Green Day doesn't act like a band that has sold more than 15 million albums. They refuse to associate themselves with rock's elite class, even though their major-label debut, Dookie, has matched the sales figures of such records as Madonna's Like a Virgin, Eric Clapton's Unplugged, U2's The Joshua Tree, and Van Halen's 1984. Then again, few bands with a punk rock pedigree ever attain enough sales to go gold, let alone platinum. Mocking the trappings of celebrity, Green Day singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool remain true to the punk ethics they've held dear ever since they were playing small clubs like 924 Gilman in their hometown of Berkeley, California. * Green Day's decision to join the lineup for the summer 2000 Vans Warped tour, playing alongside the Long Beach Dub Allstars, NOFX, Jurassic 5, MXPX, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and many others, displays the band's convictions. Having just emerged from a two-year hiatus, the band could have staged their comeback with a well-hyped headline tour that hit every major outdoor shed and arena in the United States. Instead, the members quietly opted to join a multiple-band festival package where they could share the stage with bands they respect and love. * "This is the Warped tour, not a Green Day tour," says Dirnt. "We might help sell a lot of tickets, but this tour is for all the bands involved. That is what's so great about it. The promoters treat everyone equally, and they're being really fair. We'll probably be playing in the middle of the afternoon, which will give us a good chance to see a lot of the other bands play." * This is not the first time Green Day has played in a multiband festival setting. In 1994, the band accepted the opening time slot at that year's Lollapalooza Festival. Ironically, Dookie rocketed up the charts just before the tour started, and by the time the first Lollapalooza show came around, Green Day was the hottest-selling act on the tour. Even though most bands experiencing such success would probably have demanded a spot on the bill closer to the headlining acts, Green Day humbly kept their time slot, often playing to half-empty venues while the audience filed in.

Later the same summer, in the middle of the Lollapalooza tour, Green Day appeared at the 25th Anniversary Woodstock Festival. Facing a combination of boisterous supporters and vicious detractors who were waiting to see bands like Metallica and Nine Inch Nails, the band played while a massive mud fight broke out. The members' attempts to dodge flying debris proved futile, but the band remained determined to put in the best performance possible. Despite the less-than-ideal gigging conditions, Green Day won over thousands of new fans who witnessed their tenacity via a live television broadcast of the event.

Since those gigs, Green Day has primarily played in small to midsize venues. Although the band has appeared at several large outdoor radio station-sponsored concerts, they are more likely to make a surprise appearance at a small club or theater. "There is a certain intimacy you get when you play in front of a small audience," said Dirnt. "But in the big shows, an immense collective energy happens. It's a contrast to playing shows where you can see every face all the way to the back of the crowd. It's apples and oranges-both types of shows have a lot to offer. Our thing is a matter of mixing it up and playing anywhere and everywhere."

We spoke with Dirnt as Green Day was completing work on a new record, their fourth effort on Reprise, titled Warning. Although the band hadn't scheduled Warning to come out until fall, they decided to fly in the face of music industry custom and tour before the release. "I can't wait to get out there," says Dirnt. "I feel like one of those old Evel Knievel dolls-wound up and ready to get out of control."

Why did Green Day decide to do the Vans Warped tour instead of headlining their own tour? It's a great tour. It's done really well over the years, and it's always put together a great lineup-almost all punk bands. We like to tour with punk bands, and previously we've brought quite a few good ones with us on the road, like the Riverdales, Pansy Division, Tilt, and the Hi-Fives. We got asked to do the Warped tour several times before, but we always missed it, either because we were doing our own tour or we scheduled something else in advance. I haven't even been able to see the show. It's such a bargain that if you don't go, you're an idiot. It doesn't cater entirely to the mainstream audience, so you can still say it's cool. It's also nice to see skateboarders uniting for anything.

You've done big multiple-band tours before, such as Lollapalooza. How was that experience? Lollapalooza was our first taste of being huge in the States. It was a very chaotic time for us. It was weird, because we were the opening act. We had just come back from Europe, and at that point we had sold more albums than anyone else on the tour. The staff would get mad at us because people were rushing the stage. It was a catch-22. It took the other bands a while to warm up to us, but once they did, it was cool. They realized we weren't dicks. It was fun and I enjoyed it, but-to quote Les Claypool-it was a traveling barbecue. The day after the show it looked like some white-trash carnival came through town. But we reacted well with the crowd. Billie would hop offstage and run all the way to the very back of the amphitheater.

How did it feel to go from playing small clubs late at night to doing outdoor shows in the early afternoon? I like playing during the day. I hate playing too late because I get tired. I'm a bit of an insomniac, and I wake up early every morning. I hate yawning before I go onstage. It drives me nuts. In the middle of the afternoon, you don't have to plan around your energy. I have all my energy early in the day. When we're going on at 10:30 at night after two other bands, I have to reserve my energy. Whenever we play late, I spend a lot of the day bored, waiting to do the show.

One of the advantages of doing the Warped tour is the opportunity to see a lot of other bands play. Exactly. I hope all the bands on this tour are ready to have as much fun as we are. Everyone should be in it for the same reasons: to create good music and to have fun. If you're playing good music but you're not in it to have fun, then what the hell are you doing? You have to enjoy yourself.

The only thing I don't like about going on tour is being away from my kid. I can't wait until she gets to the age where she can come out and enjoy it, too. But playing music is really fun-I love my job.

The tour is coming right on the heels of finishing the album. How are you going to handle rehearsals? Life is full of challenges. You just stare them straight in the eye and walk forward. That's all you can do. None of us sleep much because we're workaholics, but we love what we do. Don't get me wrong-we're full of stress, too. Every week something breaks, but the band never breaks, and that's what's important.

What was the most intimidating audience you've ever faced? Before we had broken in Europe or the United States, we opened for Die Toten Hosen in Germany in front of 10,000 to 15,000 people. When we started to play, the audience would start chanting "Hosen! Hosen!" Their fans were die-hard and had no idea who we were. We'd go on, and we couldn't stop playing. Eventually we got the crowd into us. Die Toten Hosen told us we were the first band that didn't get booed off the stage. Later on, the band came to the United States and opened a few shows for us.

How did you win the crowd over? When you're playing for a crowd that doesn't speak English, you can't just B.S. your way out of the situation. It comes down to the energy you're putting out in your performance, the kind of songs you're playing, and what you're doing musically. That's when your skills as a musician really become important. You have to stretch the musical aspect of your show to its limits. Even if you're just playing guitar, bass, and drums, you have to find the boundaries and stretch them.

Do you keep your set list open for situations like that? We don't have set lists. We haven't had a set list since 1990, although we thought about bringing them back on the last tour because our set got to be about an hour and 40 minutes long. We like to leave it open. We'll stop and play anything at any time. Sometimes it takes us all a minute to figure out what's going on. I remember once we started to play "Song 80" off Kerplunk. We were playing it totally wrong, so we had to stop and start over again. That showed us how long it had been since we played that song. We've recorded over 100 songs now.

Do you practice a lot of those songs when you're rehearsing for a tour? Sometimes. One song we'll start off with is "Don't Leave Me," which is on our first record [1039]. It has a good energy. When we come out onstage, we'll go balls out and act like total nuts and idiots. That's probably when we're playing our worst, because that's when we're our most nervous and filled with stage fright. Once you get through the worst part, you can work your way through the rest of the show and see where you're at with the crowd. I'm nervous in every show we play. Somebody asked me if I don't feel nervous anymore, but I told him the day I need to be scared of is the day when I don't feel nervous. If that should happen, it means I've gotten too cocky, and that's not part of my personality.

How do you decide what songs to play onstage? We usually have a couple of songs we play that run into each other, like "Chump" and "Longview" or "Brain Stew" and "Jaded." We do that on our records, so we do that live too. We figure out the order of songs we want to play while we're on tour, and it will usually stay that way for a while. Sometimes we'll put a break in a song, where Tre and I will go off on a tangent for 20 minutes and Billie just croons the whole time. A lot depends on Billie's shtick for the show, if he's got one.

Working within a trio must put some limitations on how much you can improvise. Actually, it gives us more freedom. If Billie stops playing guitar, I can go off on a jazz line and Tre can follow me. I can go everywhere on the bass while Billie's running around onstage doing whatever. When he comes back in, I can lock right up with him. It opens me up, because I get to play more lead bass than I do when I'm backing Billie up. From my side of the stage it's a little easier.

You tend to play melodies on the bass instead of the usual root and fifth lines a lot of bassists play. Songs you really remember tend to have countermelodies in the bass. I don't want to remember all that old Fleetwood Mac shit, but I do. The dude was playing his bass! Listen to the first Guns N' Roses record-it's right there. Duff was doing his job. I must have listened to that stuff a little closer when I was a kid. There are really great bass lines in songs by the Pretenders and Tom Petty.

I never really listened to records and tried to figure out songs when I was learning to play. The first time I tried that was when I was 23. It's half from laziness and half from liking to play my guitar serendipitously. The music I listen to also influences me. I have a 45 collection, and I'll deejay at parties with nothing but 45s. I'm inspired by everything from the Cars and Blondie to Etta James. I really like new wave, and I always have. There's a cool sensibility behind it I've always enjoyed. They often tried to get an eerie feeling with the music. I'm always looking for that kind of gut-wrenching mood.

When I first started playing, a band called Crimpshrine was a big influence on me. The bass player, Pete Rypins, is a good friend of mine. We still play together, and he's a much better bass player than I am. It's my favorite band to this day. I suggest you check out their record Duct Tape Soup.

Your volume level onstage must get pretty loud. Eleven. Is there another answer?

How do you handle monitoring with all the mayhem onstage? We get by somehow. A lot of people tell us, "Oh, you should wear earplugs," but if I wear earplugs I can't hear the vocals at all. God forbid I should ever lose my hearing. Hopefully someone up there is looking out for me, because I'm using my hearing for a good purpose. I keep my amps pretty friggin' loud, but it's not like I'm pumping out excessive volume levels. I have two amps onstage, but that's not for increasing volume. Amps are pretty unidirectional, so if you move four feet to the right or left, the sound starts to disappear on you. I use the extra amp to widen my field onstage.

What's your current onstage bass setup? I use three Mesa/Boogie amps, each tuned individually for the crispest sound [see the sidebar "Green Day's Gear"]. Mesa/Boogie made some custom 6 x 10 cabinets for me-its first 6 x 10 cabinets ever. Now Mesa/Boogie carries them in its line. I use two 6 x 10 cabinets, and each one sits on top of a single 18-inch speaker cabinet, which helps me feel what I'm playing.

I use Fender P-Basses made by Alex Perez and several vintage P-Basses. I customize all of my guitars. I'll take the pickups out and go through ten different Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups until I get the one that has the perfect 2 kHz sound. Out of every ten pickups I get, one or two is just right.

Most people don't know that women make 90 percent of all pickups. They have smaller hands, so they can work with more detail and efficiency. Some of these women have been wrapping pickups for years and years, and they have the style. I found out a while ago that women make most guitars-even the bodies and necks. So if you think about it, the heart of the guitar is fully influenced by a woman. It's a beautiful thing. That's my way of living vicariously-it's the only way my girlfriend is going to let me get my hands on another woman.

What do you listen to onstage to keep your place? I listen for cymbal hits. If I hear a cymbal hit, I have to be in the air [laughs]. Billie and Tre turn to each other to count the songs off, but they never turn to me. Tre and I follow Billie, but being a three-piece, we're all out there on Broadway by ourselves, too.

Will you be doing your own shows after the Warped tour? We're putting together another tour right now. We want to find the right band to open for us. There are a lot of interesting bands coming up. I like a lot of things-to coin a phrase, "I ain't a hater." I want to get out there and hear what's good and new. We're getting a list together to see who is available, then what kind of package we can put together. We could do our own thing, or we could put together a bigger package with a lot of other bands.

One of the secrets of Green Day's success and longevity seems to be the fact that all three of you are good friends. Billie and I have been playing music together since fifth grade-that's almost 18 years. That's longer than a lot of the biggest bands in the world ever lasted. How long were the Beatles together, about ten years? As far as career scope goes, I think the Rolling Stones are the pinnacle-[that band] managed to reinvent themselves without changing too much. [Their success] was really just a matter of writing good songs. Ultimately what it comes down to for us is whether we please ourselves and write good songs.

Chris Gill is the Los Angeles-based editor of Remix. He also writes for Revolver and Guitar World and is the author of Guitar Legends (HarperCollins, 1995).

Billie Joe Armstrong, guitar and lead vocals

Guitars: 2 Fender Stratocasters fitted with humbucking pickups

Amps: 2 Marshall JMP MkII amplifier heads 2 Marshall 9200 Dual Monobloc or 8008 Valvestate power amps 4 Marshall 1960B 4 x 2 speaker cabinets

Additional gear: Custom Audio Electronics 3+ SE tube preamp Custom Audio Electronics amp switcher

Vocal mic: Shure SM58

Amp cabinet mics: Shure Beta 52 and Beta 56, beyerdynamic MC-740

Tre Cool, drums

Slingerland Spitfire or Tama Star Classic drum set consisting of:

22" bass drum (Powerstroke 3 heads, no hole on front head)

14" (W) x 11" (D) rack tom with rim mount (top: coated Emperor head, bottom: clear Ambassador head)

18" (W) x 18" (D) floor tom (top: coated Emperor head, bottom: clear Ambassador head)

14" (W) x 6" (D) snare drum (Powerstroke 3 head with white dot)

14" hi-hat cymbals (K top, Z bottom)

Cymbals: 19" K Zildjian dark thin crash cymbal 19" Avedis Zildjian medium thin crash cymbal 22" K Zildjian heavy ride cymbal

Kit mics: Shure SM91s (kick, hi-hat, ride, crash) Shure SM98s (rack and floor toms) Shure SM57s (snare, top and bottom) Shure Beta 52 (kick)

Mike Dirnt, bass (see Fig. A)

Basses: 1969 Fender Precision 1965 Fender Precision Gibson G-3 several Fender Custom Shop Precisions

Amps: 3 Mesa/Boogie M-2000 bass amplifiers 2 Mesa/Boogie 1 x 18 speaker cabinets 2 Mesa/Boogie 6 x 10 speaker cabinets

Additional gear: Mesa/Boogie amp switcher Evil Twin DI box

Amp cabinet mics: Shure Beta 57A, (or Beta 52 or Beta 56)

www.greenday.com This is the place to go for Green Day news, merchandise, and videos. What's more, you can sign up for the Idiot Club-and you might even become Idiot of the Month!

www.repriserec.com/greenday The band's official label site, full of all kinds of cool stuff. You can sign up for the Idiot Club here, too.