Billie Joe Armstrong Assures Us All He's Wide Awake

Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong has joined in on the endlessly popular 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' meme. 

As anyone who has even a passing interest in internet culture would know, every October 1st the internet is flooded with posts of memes reminding us all to wake the Green Day frontman up from the month-long slumber implied by the lyrics to the group's 2004 hit Wake Me Up When September Ends.

This year, Armstrong got ahead of the joke, posting a photo of himself floating on a giant inflatable duck in Singapore to Instagram on the morning of October 1st. Armstrong captioned the image "GOOD MORNING. YOU’RE WELCOME".

It would be surprising to some to see Armstrong join in on the fun, given the rather dark and personal subject matter of the song, which relates to the death of his father in September of 1982. 

Speaking to Howard Stern on an appearance on the Howard Stern show, Armstrong reflected on the song stating "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, 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.” 

Wake Me Up When September Ends appears on Green Day's American Idiot. We recently spoke with Luana from ascendent Melbourne pop-punks Paperweight about the impact of the game-changing record on their musical journey. 

"American Idiot was a pivotal album for me - it was my gateway to pop-punk." "For someone with a terrible memory, I vividly remember the first time I saw the 'American Idiot' video clip - I was 11 years old and absolutely mesmerised. The crunchy guitars, the gushing green water, the black shirt with a red tie, the heart grenade - I hadn't seen anything like it." 

"It was the first album I'd ever heard where the songs flowed into each other and told a story. It was the first time I heard a song that went for more than 4 minutes ('Jesus of Suburbia' + 'Homecoming'). It was the first time I'd heard catchy pop choruses over distorted guitars. I was hooked. I eventually had to buy a second copy of the album because I thrashed my first CD so much."