Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong says Eddie Van Halen “started crying” when they met
nme.comGreen Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong has told the story of meeting Eddie Van Halen, who “started crying” when they met backstage.In a new interview with Howard Stern on Wednesday (January 17), Stern noted Armstrong’s love for Van Halen, as they were his first-ever concert. “When I saw Van Halen in ’84, I was 12, and they were my favourite band, and I cried,” Armstrong began. “It’s like his guitar playing came from a different place.
He reinvented how to play guitar. But they also wrote great songs, that’s the main thing that I took away from Van Halen. The songs were just so fucking great.”Then, Armstrong recounted his only meeting with the hard rock legend. “It was right when Van Halen got back together with David Lee Roth,” he recalled. “Me and a bunch of friends got on a plane and we went to go see them in Kansas City.
We didn’t want to do it in California because we knew it was going to be a shit show.”Calling the Kansas City concert “incredible”, Armstrong said his backstage meeting with Eddie was “an emotional thing.” “First we went back and I met Wolfie [Van Halen], who was super cool, and then they were like, ‘Do you want to meet Eddie?’ and I was like, ‘Oh my God!” he said.
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