Green Day often recruits other musicians to assist on albums or live performances. In addition, many other personnel support album releases and tours in various ways. Some of them are recognized here.
CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO VIEW A SHORT BIO FOR EACH PERSON LISTED
Pinhead Gunpowder, The Influents, Chino Horde, and The Big Cats as well as the Network and Foxboro Hot Tubs.
Jason is a long-time friend of the band and is a member of Pinhead Gunpowder with Billie Joe, Bill Schneider, and Aaron Cometbus.
He co-founded Adeline Records with Billie Joe and Adrienne in 1997, and in 1999, he played with Green Day at the Bridge School benefit.
Jason supported Green Day on the Warning and American Idiot tours and appeared in the When I Come Around video - he's the young dude leaning against a car kissing a girl.
He also joined Green Day's 2008 side project, Foxboro Hot Tubs, on its mini-tour.
Most recently, Jason is back on the road with Green Day supporting their 21st Century Breakdown tour.
Pinhead Gunpowder, The Influents, Monsula, the Skinflutes.
Bill Schneider is the bass player for Billie Joe's side project, Pinhead Gunpowder, and has worked as Green Day's guitar tech (on Nimrod and Warning) and as their tour manager (American Idiot and Foxboro Hot Tubs tours).
He has also played in several other bands, including the Influents (with Jason White).
Bill has recently been supporting the 21st Century Breakdown tour, again acting as tour manager.
Jason Freese - Piano/Keyboard, Sax, Trombone, Accordion, etc.
Name:
Jason Jeremy Freese
Age/Birthdate:
35; born January 12, 1975
Hometown:
Orange County, California, USA
Marital Status:
Married
Instruments:
Piano, guitar, accordion, trombone, and vocals
Other Bands:
Goo Goo Dolls, Joe Walsh, Liz Phair, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Foxboro Hot Tubs. Jason has played on Queens Of The Stoneage and Weezer albums.
Jason supported Green Day on the American Idiot album and tour.
He was also a member of Green Day's 2008 side project, Foxboro Hot Tubs, playing on the Stop Drop and Roll!!! album as well as joining the band on its mini-tour.
Jason played piano on the 21st Century Breakdown album and has recently been traveling with the band as part of their 21st Century Breakdown tour.
Garbage, First Person, Eclipse, Spooner, Firetown, Rectal Drip
Butch Vig is a musician and record producer who produced Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown album, released in 2009.
Butch has played drums for several bands, including Spooner, Garbage, and Firetown.
He has produced such bands as Killdozer, Nirvana, the Subways, Against Me!, Jimmy Eat World, and Alkaline Trio as well as many more.
Ashtray Babyhead, Magic Cropdusters, the Moving Front
Jeff Matika is a friend of Jason White's from Little Rock, who has played in several other bands - most notably Ashtray Babyhead and Magic Cropdusters.
He plays guitar and bass and sings.
He auditioned in Oakland and was selected to support Green Day on their 21st Century Breakdown tour.
Worked with The Muffs, Bad Religion, Jawbreaker, Rancid, The Living End, The Vandals, blink-182, Alkaline Trio, Sum 41, The Offspring, and Morrissey, among many others.
Jerry Finn was a good friend of the band and of many of the bands with which he worked. He started his career as an audio engineer and mixed Dookie and Insomniac in 1994 and 1995, respectively. He also co-produced the International Superhits album in 2001. Through his career he worked with many bands, some of which are listed above, and moved into the role of producer for many albums. He passed away at the age of 39 on August 21, 2008, about a month after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage.
The photo and most of the information for this bio came from the exclaim.caweb site.
Married to Adam Horowitz (the Beastie Boys' King Ad-Rock)
Other Bands:
Viva Kneivel, Bikini Kill, Le Tigre
Kathleen Hanna is a singer, songwriter, activist, and 'zine writer who was the inspiration for the Pinhead Gunpowder song, Kathleen. She is a feminist who has been particularly active in the anti-domestic-violence movement. She was the lead singer of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre and released a solo album under the name Julie Ruin. Kathleen sings the "Nobody likes you" vocals at the beginning of the song Letterbomb on the American Idiot album.
Much of this information came from an excellent article in the NationMaster.com Encyclopedia (recommended reading if you'd like more information about Kathleen Hanna).
Has played piano on some albums that he's produced
Other Bands:
Rob has produced records for the Goo Goo Dolls, Jawbreaker, Chris Isaak, and Alanis Morissette.
Rob Cavallo signed Green Day to Reprise Records and produced their first major-label album, Dookie. Since then he has produced every album released through American Idiot, with the exception of Warning, on which he has Executive Producer credit. Rob also played piano on the American Idiot album.
Much of this information came from NationMaster.com Encyclopedia.
Mike is best known as the singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter for the Enemies, an East Bay punk band that was inspired by, among others, Green Day. In 2005, he joined the American Idiot tour and played guitar on several songs, including Are We the Waiting and St. Jimmy.
Much of this information came from blog entries on the Enemiesmyspace pageand from a July 31, 2002 East Bay Expressarticleby Katy St. Clair.
Photo by Chris Dugan, 2005 from the Enemies myspace page.
Previously from New York, last known to be living in L.A.
Hair Color:
Natural - brown
Marital Status:
Married to Sharry
Children:
Daughter, Netty
Instruments:
Guitar
Other Bands:
Token Entry, Redemption 87, Strange Young Heroes
Timmy Chunks is a hardcore hero from New York who performed with Token Entry as their vocalist. He helped the Bouncing Souls get their start. Timmy was Billie Joe's guitar tech from the mid 1990's through 2004 and played backup guitar with Green Day on the Nimrod tour. He is the crew member who jumped into the crowd at a Green Day concert immediately after Billie Joe to assist when Billie Joe got into a fight with an audience member. If you watch carefully, you can see the flash of his brightly-dyed red hair in this video soon after he jumps into the crowd.
Much of this information came from a FAQ page on the Doomed Romance web site, from the Green Day Encyclopedia on wikidot, and from this punknews.orgarticle.
Has worked with Dr. Dre, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Aaliyah, and Poncho Sanchez.
Ronnie Blake is a musician who lives in the Los Angeles area. Ronnie has undergraduate and Master's degrees in music. He joined Green Day on their American Idiot tour as a trumpeter and appears on the Bullet in a Bible DVD. Ron also established and maintains Hi Speed Horns, which assists musicians with small recording budgets to get high-quality horn recordings for inclusion in their work.
Most of the information for this bio came from the Hi Speed Hornsweb site.
High Fidelity (Broadway musical), From Up Here, The Retributionists
Tom Kitt is a musical theater composer, musical director, conductor and arranger.
He won multiple awards, including two Tony awards for the Broadway musical, Next to Normal, which he composed.
Tom did the orchestrations, arrangements, and musical supervision for the Berkeley Repertory Theater's production of the American Idiot musical.
When Green Day heard what he'd done with the string arrangements for that show, they asked him to do the string arrangements for 21st Century Breakdown, and he accepted.
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