Billie Joe Armstrong Discusses "Honouring" His Late Father With Wake Me Up When September Ends

In a new interview on The Howard Stern Show, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has spoken about the band's incredible American Idiot single Wake Me Up When September Ends, and how he was honouring his late father.

Billie Joe's dad, Andrew Armstrong, passed away when the singer was just 10 years old, with the story going that Billie said the phrase 'Wake me up when September ends' to his mother in the aftermath.

When asked if he had written those words down or just held on to it all these years, he replies: "I think it's something that just stayed with me; the month of September being that anniversary that always is just, I don't know, kind of a bummer. But it's weird: when things happen like that when you're that young, it's almost like life starts at year zero, or something like that."

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The Green Day leader is then asked by Howard if he actively still thinks about his late father when performing the song.

"Yeah," Billie Joe replies. "I think about him every day, really. I kinda avoided writing about him for many years, and then finally having a breakthrough like that felt good. It wasn't like a negative emotion so much, but it was just kind of like honouring him."

Watch both the interview and performance of Wake Me Up When September Ends below.

Catch Green Day performing Wake Me Up When September Ends and much, much more on tour with Fall Out Boy, Weezer and The Interrupters (U.S. only) next summer. Tickets are on sale now.

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