Punk music is a riot at its core.The paradox of this phenomenon is that it practically from the very beginning became part of a gigantic business, which includes concert show industry, production of records and CD, Internet, printing industry and many other business activities. On punk, huge money is earned, as on any other rock music. California musician Billy Joe Armstrong, whose biography became one of the personifications of the "great American dream," is by nature a rebel, but the man is not poor, and his family is good. These are today's Che Guevara from rock.
Attitude towards officialdom
On the question asked about the essence of punk music by one of the fans, Billy Joe Armstrong answered almost without words, he just kicked the garbage can and said: "That's it!"
When the admirer of talent tried to repeat forthe same thing, the musician stopped him, explaining that now it is fashion, not rock. That's how the great rebel of our time, Billy Joe Armstrong, expressed his desire for all the "mainstream". Quotations from his interviews, conversations with the public at concerts and just conversations with different people indicate the sincere contempt he feels for all sorts of officialdom and bombast. The musician does not want to talk about politics without special need, sympathizes with Bono, forced to have supper with George Bush for charitable contributions, and hates everyone in the world of celebrities. Well, then you need to treat yourself as well, because it's difficult to call it a little-known person.
Early childhood
Born Billy Joe Armstrong in 1972 in the familydriver and waitress. The town of Rodeo (California) is one of thousands of the same throughout the country, with indispensable Main Street, dragsters, gas stations, bars and other provincial attributes.
Musical abilities were transmitted, you cansay, by inheritance. His father (his name was Andy) was a truck driver, but very fond of jazz, he spent his free time in clubs and was a good performer, he was even paid for his game money. Little Bill also liked to sing, from the age of five he performed in hospitals in front of patients, which amused them very much.
The first recording was done at a tender age onthe local studio Fiat Records, was called the song "Look For Love", on the cover there was the name of Billy Joe Armstrong, a photo of a boy's face and the name of the composition.
The loss of his father and the first protest
Childhood was happy, but, unfortunately, the guyearly lost his father. Ten years is exactly the age when boys get many ideas about how a man should be, and mostly from the pope. In 1982, Armstrong Sr. died, he was killed by esophageal cancer. A couple of years later, her mother remarried, which greatly shocked the teenager, who took this step to further the mother's life as a betrayal of the memory of his father. He became hated by his stepfather, and when he composed his first song in 1986, it was an appeal to his mother with reproach. The name of the song asked: "Why do you want it?". So was born the author Billy Joe Armstrong. The biography of the musician began with a youthful protest against injustice, and he expressed it in an accessible form.
Tool and Teacher
A year before her second marriage, my mother gave meboy electric guitar. This instrument (he called it sad, "Blue") was the first, but not the last, it turned out to be so good that it is used by the musician today. To play the guy already knew how, he had an acoustic "Cherry Red Hohner", donated by his father.
The teacher of music became a local authoritativeguitarist George Cole, he "put his hands on" and engaged with Joe for a good ten years. It was he who sold the guitar of the Fender Stratocaster company to the mother of a future celebrity, and before that it belonged to David Marden of Santana. Cole did not teach Colonel to teach the young man, believing, obviously, it is absolutely superfluous. The same opinion is shared by Billy Joe Armstrong, quotes from his interview indicate that he does not consider school education a very useful thing. Study is the way to perfection. And who as a result becomes perfect? That's roughly in this way the punk musician argues.
Creation
With his companion in a rock band, his name wasMike Dundt, Bill met when the boys were only ten. The common language was found in reverence, felt in relation to the classics of the genre Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne and Def Leppard, whose records the friends listened with rapture. Enthusiasm heated and the Bay Area group, which in the eighties rattled on the alternative scene. To their team, Billy Joe Armstrong and Mike Dernt in 1987 were called "Sweet Children", obviously ironically. They were soon joined by the drummer John Kiffmeier (who is also Al Sobrant), and in this lineup the band rushed to the glory, entering the stage of the Rods Hickory Pit In Vallejo club. The music was so engrossing to Joe that he felt that there was no need to go to school anymore, and, in general, he was right.
Films in which the musician happened to be shot,masterpieces of the world cinema are not known, but they do not pretend to prizes of film festivals. Game roles were not enough, basically Billy Joe himself plays. Voice acting is one of the spheres of application of this musician's abilities. He showed his talent in producing punk bands. His music may or may not like it, but that's what anger Armstrong, it's a prejudiced attitude in the style of "Pasternak I did not read, but deeply indignant ..." Such arrogant disapproval simply depresses him. Billy Joe himself claims that the punk is dead, and it was he who killed him.
Family life
Billie Joe Armstrong participated in many groupsthe first of which was Sweet Children. Then there were still Rancid, Foxboro Hot Tubs, The Lookouts, Blatz ... On the Green Day show in Mankato (1990) he met his fate, Adrienne Nesser. It is impossible to say that the musician reacted irresponsibly to the upcoming marriage, the young people met for almost four years, the wedding took place not because of the pregnancy of the bride, but quite deliberately. The first son, Joseph, was born in 1995, the second, Jacob, in 1998. The family of Billie Joe Armstrong is also elder brothers and sisters, five of them (Anna, Alan David, Holly and Marcy). They are all from the first marriage, and it remains only to be surprised at the hostility shown towards the stepfather, who undertook to raise them.
Adhering to radical views in all thatAs for punk music, in real life, Billy is quite a good citizen, and with his wife and children in 2011 he recorded the album of Christmas songs “The Boo”. The bass guitar was led by the father of the family, the eldest son sat on the percussion instruments, and the youngest on the solo. Mom sang, Adrienne.
