Billie Joe Armstrong - Definition and Overview

Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is the vocalist and guitar player for punk rock band Green Day. Armstrong was the youngest of six kids and lived in Rodeo, California. His father was a truck driver who died of cancer when Armstrong was ten, his mother a waitress.

Right before Billie's father died he gave to his son a present, his first guitar, which Billie nicknamed "Blue". It was a Fernandes Stratocaster copy and to this day he still uses replicas of the guitar. The first song he wrote was called "Why Do You Want Him" and was written when he was 14 in 1986. The song appears on Green Day's debut album on Lookout! Records, 39/Smooth.

In 1989, Billie Joe's band with Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool, The Sweet Children changed their name to Green Day and started touring for the first time.

Armstrong was married in July 1994 to Adrienne Nesser and has two children, Joseph Marciano (born March 1995) and Jakob Danger (born September 1998)

He is also the co-founder and partial owner of the independent label Adeline Records, and he has a side band called Pinhead Gunpowder, which is on Lookout! Records.

• Billie Joe at GeekStinkBreath.net (http://www.geekstinkbreath.net/)
• Billie Joe Biography, as well as information on his stint in Common Rider (http://www.operationivy.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=22/)
• Official site (http://www.billie-joe.com/)