Green Day received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today, May 1, as Billie Joe Armstrong reflected back on his band's unexpected launch to superstardom with 1994's multi-million-selling Dookie album.
The Californian punk band's third record, but first for Warners, Dookie was released in America on February 1, 1994. It entered the Billboard 200 chart at a modest number 141, but passed one million sales within weeks. It has now sold over 20 million copies globally.
Looking back in a new interview with Variety, Armstrong admits that the creation of Green Day's major label debut did not come without stress.
“It was a really scary time because it was definitely do or die," he reflects. "But we practiced every single day, we just wanted to make the best record we possibly could."
"Before Nirvana, anyone who had ever tried to go from an independent to a major label that was punk that came from a punk scene, it kind of blew up in their faces,” he continues. “They ended up making records that sounded like shit, and sacrificing their sound. At the time, we were like there’s no way. … We were hoping to get as big as maybe Fugazi or something like that, but especially in the Bay Area, coming from the Maximum Rocknroll and Gilman Street scene, people were really uptight about major labels and corporations and who they’re affiliated with and people coming in and infiltrating a scene.”
"Sometimes you take a gamble and luck’s on your side," a statement on the band's social media channels declared when announcing a 2023 reissue of Dookie. "Back in the summer of ‘93 Green Day went into the studio to record Dookie and had no idea what their destiny would be. They were young, rebellious, and absolutely scared shitless. There was no telling if they were about to prove everyone wrong or make the biggest mistake of their lives..."
“Everything kept rising and getting bigger," Armstrong remembers in Variety. "Woodstock [1994] was the final match that lit the fire where it exploded. We were in competition with The Lion King soundtrack for the biggest record of the week or month or whatever. It was out of control. So it was really exciting and really frightening at the same time because we went for something where we were growing into something we launched.”
