Green Day Caricature

Green Day Caricature, shown here in Oakland, CA on December 14, 1995 for a BAM magazine cover story.

Green Day is an American rock band formed in 1986 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong (center) and bassist Mike Dirnt (left). For much of the band’s career, they have been a trio with drummer Tré Cool (right), who replaced John Kiffmeyer in 1990 prior to the recording of the band’s second studio album, Kerplunk (1991).

In 1994, their major label debut Dookie, released through Reprise Records, became a breakout success and eventually shipped over 10 million copies in the U.S. Green Day is credited alongside fellow California punk bands including Sublime, Bad Religion, The Offspring and Rancid with popularizing mainstream interest in punk rock in the United States.

With 12 studio albums, Green Day has many hit songs, such as: “Basket Case”, “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life), “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams”, “When I Come Around”, “American Idiot”, “Longview”, “Jesus Of Suburbia”, “Holiday”, “J.A.R” and “Brain Stew/Jaded”.

Dirnt, born Michael Pritchard, says his stage name was originally a nickname that his friends from grade school gave him, as he constantly played “air bass” and made a “dirnt, dirnt, dirnt” noise while pretending to pluck the strings.

Tré Cool, born Frank Edwin Wright III in Frankfurt, West Germany, to American parents Frank Edwin Wright, Jr. and Linda Wright, lived in Willits, California, with his father and elder sister Lori. His father was a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. At age 12, as the drummer of The Lookouts and Tré took on the name of “Tré Cool,” using both the French word “très” (meaning “very”) and the English word “cool” as a way of saying he was “very cool.”

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, their first year of eligibility.