Green Day say that they’re inspired by their fans’ ‘expectations of them to be great’, as they discuss what goes into putting the setlist together of their upcoming tour. Watch our video interview with the band above.
The band’s ‘Revolution Radio‘ has seen them delight fans by playing favourites and rarities – some of which haven’t been played live in 15-20 years. Is that what we can expect when they hit the road in the UK, Europe and US in the year ahead?
“You know it’s great, we’re playing songs off ‘Nimrod’, ‘Kerplunk’, the new record, ‘American Idiot’, songs that are off ‘Insomniac’ that we haven’t played in over 20 years,” frontman Billie Joe Armstrong told NME. “We played these shows for the hardcore fans in the theatres and clubs and we just had a blast, and you could tell because the energy in the crowd was energising us.”
“They expect us to be great, and we have to live up to that. We just put as much passion as we can into what we do. We write the record together, we make the record together, and it’s our record at the point. When it’s finished, on the day it gets released, it doesn’t belong to us any more. It belongs to the fans.”
Mike Dirnt added: “We have a thing where either we’ll work it out at soundcheck, or we’ll just make a mess, make something memorable happen on the spot. That’s the one thing about this band – we just jump into stuff, even if it’s in the middle of a show.
The band also spoke to NME about the fate of the material recorded for ‘lost’ and unreleased album ‘Cigarettes And Valentines’ – written, recorded and scrapped before they made ‘American’ Idiot’. They also gave us an update on progress on the long-awaited ‘American Idiot’ movie – claiming that it will be ‘surreal and offensive’.
They also spoke about the mood in America after Donald Trump’s election win – revealing that it ‘feels like there’s been a death in the family’.
The band return to the UK to tour in early 2017, performing at Leeds First Direct Arena 5 February, Manchester Arena (6) and London O2 Arena (8) – and will headline British Summer Time Festival at Hyde Park in London on Saturday 1 July.