May

ASCAP Pop Music Awards

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is vital in protecting the rights of artists such as Green Day by licensing public performances of their songs through mediums like radio and distributing royalties to songwriters. The ASCAP holds an annual awards ceremony to honour the most-performed songs in their repertory, and in 2006 Green Day’was also given the Creative Voice Award for their outstanding contribution to music. ‘My best advice is to play music with your friends…’ said Billie Joe when accepting the award, ‘As,’ Mike chipped in, ‘you are guaranteed a good time.’

September

Hurricane Katrina Collaboration

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the south-eastern seaboard of America and the historic city of New Orleans was flooded, leaving many residents homeless. When the football stadium, the Louisiana Superdome, reopened on 25 September for the New Orleans Saints’ first home game, Green Day and U2 banded together as a seven-piece to deliver a four-song, half-time set to a crowd of 65,000. One of the songs was a cover version of Skids’ 1978 apt song about storms and flooding, ‘The Saints Are Coming’, which was released as a collaborative single to raise money for the musical charity, Music Rising, in New Orleans.

October

Anti-American Activity

The sentiments expressed on American Idiot pushed Green Day into the political arena, especially after stating their opposition to the American-led Iraq war. The band were always sure to stress in interviews that they were not anti-American (contrary to accusations made by The Killers’ lead singer Brandon Flowers in October 2006) but more anti-Bush and the right-wing, fundamentalist views that he represented. ‘Look, if Bush is morally and politically right, then I was screwed from the get-go,’ Mike explained to Rolling Stone. ‘I come from a world he couldn’t ever understand. Drugs and fighting and divorce.’

December

Reprise Reissue

‘There’s moments in the show now when we go into ‘Longview’,’ Mike Dirnt told a journalist in 2005, ‘and while a lot of people still know it, there’s a lot of people out there now that are like “What’s this?” It was when that was happening that we knew we’d stepped out of the shadow of Dookie entirely.’ Thus when Reprise reissued the first two Lookout! albums in December 2006, Green Day were more than happy to wax lyrical to journalists about the hard times of their spirited early years before Dookie turned their world upside down.

Personalities | Introducing Green Day
Personalities | Green Day | Broadening Horizons (2007) | Key Events