On September 21st, American Idiot turned 20. This album has always meant a lot to Green Day fans – many will even say it changed their lives – and hearing it live in full has been an emotional experience. So for the 20th anniversary, we want to celebrate how it’s impacted all of us, the fans, with stories from fans around the world. Enjoy, and if you'd like to share your own story, please join us in the thread on the Green Day Community forum!


Stefano, 34, Italy

"I was 14 when American Idiot came out and I was about to start high school. I'd heard Green Day before on the radio but only the hits. During that summer I heard American Idiot (the single) on the radio and I thought the song was awesome, then I'd downloaded the album since I didn't have the money to buy it and I'd become obsessed.

I'd done some research and discovered that the album was made by the same band that I'd heard on the radio few years ago. This album completely changed me and my mindset. Then I watched Bullet in a Bible almost on a daily basis the year that came out and I'd listen to every Green Day album. That made me a fan.

I didn't see the band on the American Idiot Tour since I was too young. I saw the band in 2013 for the first time, but I saw American Idiot live in its entirety in Milan last June.

It was magical and emotional, it was like closing a chapter 20 years in the making. A chapter that started in September 2004 listening to the album that became my only good friend during the most difficult years and it ended on June 16th after seeing the band performing exactly the same songs that brought so much peace in the hectic days 20 years before."


Bryony, 30, Lancashire, England

"I actually heard Bullet in a Bible before I heard American Idiot. I'm fairly sure my mum was trying to buy me the latter and ended up getting mixed up. I was 13 at the time. The sheer raw power of Billie's voice, and the energy of the music and the crowd just captivated me and blew me away. I listened to it over and over again to the point where when I finally heard the studio version I was adding in the call-and-response crowd interactions.

I didn’t get to see the American Idiot World Tour because my parents said 13 was too young (first time I saw them was 2009 after 21st Century Breakdown). BUT since then I have been lucky enough to see them 7 times, including the Saviors Tour where I heard AI played in full. It was super emotional, it's a fantastic album from start to finish, I adore it. The songs I love to hear most are (aside from all of them) Are We the Waiting, Letterbomb and Whatsername. The opening line of Are We the Waiting has always tugged at my heartstrings since I first heard it as a teenager; 'Starry nights, city lights coming down over me /skyscrapers, stargazers in my head.' It's just so beautiful and transports me to a starlit drenched city street at night, walking hand in hand with a friend or a lover, just shooting the shit with nowhere to be, and no pressures on your head other than enjoying that blissful moment. It's beautiful.

When I heard Whatsername live in June '24 (I think for the first time), I cried. Billie's voice over that melody, singing about lost love. Urgh, I just love it.

Anyway. I love it, the album is incredible. And I can't wait until I can see them live again."


Gwendolyn, 31, USA

"I wasn’t a capital-F Fan until 21st Century Breakdown came out but in 2004/5 there was no escaping American Idiot. What follows is a scattershot diary. I was at lunch in 5th grade when my friend Armon said, 'Did you guys see Green Day on TV last night? They went *he imitates playing guitar* and said Fuck America!'
'Yeah, it was awesome,' said whatshisface.
Five years later after becoming a Fan I remember playing Jesus of Suburbia on repeat wondering how the hell I’m going to memorize the lyrics to a nine minute song suite before seeing them live for the first time. After getting all their albums on CD I remember leafing through the album booklet admiring all the little doodles around the lyrics. When Green Day: Rock Band comes out I remember the joy of screaming like a maniac to the Rock n’ Roll Girlfriend section of Homecoming and being told to quiet down by my parents. I still remember seeing the musical version of American Idiot at the Saint James Theater in New York and explaining the basic outlines of the story to my mom’s friend and her daughter who were going with us. I remember meeting Billie Joe’s nephew Andrew after seeing it in Kansas City. When I’m in college St. Jimmy becomes my “I’m gonna take a shot” song. I visit home and know the drive so well that I can time my drive so I reach home during the “we’re coming home again” section of Homecoming. A home that isn’t my family’s home anymore. I’m visiting Austin to see Green Day with my friend, coming out of the shity hotel we’ve picked for the night. Huh, it’s on East 12th Street. When I’m needing courage to come out to my dying grandmother I reach for something within myself and what I pull out is “There’s nothing wrong with me, this is how I’m supposed to be”. I’ll be going with my younger sisters in two days to see the album performed in full.

American Idiot captured the zeitgeist, was instantly iconic, provocative, and relatable. A cathartic hero’s journey for every bored suburbanite. The fact that it worked is insane. A rock opera made by the 30 something year old punks who were last seen on a double bill with one of their younger imitators, dangerously close to being washed up. The Dixie Chicks got canceled for saying they were ashamed that Bush was from Texas. Green Day called him a nazi and got away with it. It was a clarion call and a rallying point against the frighteningly toxic nationalism of the War on Terror era. I’d like to point out how absurdly improbable it is not only to have a huge rock mega-hit on the scale of Dookie, but to do it again but bigger and more bold. No second act in American lives? Take that F. Scott Fitzgerald. When was the last time a rock album did such a thing?"


Jen, UK

"So my perspective is very different but if I tell you my first gig was Siouxie and the Banshees in a nasty little club in 1976, it will explain a lot. I knew Basket Case and loved it and was always kind of aware of Green Day but I was a married, working mum with elderly parents needing assistance, so actually just had no time to be involved in music like I had been as a teenager and was pretty pissed off with the current music scene that I was hearing on mainstream radio. Just as American Idiot was released, my niece came to stay and watched MTV all the time, so suddenly I was hearing this album which seemed so different and was so huge. The band looked so different I could hardly believe it was the same guys. I loved the music but was not suffering any of problems so many Green Day fans have endured, but I can completely see how they feel and the music still speaks very powerfully to me. I regarded myself a fairly casual fan, l had gone back and acquired their whole back catalogue, until we went to see them on the 21st Century Breakdown Tour which I say I am still getting over! I completely agree with Gwendolyn regarding Green Day conquering the world TWICE and hope one day Billie Joe gets the recognition he deserves for his songwriting."


Charlie, Pennsylvania, USA

"I started my obsession with Green Day just after the Saviors album came out, so around March of this year. I instantly was enthralled by Green Day. I've listened to most of their albums and discography, but my favourite? American Idiot of course! Listening to their album almost made me cry, I'm neurodivergent and it instantly became my new obsession. I LOVE it. I LOVE the album. I will never get over it, if I'm honest.

The first song from American Idiot that I heard was Wake Me Up When September Ends, and although it isn't my favourite song from the album, it still holds a place in my heart for being the song that made me curious. Though my favourite song from the album is She's a Rebel, which has become a guilty pleasure to listen to.

Sadly I don't have a CD, or a commemorative piece or merchandise for Green Day, though my birthday is the 21st, so as of writing I'm hoping things change? But I do have a pure and unadulterated love for Green Day, and nothing is gonna change that."


thecursedmermaid

"American Idiot showed me Green Day. I was 11 or 12. Not sure how I missed them before that but usually music finds you when you need it. American Idiot was the first song I heard. It was on the radio when we were driving into town. Blew my mind before Billie even started to sing. When it came out, I bought it and loved it. Wasn't expecting Wake Me Up When September Ends, I had never heard a song that helped me with my dad's death. He died when I was 6. I cried immediately."


CS, 33, Venezuelan living in France

"I remember the exact day I fell in love with American Idiot. It was January 2nd, 2005, in the middle of nowhere. I was 14 at the time.

I had heard American Idiot (the song) and Boulevard of Broken Dreams and watched their videos on MTV. I liked those two songs, so I got the album. I listened to it and Give Me Novacaine captivated me from the very first time I heard it, but other than that I only liked those two singles, so I would play those 3 songs, repeat Novacaine a few times, and skip the rest of the album. Then for the New Year holiday my family and I went to visit my extended family in another state, and we were driving back to my hometown, Caracas, on January 2nd. The drive was supposed to be around 8 hours long, and about 3 hours into it our car broke down. We were in a small road in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a pretty dry landscape. This was long before we all had internet on our cell phones, in fact I didn't even have a cell phone. So I had nothing to do while the adults figured things out, other than sit on the side of the road and read the booklet of American Idiot while I listened to the album. I hadn't done that before, and at the time my English was not good enough to understand the lyrics just through listening. I needed to read them. And so I did.

57 minutes later my life had changed. I was blown away on so many levels. First, was this album telling a story, where all the songs were connected and giving you a peek into the lives of these characters? Was that even possible? I had never considered before that an album could do that. And second, those stories, those lyrics, they resonated with me so profoundly. I was a teenager by then, struggling with all the emotional troubles teenagers go through and dipping my toes into depression. So that teenage angst of the Jesus of Suburbia captured so many of my emotions at the time, many of which I hadn't figured out how to articulate yet. And I lived in a country that was (and still is) in constant political turmoil, where censorship and violent repression of peaceful protests was just getting started. There was so much hatred between government and opposition, and American Idiot also spoke to that. I felt like I had found this treasure, this album where each and every song articulated so many of my feelings, not only about my own internal, private struggles, but also about my struggles as a teenager growing up in country submerged in political chaos.

It was almost midnight when we got home. I went straight to the internet to confirm my suspicions that the album was telling a story, and it was! I spent the following weeks dissecting that story, talking about it to anyone who would listen, and starting to consume any Green Day media I could get my hands on: previous songs, previous records, old videos, recordings of live performances. I did end up going to a show in the American Idiot Tour (another long story for another time).

I took a 10 year sabbatical from Green Day fandom and totally disconnected from whatever the band was doing between 2013 and 2023, until I went to see them live at Bataclan last November. They opened that show with the song American Idiot. As soon as the first chords played, all my teenage fandom rushed back in. I felt like I was 15 again and as excited as the first time I heard that song live. As soon as they announced they'd be playing Dookie and American Idiot in full in this tour, I went a bit crazy. I decided to go to three shows. At the first one (Lyon) I was in a state of disbelief... hearing American Idiot played live in its entirety and in order was my ultimate dream as a teenager, and seeing it become a reality 20 years later was just so surreal. I teared up during the songs I expected to tear up with: Give Me Novacaine, Homecoming, Whasername. By the third show (Paris), just knowing that this was probably the last time I'd get to hear the whole album played live, I started tearing up from the moment the band started playing the song American Idiot. Am I the first person to tear up with American Idiot the song?

There's a third way in which American Idiot impacted me though: it gave me a community to be a part of and where I felt welcomed and accepted. I was a bit weird as a teenager. I did not like the same music, have the same hobbies, or the same fashion trends as my peers at the time... and teenagers are notorious for not playing nice with the ones that don't fit in. To say that I had very few friends at the time is the understatement of the year. On top of that, I was also struggling with my mental health, and I didn't know anyone around me who was going through anything like that, at least not openly. Mental health was so taboo, so I also felt really isolated because of that.

But then I joined the Idiot Club. After having exhausted every Green Day related topic, I ventured into the General Chat section of the forums and I found so many wonderful people there. It was bittersweet. Most of them were in the US or the UK and had the opportunity to meet each other in person occasionally, while I was geographically isolated in Venezuela. But at least I had an online community where I could be myself without being judged, or laughed at, or ignored, and with whom I could discuss mental health more openly, hear from other people going through similar struggles, and feel less alone in that regard. I did get to meet a few of them in person in one of my trips to see Green Day in the US back in the day. 20 years later I still keep in touch with many of the people I met then... hell, I've kept contact with more people from the Idiot Club than people I went to high school with, and I'd still like to meet some of them in person when I get the chance.

Oh and I wrote a 300 page long fanfiction about American Idiot. It was the story of the album but through the lens of Whatsername, covering her origins and what happened to her after Letterbomb, and I proudly published it on one of the Green Day fansites at the time. I was 15 and depressed when I wrote it though, so I have since made sure to delete it off the face of the Internet. And while it was 100% cringe-worthy, I am very proud of the fact that I wrote a 300 page long story being only 15, and in English besides, which is not my native language.

And how has my life changed since then? Well, I finished high school, went to university, and then left Venezuela and moved to France to get a PhD, which I completed and then stayed here for work. I eventually managed to build a small but solid group of friends in real life. Venezuela continues to be a political disaster, now more than ever, which still hurts. But overall, life got better. And 20 years later, American Idiot continues to tug at my heartstrings and hearing it played live in full has been such a privilege and such an emotional experience."


Dylan, UK



"American idiot was the album that got me into Green Day and got me interested in American politics, so much so I did a degree in American history and politics."


Nikto66, Australia

"So I am an old school fan in Australia, started listening to Green Day when Dookie came out. I saw them live for the first time in 1996 touring the Insomniac album. I did not like American Idiot when I first heard it. The single was fine, but songs like Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Wake Me Up When September Ends didn't sound like Green Day to me. For years and years I would skip Jesus of Suburbia and Homecoming when I listened to the album. I still much prefer Shoplifter, Too Much Too Soon and Favorite Son from that era, but I love Holiday.

Green Day for me is Dookie, Insomniac, Nimrod, Warning and Shenanigans. That will always be my Green Day. I do listen to American Idiot but nowhere near as often as Dookie, Insomniac, Nimrod or Warning.

I am very keen to hear the American Idiot demos. I much prefer the Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams demo sound to the album versions. I said to my son the other day when it was released that the demo version of Boulevard of Broken Dreams sounds more Green Day to me than the album version, I don't quite know why that is.

But without the American Idiot album I would not have been able to introduce my now 16 year-old son to Green Day. He is now a huge fan. I used that and Revolution Radio to get him into Green Day.

He was wearing an American Idiot t-shirt today!"


PhuzzyPhriend, 33, USA

"American Idiot is the album that introduced me to Green Day. I first became aware of Green Day when I heard Boulevard of Broken Dreams for the first time on the radio. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. I was beginning to become politically aware and was feeling frustrated with the world like a lot of kids of my generation; I was also growing up in a dysfunctional home that was sliding into poverty. The song, and pretty soon the whole album, put everything I was feeling into words. I wanted to hear everything Green Day ever made at the point, and eventually I did. But then I grew up, went off to college and then a master's program, faced more disasters in my family, and eventually found myself lost on the path I had pursued. While my love for Green Day never went away, it was much farther from my mind during those years. I found my way back to Green Day shortly before the start of the pandemic. I finally had made a decision to get off the path I was on and pursue what was in my heart, and as part of that, I ended up pulling out American Idiot again. This was also during the lead-up to Father of All, so I soon found myself going full bore down the fandom rabbit hole again. My passion for Green Day helped sustain me through the pandemic, through my father's open heart surgery, and into my dream PhD program, which I am now halfway through. Green Day aided my healing journey, and I am now happier than I have ever been and living the life I always wanted. And it all started with American Idiot."


Pepper, 33

"Green Day has been a massive part of my life for the last 20 years. I was 13 when I heard American Idiot for the first time, and I credit that song for breaking the brainwashing of my conservative parents. I got to see them live at the Home Depot Arena for their tour, and got the chance to fall in love with Flogging Molly, who has been a favorite ever sense. I still have the beanie from the concert somewhere. Thank you, the three of you, for changing my life."


Maria, 29, Nottingham, England

"I still remember the day I discovered Green Day: April 7th, 2007. I was 12 years old, alone at home, looking at ‘blends’ on Piczo and I scrolled past a Fall Out Boy one, but the lyrics on the next one intrigued me: ‘I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known…’

My house was usually silent except for video game music at the time. No-one wanted to be reminded of my abusive dad who was a DJ. I almost felt like I was doing something wrong when I typed in ‘greenday I walk alone’ on radio.blog.club.

But this song was unlike anything my dad played. I liked the soundtracks to my video games, but I couldn’t really relate to an incompetent detective agency employed by Dr. Eggman. I could relate to this. I was a lonely emo preteen being called everything from ‘terrorist’ to ‘sand [n-word]’ and being ‘stoned’ because ‘P*kis deserve it’ at school, so of course my heart leapt when I heard a beautiful voice singing ‘sometimes I wish someone out there would find me.’ And as I played it again and again, I felt like someone had found me. I felt understood. I felt like I mattered.

The next song I listened to was Wake Me Up When September Ends. I could relate to that, too, wishing I could just sleep through my troubles and wake up when they were over. I didn’t really get the title track, but I enjoyed playing it loud when my mum was out and so quietly I could barely hear it when she was at home. I watched the music video over and over just because it was cool. I cried to Whatsername like having a crush on Shadow the Hedgehog was actually soul-destroying, because the song painted such a visceral picture that I could feel something I’d never known. Holiday and Letterbomb were rousing anthems that made quiet little me want to stand up for myself and leave my town for a place where I’d feel human. My mum bought me Bullet in a Bible first, then American Idiot and I listened to them over and over, blasting them through my Canada 3000 headphones from the charity shop.

Seeing that incredible album transformed into a Broadway musical will forever be one of my most cherished memories. I’ll never forget listening to Are We the Waiting from Row F in the St. James Theatre and feeling the whole album like I’d never felt it before. The city lights of New York were coming down over me, skyscrapers, stargazers in my head, and Nottingham was the dirty town burning down in my dreams. I had found the place where I felt more than human; the place that taught me that I’d still matter even when I went home. And I’ll never forget looking up at Billie Joe as St. Jimmy with tears in my eyes as he sang ‘you taught me how to live.’ I can still recall exactly how my heart glowed as I thought, ‘wow, mate, you really, really did,’ because honestly, American Idiot did teach me how to live. I’d be a completely different person if I’d never heard it. I don’t know if I’d even be alive.


My American Idiot on Broadway tattoo

Now I’m 29, I no longer want to burn down my town, but I’ll scream ‘I’m leaving you tonight’ at the top of my lungs. I can still feel how I felt at 16, watching the scene when Johnny and friends board the bus to the big city in Holiday, and I can still feel how I felt when recalled that at 19, holding the National Express ticket that was my own great escape. However, it’s Homecoming I can really relate to now. I’m lucky to live in a privileged country and for better or worse, it’s home. Shadow the Hedgehog has been replaced by a real Whatsername. Maria’s Version goes ‘I ran away and then you took a different path,’ but damn, it ‘seems like forever ago’ and there’ll always be a time when I wake up in the ‘darkest night’ and remember it all (too well). My grandpa basically raised me in place of my dad, so of course, Wake Me Up When September Ends was the song that comforted me when he died. 'As my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost.'

So many Green Day songs represent completely different things to me now, but when I heard the first chords of American Idiot in Lyon this year, I was my 12 year-old self again – and I couldn’t believe my ears and eyes. My dream had come true. I was still alive and I wasn’t just hearing the title track. I was hearing the whole album live in full, standing on the front row when there was no way I could’ve stood in the pit at my early shows. And I wasn’t just hearing the album, I was reliving all it had ever meant to me in the best way possible.

I’d overplayed Boulevard of Broken Dreams to the point I didn’t remember the last time I willingly listened to it until I got home from Lyon. I couldn’t have imagined that song ever moving me again, but hearing the intro played as it’s played on the album – on Bullet in a Bible – did something to my soul. I’m actually playing it a lot now, reliving everything just through that one song.

And finally, I don’t think there could have been a more full circle moment than Billie Joe taking my England flag in Holiday at the Isle of Wight Festival. That flag started going to shows with me in Paris in 2010, and Holiday was my anthem in the years I felt like I didn’t belong in England. It’s tough shit for the people who made me feel that way, because I am English, and I handed our flag to my favourite band on national television.

I usually say that 21st Century Breakdown is the album that changed my life, and in many ways it is, but it all started with American Idiot. 'You taught me how to live,' indeed."


Roxana, Mexico

"At 12 years old, practically still a child, I felt very lost. I was utterly alone most of the time, misunderstood, never felt like I belong anywhere. I used to cry myself to sleep every night. I was confused and sad. It was 2005 and I couldn’t understand what I was going through. Then, I discovered American Idiot. It was the album that introduced me to Green Day and completely changed my life. I remember listening to Boulevard of Broken Dreams on MTV for the very first time that year. There was something about the song that caught my attention like nothing before. I saw the song’s credits and immediately went to the record store to buy the album.

When I first got home with American Idiot in my hands, I was completely fascinated by the cover, the booklet and everything about the design. This was an album like I had never seen. I played the full record without interruptions, and I can certainly say that my life changed that day. I discovered passion, rage, love, a punk rock opera that was opening the doors to a whole new world I didn’t know. While listening to it daily I slowly began to discover myself. I started changing and owning my personality. I became braver about raising my voice, I found my personal style, and I discovered so much new music that my life became a soundtrack. But I think, most importantly, Green Day gave me a place where I belonged. I felt less alone because the album was with me, the music was keeping me company, the lyrics were talking to me.

Of course, I dug into all the other Green Day albums as fast as I could. I started eating and breathing Green Day daily. I became completely obsessed with them and now, I can proudly say I have been a huuuuuge fan for over 20 years. American Idiot and Green Day gave me some kind of power I never thought I could possess. It was a gateway to finding my own voice, and I will forever be thankful to the band for this masterpiece that still gives me the chills whenever I play it in full.

I am eager, to say the least, to experience it live. I can’t wait for the date of the show to arrive. Thank you, Green Day, for changing my life."


greenalert997x, Poland

"I got to know Green Day in 2010, 21st Century Breakdown era. I became a fan upon knowing only Holiday, American Idiot, Know Your Enemy, 21 Guns. I remember listening to Holiday on repeat, I loved this song so much. Shortly afterward I downloaded GD discography. The whole craziness started.

There is not a single American Idiot song that I don't like. The album is just a milestone, an instant classic...

But the thing is, it's not about the songs only. It's a about the game-changing image, fashion – new hairstyle, Billie's eyeliner, suit and red tie. American Idiot is not just an album. it's a perfect multilayered project. No wonder so many people got into it."


Joy, England

"I'm Joy in the UK and I can legitimately retire next year - that’s how old I am! I’ve loved all kinds of music all my life, everything, even some classical music and I’ve been going to rock concerts since I was a kid. I had a subscription to Britannia Music and I kept seeing Green Day’s early albums in there. I was always up for trying something new and kept hovering over it but never actually took the plunge.

My love of music in some ways led me into an ill-advised relationship. When I finally realised after 20 years that it was abusive and it was behind me, I just couldn’t listen to anything. Everything reminded me of it. My daughter wouldn’t even have known that I ever loved music because she never heard me listening to anything.

Then in 2007 she started talking about Green Day. The first song she played me was Boulevard of Broken Dreams. I told her that Billie had a nice voice. She kept asking me to listen to the other music on her Piczo site so I heard Whatsername and absolutely loved it. It wasn’t what I expected at all. After I bought her American Idiot I could hear the cowbell in Homecoming through her headphones. She eventually said she loved that song so much she had to play it to me even though she thought I’d say it was 'just noise.' I actually loved that too. I don’t remember exactly how I came to hear Give Me Novacaine, but I just fell in love with Green Day then. It was completely fresh and untarnished. I felt like I was “allowed” to listen to music again and I’ve never looked back.

My daughter and I were in a shit situation as a single parent family – I was desperately trying to keep a roof over our heads and she was being bullied terribly, but then we went to see Green Day together and it was an escape. We’d never had a holiday but we made it our mission to get to more shows and saw things we’d never dreamed of like the Grand Canyon because we went to see Green Day. It gave us something to strive for and enjoy together.

So basically, American Idiot gave me music back. I’ve discovered new music through Green Day and reconnected with songs I used to love."


Elex

"The first song I heard on American Idiot was Wake Me Up When September Ends and it made me cry. It reminds me of the innocence that people lose at a point in their life. The pain they go through, growing up."


Elaine, 17, Arizona, USA

"I remember hearing Wake Me up When September Ends on the radio in 2018, when I was 11. I had heard Green Day on the radio before, but had never paid any special attention to them until that particular day. About a week later I remember sitting in my living room and listening to a 'Green Day Greatest Hits Compilation' on YouTube and crudely drawing Billie Joe in my sketchbook. I really loved their music because it wasn't like anything I had ever really heard before. This feeling was further exemplified when I listened to American Idiot for the first time, on a CD that my mom bought when it came out, and just having this visceral feeling about it. I had never enjoyed music that much before and I wasn't really aware that making music with a message and story like that was even an option. I remember listening to Wake Me up When September Ends and 21 Guns on the way to and from school everyday. My dad got pretty sick of those songs. Almost 6 years later, I'm a senior in high school and am analyzing American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown for my Art Portfolio class. I'm seeing GD for the third time in Phoenix in September."


Erika

"My big sister bought me my first CD in 2000, in a used record store when I was 10. It was Dookie, one of the original releases with Ernie on the back cover. I listened to each of the following albums, and got American Idiot on my birthday on 2004. My dad took me to see them live in February that calendar year. So much nostalgia got packed into my life, from the album, to the tour, to starting at a new school, listening to Homecoming on my portable CD player when I'd deliver papers. So much heart packed into my life, and this was the soundtrack to it all. When I'm listening to it, I feel like a kid again, and it's why I keep coming back."


rpr_86

"I was 9 years old in 2006. My best friend at the time came to school singing 'don’t wanna be an American Idiot.' I was shocked by the fact that a song that had the word 'idiot' in it, and he explained to me that it was a song from this great rock band called Green Day. I borrowed his older brother’s copy of the album and took it home to listen to it with a pair of big headphones my dad used with the computer. As soon as the very first chord came in my brain exploded. 'What the fuck is THIS?!' The title track ended and I just couldn’t believe it: it was so fast, so raw, so in-your-face. My mom came to the room so she could supervise what I was listening to and we heard Boulevard of Broken Dreams together for the first time ever. She liked it and approved the whole record.

I always say that American Idiot was my musical epiphany. Ever since I listened to it I started loving music as an expression, an experience and a way to connect with my feelings and thoughts. I’m a huge music fan now and I owe it in great scale to Green Day. These three weirdoes have been the soundtrack of my whole life; their music is like my best friend nowadays. I will always be grateful for that, and Jesus of Suburbia will always be my favorite song of all time."


thatajs

"I became a mom at 18 in 2002, so when American Idiot came out, I was 20 and had a 2 year-old girl. I didn't want to marry her father, my dad never forgave me for the 'shame I brought upon the family,' so my mom divorced him and the three of us – my mom, me and my daughter – faced the world having only each other. I've been a HUGE Green Day fan since 1998, and listening to American Idiot at that particular time was like a relief to all the loneliness I was feeling. I had no friends, and although I didn't quit college, people didn't like me because I was a single mother. So my daughter and I used to spend a lot of time at home listening to Green Day, watching the video clips and concert videos. I graduated, got a great job and made great friends along the way. In 2017, when my daughter was 15, we went to a Green Day concert together, and I just had that feeling that everything worked out just fine. Full circle."


Lenny, Canada

"In the summer of ‘02 I moved houses and basically spent the entire time on kid friendly internet chats and forums where kids debated Green Day vs. Blink all summer long. I knew of Green Day briefly but was more interested in prog rock, classic rock and 70s punk at the time. I did listen to some Sum 41 and Jimmy Eat World at the time though so I had a reference point.

2 years later, I’m 12 studying multiple instruments but can’t seem to find a modern band that is my own that I can look up to and then the American Idiot music video is on while I flip on my TV. My jaw dropped and I stood there completely shook.

I go back into my comfort zone and 2 months later I hear Boulevard of Broken Dreams on TV again and 'oh shit, it’s these guys again!' Holiday comes out and where I camped in the summer it was played during dances and it became a ritual for all of us there. Wake Me Up When September Ends dropped. I heard it during a Hurricane Katrina tribute and I bought the album.

Then I land on Jesus of Suburbia and Bullet in a Bible. It just got incrementally more influential. My friends had older siblings and they introduced me to Dookie. Burnout made me flip shit for all the right reasons. Then I got International Superhits. Then I got into Kerplunk and 39/Smooth via online fansites and the Pinole Valley High School show.

In that time I also saw VH1 Storytellers, AOL Sessions and many, many other features of Green Day, whether it was the Grammys or some local show. It just got incrementally better and better the more I worked backwards and at the same time my playing became better and it gave me a reference point to become a creative musician.

For me they were the perfect mix of that modern influence I needed, punk rock and classic rock."


Maria, 29, Wiltshire, England

"I remember hearing Wake Me Up When September Ends at my primary school disco in 2005 at 9 years old. My knowledge of music at that time consisted of music my parents listened to (classical and church music, and occasional Simon & Garfunkel). I remember thinking how magnificent and melodic Green Day sounded and I was really surprised that ‘heavier’ music existed.

It wasn’t until late 2007 I got into Green Day properly and became captivated. They spoke to me in a way no other music ever had and all the emotional trauma I had been dealing with at that time became a little easier because of Green Day.

In 2010, I begged my mum to let me paint my bedroom like the Jesus of Suburbia music video and she let me, provided I kept it restricted to my room. It took 2 weeks in the summer holidays and it became my masterpiece. I cut up sponges to carefully create the white rectangles for each letter and cut out stencils (which I still have) out of paper. I couldn’t order spray paint online as I was under 18 so I had to go with my mum to a shop and buy the spray paint. I was meticulous and insisted the colours had to be the perfect red and pure black. My bedroom became somewhere I could hide – a safe haven. It was my own place where I could be myself in a world that didn’t understand.

Every night from 2008 to 2011 when I came home from school, I would watch Bullet In A Bible on my tiny pink TV (which we switched for a silver one when I re-did my room) and dream of seeing or meeting my heroes. I would finish watching it and then restart it so the show wouldn’t have ‘ended’ and then pause it right before Longview. It was a coping ritual and Green Day helped me in ways I don’t think I’ll ever be able to properly explain. They saved my life.

I’ve seen Green Day 15 times since then and every time is different. I’ve had the opportunity to met Billie Joe and Mike twice and Tré three times; I got to talk and joke with them and now their autographs are complete on my arm. Seeing American Idiot in full on the Saviors tour was like a religious experience. American Idiot was on repeat when I first got into them – so much so that the CD is super scratched now – and hearing all the songs live was such a beautiful and cathartic experience.

My life has changed so much since then, and Green Day helped me through it. I didn’t think I would live this long and I’m here. I’m still breathing."



Thank you to everyone who shared their story with us! Reading them all has been the best kind of emotional experience. It's incredible to see how similar yet different our experiences are. I hope Green Day will continue to inspire us and new fans for many more years to come.

Some of the stories were trimmed for this article. If you'd like to read even more or share your own story, join us on Green Day Community! Also check out GDA editor kaylubd's story about her journey with American Idiot.