After Green Day left the independent music label Lookout! Records and signed with major label Reprise Records, many fans of the underground punk scene considered Green Day to be sell-outs. It took a little while following that shift, but most punk fans eventually came back around to Green Day. Since then, the band—composed of the power trio Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool—has helped to usher in mainstream popularity for the punk rock genre. Just look at the success that the band’s third album (and debut album with Reprise), Dookie had on the music world. (“Basket Case,” anyone?)
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But where, oh where, did the name Green Day come from? Spoiler: It’s exactly what you think.
Where the name “Green Day” came from.
The band adopted its Green Day band name in 1989. Before then, the band had been operating under the name Sweet Children and got their start performing at local venues in the Bay Area of California. (Armstrong and Dirnt were only 14 years old at the time of their first live shows.) After signing to Lookout! Records, the band dropped the name Sweet Children in favor of Green Day. This change occurred due to the fact that there happened to be another band named Sweet Baby in the area, so Armstrong and crew opted for Green Day to avoid confusion.
And, as far as where Green Day came from, it’s likely exactly what you think. It’s about marijuana.
In an interview with TV host Bill Maher, Armstrong affirmed this storyline. “I always thought, maybe it’s an urban myth, that it was about pot,” Maher said.
“It was absolutely about pot,” Armstrong immediately confirmed. “We were trying to be like the Cheech & Chong of punk rock for a while, and some of us still are the Cheech & Chong of punk rock.”
More specifically, a “green day” is a day spent entirely smoking pot with little regard for anything else.
The other names in Green Day.
Armstrong is the only member of Green Day to perform under his legal name (and his full legal name at that).
Mike Dirnt, for instance, was born Michael Pritchard. It’s easy to derive “Mike” from “Michael,” but the name “Dirnt” has a unique backstory. According to music journalist Marc Spitz, the name “Dirnt” came about as a schoolyard nickname. Dirnt so often brought his bass guitar to school and plucked the unamplified strings, that the other school kids dubbed him “Dirnt” after the sound his bass made.
And last, but certainly not least, Tré Cool was born Frank Wright III. When Cool was just 12 years old, his neighbor Larry Livermore recruited Cool to play for his punk band The Lookouts. Cool adopted the name “Tré Cool” upon joining the band, which was a play on words for the French phrase “très cool” which means “very cool.” It was also a pun for the number three in Spanish, “tres,” due to Cool being the third Frank Wright in his family.
Photo Credit: Pamela Littky
