Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong: "I'm uncomfortable with how fucked-up social media has become"
Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong has opened up about his views on fame and social media.
The frontman admitted that he is not comfortable with fame or having his picture taken by anyone other than fans.
He told Kerrang!: “Sometimes it’s great – when I’m able to communicate with fans and people are cool, and when people get something out of the music and you make these connections.
“But I think the thing that makes it uncomfortable is how fucked-up social media has become, and how everyone’s got a camera in their pocket now. There are a lot of people out there who aren’t fans who just wanna be guilty by association or something. They wanna hold you in their pocket as a souvenir. And I think that sometimes that’s the part that gets annoying.”
Armstrong added: “I don’t like my picture being taken with people. It’s fine with fans – and I can always tell when someone is a genuine fan. But then there are people where you’re just sitting there in your fuckin’ sweats and they just want to get a piece of you for their own ego. That’s the part that I’m uncomfortable with – when you’re in compromised situations. But it’s par for the course, and I have to kind of wrestle with it a little bit.”
He also opened about mental health issues he has experienced throughout his life.
“I feel like I started going through a mid-life crisis when I was 20, because I didn’t think I was gonna live that long! It’s something that’s always been in my head. Whether it’s people dealing with PTSD or… like, everybody’s got a part of their brain that is neurotic, or maybe even paranoid, or bi-polar, or they have a personality disorder,” Armstrong explained.
“The punk rock scene, for me, was a scene of all these people with personality disorders coming together a lot of the time. And I didn’t really realise that until later on. If you’re into punk and hard rock, it kinda mellows people out. In a way, it’s the antidote for really troubled people.
“And I think that maybe Green Day is kind of the same way: I sing about a lot of anguish and despair – but I try to do it in a funny way. And I think that’s maybe what’s relatable about it… I don’t know. It’s just being real.”
Meanwhile, Yungblug today (August 5) revealed how Green Day inspired his latest single ‘Strawberry Lipstick’.
For help and advice on mental health:
- ‘Am I depressed?‘ – Help and advice on mental health and what to do next
- Help Musicians UK – Around the clock mental health support and advice for musicians
- Music Support Org – Help and support for musicians struggling with alcoholism, addiction, or mental health issues
- YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
- CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably for young men
- Time To Change – Let’s end mental health discrimination
- The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day
