Billie Joe Armstrong
(taken from http://www.greenday.net/)
Full Name : Billie Joe Armstrong
Plays : Vocals, Guitar
Born : February 17, 1972
Family : wife, Adrienne ( Nesser, married July 1994); son, Joseph Marciano (born March 1995); son, Jacob Danger (born September 1998)
Also Plays : Harmonica, Mandolin, Drums, Piano
Has Also Played With : Pinhead Gunpowder, Blatz, Rancid, the Lookouts, Goodbye Harry, Corrupted Morals
Billie Joe was the youngest of six kids in a working-class family in Rodeo, California. His father was a truck driver and part time jazz musician who died of cancer when Billie Joe was ten, his mother a waitress and diehard country music fan. As a child, Billie would sing at hospitals to cheer patients up. He also recorded a song called "Look For Love" for the locally based Fiat Records when he was five. The first album Billie Joe bought was Elvis Presley's The Sun Sessions. Soon after a couple friends got him hooked on punk bands like DOA, TSOL, and the Dead Kennedys. At age eleven, Billie got his first guitar, a blue Stratocaster that he plays to this day. He wrote his first song, "Why Do You Want Him", when he was 14. Billie Joe is the co-founder and partial owner of the independant label Adeline Records.
Billie Joe's favorite and most famous guitar is a Fernandes Stratocaster copy he called "Blue". It has two single-coil pick-ups and a Seymour Duncan "Jeff Beck" humbucker pick-up in the bridge position, but he only plays through the humbucker pickup. He has since had a copy of "Blue" made by Fender. It is exactly the same as the original one, but with different stickers on it. He also has a Fender Jazzmaster, a sonic blue Fender Jagstang, a Gibson Classic Series ES-135 and ES-335, an SG, a Rickenbacker, and a Guild sunburst acoustic. Billie Joe mainly uses a clone of his original 1959 Marshall 100W SLP modified amplifier, with 1960 4x12" Marshall Cabinets. He has also used Fender Bassman, Hiwatt, and Leslie amps. Billie mainly uses green, custom made Dunlop Tortex Standard .88mm picks, Ernie Ball .10 strings, and GHS Boomers.
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