THE ROLLING SCONE INTERVIEW: BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG

Today on the Scone: The Exclusive Rolling Scone Interview With Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day.

RS: Hello, Billie.
Billie: Hello, Rolling Scone.
RS: How are you?
Billie: I'm well, and you, Mr. Scone?
RS: I am well, thank you.
...

Billie: So...
RS: Well Billy, I'd like to ask you some questions.
Billie: OK, fire away.
RS: Question one: How do you respond when people tell you you've sold out?
Billie: Well, Mr. Scone, I have to confess, it's terrible. Every time a mohawked boy with a nose ring comes in and tells me that my bands music was better on Kerplunk!, well, I die a little bit inside.
RS: So, you hate the fame and fortune, don't you?
Billie: I really do. I miss the rejection. The driving 200 miles in our old van down to an old bar just to get stiffed by the manager and chased out with a baseball bat. I hate the adoring fans. I miss our shows with 12 drunks throwing beer bottles at us because we didn't play Skynyrd covers. What I especially hate is all the money and the groupies. I bought myself a 250 GT Spyder California for about a million dollars last month. It is so choice. I had sex with two supermodels in the backseat within three hours of buying the car. And for what? I just hated myself even more than when I found out that that American Idiot sold over 14 million albums worldwide.
RS: So you hate your new album as much as everyone else does?
Billie: Yes! I hate the new album. I hate making the music that I want to make. I hate myself... I cry myself to sleep nightly when I think about how I used falsetto and piano on the last two albums. Piano?! I mean, come on! Pianos are for Air Supply and Elton John, not the band that made song about jerking off cool for the radio.
RS: So how are you going to kill yourself in order to atone for every album you've made since you went to a major label?
Billy: Well, Mr. Scone, I plan on committing Hari-kiri with the guitar I used on the recording of Dookie.
RS: Anything to say to your former fans?
Billie: I am so, so, so sorry.