Green Day: Fun Facts

Fun facts: 1

This is a list of many fun facts you may not know to well about Green Day. Feel free to comment more for me to write down.
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Fact 1:
The long-running, all-ages punk club, often just called Gilman, still exists, but Green Day have been banned from playing there since signing a major-label deal with Reprise Records for the release of 'Dookie' in 1994.
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Fact 2:
But that didn't stop them from playing a secret concert there in 2001, when they jumped onstage following a set by the punk band the Influents without telling Gilman staff what they were going to do.
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Fact 3:
Wal-Mart refused to sell 'American Idiot' because of some lyrical content, and bucking the trend, Green Day refused to release a censored version for the store to stock
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Fact 4:
Billie Joe's first guitar was a cherry red acoustic instrument, that his father bought him. At age eleven he got his first electric guitar from his mother. Armstrong nicknamed the guitar "Blue." The guitar was used extensively during touring, and it is featured in the videos for "Basket Case" and "Longview," among others.
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Fact 5:
For Green Day's first US tour in the early nineties they rode around the country in an old bookmobile (a mobile library.) Tré's father converted the bookmobile in to a tour bus, and also served as the band's driver.
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Fact 6:
During Green Day's early years, Billie Joe Armstrong used to have a nose ring. He ended up having to remove it because somehow it kept getting caught on his guitar.
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Fact 7:
The original pressing of Green Day's breakthrough album Dookie had the character Ernie from Sesame Street on the back cover. But on later pressings, Ernie has been airbrushed out, supposedly for fear of litigation.
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Fact 8:
Billie Joe recorded and released his first single "Looking For Love" at the age of 5 on Fiat records. The first song he wrote and then recorded was "Why Do You Want Him?" when he was 12.
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Fact 9:
They played both Lollapalooza and Woodstock 1994. At their Woodstock gig, a mud fight broke out between the band and the audience. The audience won: Dirnt ended up losing his front teeth.
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Fact 10:
Billie Joe Armstrong is a playable character in the skateboarding game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. The game also includes numerous Marvel characters.
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Fact 11:
Every member in Green Day has tattoos, but they all have "E.B.P.M." somewhere on their bodies, meaning "East Bay Punk Mafia."
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Fact 12:
Other bands Billie Joe was in were Pinhead Gunpowder, Blatz, Goodbye Harry and Corrupted Morals and Rancid. Other instruments he plays are the drums, harmonica, guitar and the mandolin.
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Fact 13:
Billie Joe's cat, Zero, died in a tragic washing machine accident.
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Fact 14:
Tre is the godfather of Billie Joe's kids.
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Fact 15:
Armstrong is double jointed in his elbows.
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Fact 16:
The first instrument Tre played was violin when he was nine years old. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)
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Fact 17:
Dirnt worked as a cook before Green Day became famous.
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Fact 18:
If you turn the volume up and listen very closely to Good Riddence you can hear Billie-Joe say the f word in the beginning.
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Fact 19:
In Kerplunk! it says 'In Memory of Gravy...' Gravy was actually Mike's pet cat who died
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Fact 20:
On the new American Idiot cd on the track Jesus of Suburbia during the part Dearly Beloved, you can clearly hear Billie Joe sing "Am I retarded or am I just overjoyed?". However, if you watch Sessions @ AOL on tv for Green Day, Billie Joe clearly sings "Am I retarded or am I just unemployed?"
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Fact 21:
Before Insomniac came out Billie Joe actually considered leaving the band, because of pressure that Dookie left behind and he was pissed off with things happening around him. That's the reason why Insomniac sounds more aggressive than previous releases.
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Fact 22:
Mike Dirnt took his picture in the Nirmod booklet himself.
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Fact 23:
Tre was class president when he was in high school.
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Fact 24:
Billie Joe has appeared in Playgirl. He didnt pose for it though. He flashed the audience at a Green Day concert and a picture ended up in Playgirl.
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Fact 25:
Billie Joe's birthday is on the same date as National Cabbage Day.
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Fact 26:
Dookie's original title was Liquid Dookie, but they changed it because they thought it was too gross.
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Fact 27:
It's rumored that Billie Joe's mom mispelled his name on his birth certificate because she was high (from the drugs given to her during childbirth).
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Fact 28:
Green Day cursed the second most times on Behind the Music (27 times) which is fifty less than the leader, Oasis.
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Fact 29:
On the front cover of Insomniac, in the flames,there are hidden pictures. you can find a naked woman, 3 fairies, a skull, and several other ghosly faces.
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Fact 30:
Tre once milked a dog because he wanted milk for his coffee, and the house he was staying in didn't have any.