Billie Joe Armstrong recalls the first time he met Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt in an excerpt from his new Audible Original, Billie Joe Armstrong: Welcome to My Panic, out Thursday, April 22nd.
Armstrong and Dirnt met in the fifth grade, and Armstrong says music — Ozzy Osbourne in particular — was probably the first thing they ever talked about. But Armstrong adds the pair shared a sense of humor and found themselves competing to be the class clown.
“He wanted to be a stand-up comedian, even at a young age back when we were that young,” Armstrong says of Dirnt. “He had a routine, he had all these jokes, he got in a lot of fights, he pissed a lot of people off. And I just immediately liked him.”
Welcome to My Panic is part of Audible’s Words + Music series, in which artists pair stories with musical performances. For his installment, Armstrong offers an in-depth overview of his personal and artistic journey, highlighting important highs and lows throughout his life, and examining what it’s like being a punk artist who scores mainstream success. Welcome to My Panic will also feature new performances of “Basket Case,” “Good Riddance,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” and “American Idiot.”
Other artists to participate in the Words + Music series include Sting, Smokey Robinson, James Taylor, Common, St. Vincent, Tom Morello, and Alanis Morissette. Future installments will boast Steve Earle, Gary Clark, Jr., Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, and Sleater-Kinney.
