Billie Joe Armstrong (Billie Joe Armstrong). A photo. Biography and personal life

Punk music is a riot at its core. The paradox of this phenomenon lies in the fact 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 areas of business life. On punk you earn a lot of money, 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

When 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 for him the 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 dine with George Bush for charity contributions, and hates all celebrities in the world. 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 a family driver 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.

The musical abilities were transmitted, one might say, 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 record was made at a tender age at a local studio Fiat Records, called the song "Look For Love", on the cover there was the name Billy Joe Armstrong, a photo of a boy's face and the name of the composition.

Loss of the father and the first protest

Childhood was happy, but, unfortunately, the guy lost his father early. Ten years is exactly the age when boys get many ideas about what 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 in the arrangement of the further life of the mother 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 title 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 the electric guitar to the boy. 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 was the local authoritative guitarist George Cole, he "put his hands on" and engaged with Joe for a good ten years. It was he who sold the guitar of Fender Stratocaster to the mother of a future celebrity, and before that it belonged to David Marden of Santana. Cole did not teach Cole's youthful reading , 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 path 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 was Mike Dernt, 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 was warmed up also by group Bay Area which in the eightieth rattled on an 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 group turned to the glory, coming to the scene of the club "Rods Hickory Pit In Vallejo". The music was so captivating 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 heard, but also do not pretend to prizes of film festivals. There were not enough playing roles, mostly Billy Joe is playing himself. Voice acting is one of the areas 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

Billy Joe Armstrong participated in many groups, the first of which was Sweet Children. Then there were Rancid, Foxboro Hot Tubs, The Lookouts, Blatz ... At the Green Day show in Mankato (1990) he met his fate, Adrienne Nesser. It can not be said that the musician reacted to the upcoming marriage irresponsibly, the young people met almost four years, the wedding was not due to the bride's pregnancy, but quite consciously. The first son Joseph was born in 1995, the second, Jacob, in 1998. The family of Billy Joe Armstrong is also older brothers, and sisters, their five (Anna, Alan David, Holly and Marcy). All of them are 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 matters relating to punk music, in real life, Billy is quite a respectable citizen, together with his wife and children he recorded an album of Christmas songs "The Boo" in 2011. The bass guitar part was led by the father of the family, the eldest son was sitting on percussion instruments, and the younger one was solo. My mother sang, Adrienne.