. Dookie was an absolute smash hit after the single "Longview" about, um, well... you know. "Longview" was followed by "Basket Case" and then "When I Come Around" (perhaps their biggest hit of all) and "She." In all, Dookie sold something like 11 million copies, and I think that's a lot.

Green Day released Insomniac soon after. It was a little more coarse than Dookie and wasn't as big a hit, even though "Brainstew" became the last Green Day song to hit number one on the charts. The other singles off the album included "Geek Stink Breath" (for which the video, involving pulling out a tooth, was allegedly banned from MTV) and "Walking Contradiction." While Green Day was touring after the release of this album, they got tired and took off to write a new album.

The new album was titled Nimrod. A lot of people say it's the best album Green Day has produced yet, but those people are wrong. I prefered the pre-Insomniac music that was sweet and romantic and sometimes insane. The first single released off the album, "Hitchin' A Ride," was the best song on the album. They followed it with "Good Riddance", which appealed to people who would never ordinarily become Green Day fans. It went up for two MTV video awards, including Viewer's Choice (results pending). They even played it during a review of all the best scenes from Seinfeld. The last single released off Nimrod was "Redundant", which didn't do nearly as well. I've heard rumors that the cross-dressing song "King For A Day" has already been made into a video and will be released as the next single.

A lot of people bash Green Day for various reasons: all their songs sound alike, they sound too British, etc. Not enough people understand that Green Day was a pioneer in the punk rock genre of music. Okay, I won't pretend to know what punk rock is, but I do think Green Day started a new kind of music that influenced a lot of other bands such as the Offspring and Rancid (Green Day and Rancid are linked through the band Operation Ivy). Some of their songs sound a little similar, but there are very few bands that I can't say that about. And it's not BJ's fault that he sounds British.

I also know a little bit about the members of the band. I don't know much or care about Mike or Tre, though I know that Mike and BJ went to school together. BJ has been singing his whole life, since he was a little kid. Apparently, he sang to cheer patients up in hospitals. Isn't that sweet? The first song he ever wrote was "Why Do You Want Him?" which is better than a lot of stuff on Nimrod. He's married to a woman named Adrienne, who isn't in the business and was one of his first fans, and they have a little son named Joey.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a Green Day concert. It was an incredible experience to say the least. BJ opened by singing one of my favorite songs off 1039, which is a relatively obscure song. They were much cooler in concert than Weezer, and BJ was very entertaining when he started putting on random shirts people in the audience threw him. I saw them do an interview once and I wasn't impressed, so I think I'm going to stick to watching them sing.

That's all I can think of to say now. I know there's a lot of stuff about Green Day that I left out, but I'm just a fan so I don't know it all. If there's something essential I left out, you can E-mail me and let me know.

Also, a bunch of stuff BJ said is here.