14 DAY TRIAL // Last September, Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong willingly admitted himself to rehab after an onstage meltdown that made headlines around the world, finally revealing him for the troubled individual he was. He’s now back – and ready to talk about it.
Armstrong has completed his stint in rehab and, in his first post-treatment interview, he sheds some light on his severe drug and alcohol addiction, as well as the episode that saw him shouting “I am not [expletive]-in Justin Bieber, mother[expletive]-s” on stage, as he was smashing his guitar.
Rolling Stone has released two quotes from the interview with Armstrong included in the latest issue and, as expected, they’re precisely on the two topics mentioned above.
“I couldn't predict where I was going to end up at the end of the night,” Armstrong says of how severe his addiction had gotten at that point, right before he sought treatment.
“I'd wake up in a strange house on a couch. I wouldn't remember how. It was a complete blackout,” he adds.
As for the incident referenced above, which occurred when producers of a Las Vegas festival told him he and the band only had a couple of minutes to wrap up their number on stage, Billie reveals he didn’t even remember it the next day.
Before he went online to see that it had gone viral, his wife told him about it. She also opened his eyes and packed his suitcase for rehab.
“I remember tiny things,” the rocker says.
“The next morning, I woke up. I asked [my wife] Adrienne, ‘How bad was it?’ She said, ‘It's bad.’ I called my manager. He said, ‘You're getting on a plane, going back to Oakland and going into rehab immediately’,” the frontman reveals.
Since Armstrong’s rehab stint put the band’s promo duties on hold, now that he’s out and in top shape again, they will probably be resuming their old schedule.