Billie Joe Armstrong recently spoke about being labeled a “bisexual icon,” saying it’s “f—ing cool” that fans see him that way. Armstrong came out as bisexual in 1995, and in response to his icon status he simply said, “F–k yeah!”
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Speaking with People, Armstrong dove deeper into bisexual culture when he and Green Day were emerging in the 90s. “Being a Gen X-er, I feel like there was a seed that got planted where it was the era in the 1990s that we came up, where men were discovering more of being with other men and being more bisexual, and coming out with that, whether it was someone like Kurt Cobain or what I was saying,” he explained.
“It’s way more complex now, as far as sexuality,” he continued. “You’re like, ‘Wow, we’ve really come a long way.’ Even though it’s still kind of looked at as being taboo, I think people now are a lot more brave than they’ve ever been. I think people are way more open now.”
Billie Joe Armstrong On Bisexuality, His Marriage, and Being Open with Yourself
Billie Joe Armstrong has openly spoken against homophobia, transphobia, and discrimination aimed at the LGBTQ community. He has used his platform with Green Day to call out bigotry, both in discourse and in song. Because of his support for and inclusion in the community, fans have labeled him an icon.
“Sexuality is always so much more than what the standard, nuclear-family type of way of looking at things,” Armstrong continued. He went on to mention his decades-long marriage. “But I have been married — there’s this other side of me that’s very conventional when it comes to my 30-year marriage to my wife. But I just look at sexuality: It’s not one way or the other. And if anybody ever tries to say that, I don’t think they’re really being honest with themselves.”
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Armstrong also spoke about Green Day’s newest bisexual anthem, “Bobby Sox,” from their recent album release Saviors.
“It’s the ’90s song that we never wrote,” he began. “It started out being a song I wrote for my wife but as it materialized, I wanted to switch it up and added, ‘Do you wanna be my boyfriend?’ on top of ‘Do you wanna be [my] girlfriend’… So the song becomes a kind of universal anthem.”
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