Music News: Billie Joe Armstrong on Being Called A “Bisexual Icon”
Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day has always been a polarising figure amongst punk fans, but it’s his moniker as a “bisexual icon” that he has recently addressed.
Speaking to PEOPLE, he said, “I think it’s fucking cool that someone calls me a bisexual icon. I’ve seen that before. I’m like, ‘Fuck, yeah!'”
Armstrong also discusses sexuality back in the 90s, saying that today people tend to be a “lot more brave” than they were during the Gen X-led period: “Being a Gen X-er, I feel like there was a seed that got planted where it was the era in the 1990s that we came up, where men were discovering more of being with other men and being more bisexual, and coming out with that, whether it was someone like Kurt Cobain or what I was saying.
“It’s way more complex now, as far as sexuality. You’re like, ‘Wow, we’ve really come a long way.’ Even though it’s still kind of looked at as being taboo, I think people now are a lot more brave than they’ve ever been. I think people are way more open now.”
Music News: Billie Joe Armstrong on Bisexuality
The conversation with PEOPLE also shifted to Green Day’s new LP, Saviors, with the track ‘Bobby Sox’ having fluidity among gender and sexuality being at the forefront.
“It’s the ’90s song that we never wrote” Armstrong revealed. “It started out being a song I wrote for my wife but as it materialised, I wanted to switch it up and added, ‘Do you wanna be my boyfriend?’ on top of ‘Do you wanna be girlfriend’… So the song becomes a kind of universal anthem.”
Whilst you can’t buy Saviors from the Hard Times Shoppe, you can decide to listen to Dookie in the best possible way on vinyl, because why wouldn’t you?