Billie Joe Armstrong with sons Jakob and Joey and wife Adrienne in 2020.Photo:Greg Schneider
Greg Schneider
Billie Joe Armstrong is opening up about his life offstage.
In the new issue of PEOPLE, the punk-rock icon, 51, reveals that his wife Adrienne, 54, and their sons Joey, 28, and Jakob, 25, inspired songs onGreen Day’s upcoming 14th album,Saviors(out Friday, Jan. 19).
Armstrong and Adrienne’s love story first began in Minneapolis, when they met at a Green Day show. Now, after 29 years of marriage, they’re still going strong.
Tré Cool, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt of Green Day.Alice Baxley
Alice Baxley
“We’ve definitely had challenges. Me and Adrienne, we’ve just been through so much in our life together, and it’s like we make this commitment to each other. And I’ve definitely f—ed up in my time as being a husband, and so we just got through stuff,” Armstrong says. “We started out as kids — now here we are spending our middle age together. It’s a beautiful thing. We’ve been through so much in our life, and we’ve always been able to come out stronger. I’ll take all of the good and the bad; I wouldn’t change a thing.”
The pair — who wed in July 1994 — have also faced parenthood together. And for the first time, Armstrong wrote a song dedicated to his sons: “Father to a Son,” a sentimental track onSaviors.
Billie Joe Armstrong performing with Green Day in February 2020.Kevin Winter/Getty
Kevin Winter/Getty
“I was like, ‘How do I sum this up without getting too sappy?’ ” he says of the meaningful cut.
As his children, who are also musicians, have grown into adulthood, their relationship has deepened.
“As a young parent, it’s like you always want to have the right answer or come up with the right solution, and that’s difficult to do,” Armstrong says. “But then all of a sudden, they get to an age where they have their own wisdom and their own solutions, and they’re able to share them with me. So it’s like you come full circle in a lot of ways. It’s like friendship, but it’s a bigger, broader bond, which I’m really proud to have with my sons. They’re really smart people.”
For more on Billie Joe Armstrong and Green Day’s new albumSaviors, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
source: people.com
