Green Day make 'greatest video'

Green Day have finally made a video for their nine-minute, five-part epic ‘Jesus Of Suburbia’.

Director Sam Bayer, who has handled all the videos from the ‘American Idiot’ album, let the cat out of the bag, telling MTV: “I’m gonna say that the greatest Green Day video that’s ever been done has been shot and I have it.

“A lot of people say that ‘Jesus Of Suburbia’ is their favourite song, and maybe this is the conversation that destroys my relationship with Green Day (for talking about it), but talk to the guys about it because it is the most powerful…wow, I feel weird saying this stuff. It’s a cool video. It’s done. Yes there is a ‘Jesus Of Suburbia’ video.”

‘Jesus Of Suburbia’ is the second track on ‘American Idiot’, and was the experiment that led to the rock opera concept for their smash album. But it is not yet clear whether the track will be released as a conventional single.

Following Bayer’s casting of Jamie Bell and Evan Rachel Wood in ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’, the new 14-minute clip features actor Lou Taylor Pucci in the leading role.

Pressed for further details, Billie Joe Armstrong joked: “It’s the new ‘Thriller’. ‘Jesus Of Suburbia’ is really a long song, so already it’s quite a task. You can’t think of it as making a video, but a short film, and that’s what Sam did. There’s dialogue. It follows the story of the song more so than the other videos from ‘American Idiot’.”

He continued: “We didn’t know if we wanted to switch directors from song to song, it just worked so well with Sam , it just seemed like he was really progressive with his ideas. There is a thread with all the videos, as with the album.

“They don’t look alike, but there’s something that ties them all together. We did the same with Mark Kohr on ‘Dookie’. We like loyalty with video directors.”

Bayer, who directed the seminal clip for Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', has a final cut clocking in at 14 minutes, but is expected to also provide a shorter, music-only edit.