AFI's Davey Havok: 'I Had Perhaps The Greatest Experience Performing American Idiot On Broadway'

It’s been a long time since AFI last toured Australia. Last here in September 2017 on their Blood Tour (playing in support of their Blood Album), a lot has happened since then.

For one, the American rock band released their 11th album, Bodies, in 2021. The album went beyond the gothic rock and alt-metal that characterised the band’s earlier releases. It embraced elements of new wave while incorporating moody atmospherics, acoustic guitars, and further experimentation of the band’s signature sound.

Meanwhile, frontman Davey Havok, along with AFI bandmate Jade Puget, dropped three more albums under their synth-pop moniker Blaqk Audio – 2019’s Only Things We Love, 2020’s Beneath The Black Palms, and 2022’s Trop d'amour.

In 2017, AFI weren’t only touring, but Havok was part of a supergroup with No Doubt band members Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont, and Adrian Young, with the quartet releasing their self-titled album, Dreamcar.

It’s fair to say that Havok is a busy man, and 2025 won’t be any less busy.

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Fans can expect new music from AFI this year, with Havok hoping to have a new album out in the world this winter (well, summer for him). But first, AFI are opening for Green Day in Australia on their upcoming Saviors tour, which will see the punks performing Dookie and American Idiot in their entirety—a set that has Havok in awe and reflecting on an epic experience.

In March 2011, Havok played the lead role of St Jimmy in the Green Day musical American Idiot. He stepped into the position after Melissa Etheridge and Green Day singer, the play’s composer, and co-author, Billie Joe Armstrong himself.

“My experience with the American Idiot record transmogrified into something totally other for anyone else, well, for most other people, because to me, when I hear those songs, I think they’re show tunes,” Havok explains to The Music over Zoom. “Billie was kind enough to put me in the show, and I had perhaps the greatest experience of my life performing American Idiot on Broadway.

“When I do hear those songs in Australia, it will take me back to Broadway. When I hear them in the wild and a song comes on, I’m always taken aback. I’m like, ‘Whoa, they’re playing a show tune!’ But they’re not playing a show tune; they’re playing the smash hit record that the show is based on. It’s cool that they’re doing that and Dookie.”

Havok and his bandmates in AFI have known the guys in Green Day for many years, and it’s a delight to return to Australia with some old friends.

“It’s been too long since we’ve been to Australia,” Havok admits, sharing that he really enjoys performing for Australian audiences. “It’s a delight to be able to come with Green Day; we’ve been fans of Green Day since we were quite young. Let’s not date ourselves [laughs], but quite young.

“We used to go see Green Day at [924] Gilman Street, and we’d watch them do shows at the practice pad and co-ops at Berkeley, and parties. We used to see them all the time, but we’ve only played with them on a few occasions.

“We toured with them once, around 2009 or 2010, and this will be the first time I think we’ve played together since then... I haven't seen Green Day play in quite some time. I’m really excited to get to see them again; they’re always so very powerful and precise. And, you know, their songs are unparalleled. So, I’m really looking forward to that, as well as the headlining shows, which are a completely different vibe.”

As for what Australian AFI fans can expect from their upcoming shows, Havok doesn’t believe anything unexpected will happen. “We generally go out and play a bunch of AFI songs,” he laughs before assuring fans who have waited a long time to see the band that covers won’t be making the set.

He explains, “I don’t think we’ll be doing any covers this time, which, if I were an AFI fan in Australia, I would prefer that we didn’t do any covers.

“When I go see a band that I don’t have an opportunity to see very frequently, because they don’t play very frequently, or because they don’t come to this country very frequently, and they play covers, I’m very annoyed [laughs]. I don’t want to hear your The Smiths cover; I want to hear you play your song! So, yeah, we’ll be playing AFI songs. We’ll be playing less of them in the stadium, and we’ll be playing more of them in the theatres.”

In addition to opening for Green Day in stadiums, AFI will perform at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre and Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall. But part of Havok hoped they’d return to Sydney’s Luna Park, just like on their 2017 tour.

“I enjoy the Australian shows very much. Although I can’t quite recall the rooms, the most memorable venue I’ve played in Australia is the Luna Park venue, due to its place on the park and the boardwalk and the park face base, which is very enthralling,” Havok notes.

Havok also adores the food, climate, cities, and people in Australia. But especially the food. He recalls eating at Gigi’s Pizzeria in Sydney—the “world’s only AVPN Plant Based Pizzeria”—and Smith + Daughters in the hip Melbourne suburb of Collingwood. “I go to grocery shops with the Smith + Daughters tote bag all the time!” Havok exclaims. “I mean, you can't go wrong with that logo.”

Since forming AFI with drummer Adam Carson in 1991—while they were still high schoolers—the band has gone from strength to strength. Beginning as a hardcore act, AFI quickly built up a dedicated following in the Bay Area scene with a string of early releases. In 1997, they solidified their long-running line-up with the addition of bassist Hunter Burgan and guitarist Jade Puget in 1998.

The band went beyond hardcore with their fourth album, Black Sails In The Sunset, released in 1999. Embracing a more melodic sound with gothic rock and horror punk elements, AFI were propelled to stardom with the commercially successful albums Sing The Sorrow (2003) and Decemberunderground (2006), which saw the band find mainstream appeal.

AFI now have eleven studio albums and ten EPs under their belts, with singles like Medicate and Miss Murder making the band chart-toppers. Album #11, Bodies, was released in 2021. And album #12 is on the way.

However, it seems that the band’s forthcoming music might do something different once again. Havok teases, “[Once] we finish this Australian tour, new music should be coming out. I don’t know if a full record will come out in the summer, but a full record will come out before the year is over… there will be new music this year; that’s the plan.”

Adding that the band’s forthcoming music again goes in a “different direction,” Havok says he’s excited about what comes next.

“I love it very, very much. It’s by far my favourite work that we’ve done. And going into the creation of it, I was a little bit concerned because of my feelings toward Bodies, that I might not be able to create something that I felt more excited about [than] Bodies, but we did it.”

He continues, “Since the very beginning of this band, every time we create music, the intention is to create something fresh and new and exciting for us.

“As time goes on and we look back and recognise, or even emotionally recognise, that we’ve covered so much, it becomes more and more difficult to find new sounds and new ways of expressing ourselves in the context of our own history. [With] the creation of this new record that’s coming out, we found it very exciting and a really fun writing process. I’m very excited, and I am supremely happy with it.”

Considering Havok was just a teen when he formed the band, he couldn’t have expected a) the band would still be around and b) tour the globe, including Australia.

“When we began, we couldn’t play our instruments,” he admits with a laugh. “We didn’t care; we didn’t think the band would last longer than high school. We [actually] didn’t—technically speaking, we broke up for [a few] months… we probably stopped playing in August of 1993 and then we started again in December.

“Once we reunited, our intention was to do this, what we’re doing, for the rest of our lives. At that point, if you had said to me, ‘Do you think you will still be doing this?’ I would have said, ‘Yeah, this is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.’ Did I think I would necessarily be talking to someone in Australia? Did I think that anyone in Australia would know who I was? Did I think that anyone would know our music beyond a very, very intimate group of underground fans? No, I didn’t think that—that would have shocked me.”

And for any young people thinking of following his footsteps and starting bands, Havok has some advice: create music with like-minded people, set some boundaries, and don’t do drugs. Or eat animals.

“If you have the option of making music with someone who is more technically proficient versus someone who shares the same perspective, beliefs and passions as you, definitely choose the latter,” he says. “It’s really important for the cohesion of the band and the cohesion of a direction, both sonically and artistically, which are interwoven facets. So, that’s one piece of advice.

“Another piece of advice that came to me when I was working on a Substack recently was to avoid playing with absolutely everyone.”

He explains: “If you’re coming up as a band, and you can avoid playing with artists that you don’t feel are compatible with what you do, don’t do it. We did not do that [laughs]. We played any show we could get. I wouldn’t recommend that. I would recommend that you have a filter. And, honestly, this sounds trite, but don’t do drugs.”

Havok isn’t saying it to be the fun police, either. He just has some simple principles that have helped him survive decades in the live music business: “Don’t drink, don’t do drugs, don’t eat animals. It helps when you’re 200 years old like I am, and you’re still able to do what you do.”

AFI will tour with Green Day and play headline shows in Australia this March. Tickets are available via Live Nation.