Green Day have spoken to NME about their longtime relationship with Courtney Love and revealed if they have plans to announce more surprise live shows across London. Watch our video interview with the band above.
It was during the red carpet for the BRIT Awards 2024 that frontman Billie Joe Armstrong and drummer Tré Cool caught up with NME – ahead of presenting the Best British Group Award at the ceremony (and being controversially described as “the British Busted“).
“It’s fun for us. There’s no pressure, we don’t have to do anything really except for this! Talk to people, hang out, watch other people throw up, slip in it, fall down, and then we get to laugh!” said Tré Cool of being invited to the ceremony.
Their appearance at the awards also came off the heels of Armstrong performing two intimate shows across London earlier that week, breaking out some covers of iconic rock songs as part of The Coverups and bringing out Hole star Courtney Love during both shows.
“Playing at The 100 Club is legendary. We go in, play a bunch of covers. We do it at home, mostly for our friends, and I just love playing. Even if we’re just playing a really great Buzzcocks song, it’s a great time,” Armstrong said, going on to recall how the collaboration with Love arose.
“I was texting with her and I said, ‘Come on out, sing a song’, and she did. It was great. She did [David Bowie’s] ‘Suffragette City’, she did [Cheap Trick‘s] ‘Surrender’ and we got to do ‘Celebrity Skin’ – a Hole song – and the whole room freaked out,” he explained. “We’ve known her since ’94, she’s always great! She’s a wild woman, she has a lot of great stories and I love Courtney… She’s definitely like a rock n’ roll-er in herself. She’s got her sea legs back so we’ll maybe be hearing more from her.”
As for whether or not fans can expect an official collaboration between Green Day and Courtney Love any time soon – particularly with the latter using the show to tease her return to music – Armstrong said he wasn’t sure yet, and that fans would have to wait and see.
Armstrong and Cool also reflected on the surprise they felt at 2024 album ‘Saviors’ hitting Number One in the UK. “I didn’t know what to expect, I mean, when you’ve been at it this long, you hope for the best,” the frontman said, while Tré Cool added, “That’s fucking amazing… It’s the best place to be at Number One in my opinion.”
When asked whether fans can expect any more surprise intimate shows later this year, Armstrong hinted that more may be announced as the band come up to performing their UK tour dates. “Hopefully! We’d love to do it,” he said. “Maybe before we play Wembley Stadium we’ll play a smaller venue or something…”
Released last month, ‘Saviours’ marked Green Day’s 14th studio album, and first full LP since 2020’s ‘Father Of All Motherfuckers’.
The album was given a glowing four-star review by NME, and described as some of “their best work since ‘American Idiot’”.
“Not only does ‘Saviors’ spiritually bridge the gap between [‘Dookie’ and ‘American Idiot’], but it uses the palette of the best of the band to tell us something else,” it read. “Look to the artwork: ‘Dookie’ was a cheeky carpet-bombing of shit, ‘American Idiot’ was a hand grenade, ‘Saviors’ is an act of defiance met with a shrug; a band saying, ‘We’re still here and we’re still fucked’”.
Green Day will be playing ‘American Idiot’ and ‘Dookie’ in full on the ‘Saviors’ tour to mark the classic albums’ 20th and 30th anniversaries, respectively. Find any remaining tickets for the UK and Ireland dates here.