Green Day were the opening band on the second half of the 1994 Lollapalooza tour, but according to frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, if it was up to the traveling festival’s founder Perry Farrell, the punk trio would never have been booked for the historic summer run.
The revelation comes courtesy of the newly released book LOLLAPALOOZA: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival (available here). The oral history features artists and other members of the music industry recounting the festival’s initial run from 1991 through 1997.
In the book, John Rubeli, who was a stage manager for Lollapalooza at the time, recalled, “I can’t think of a single time that Perry pushed back or vetoed a band — except for Green Day. … He was like, ‘They’re a boy band. I don’t want to book a boy band.'”
Advertisement
Related Video
Armstrong was a little more blunt in his recollection, noting, “Perry was a fucking asshole, straight up. He wasn’t a part of that conversation, because he’d checked out, but they asked us to play it and we said yes. And it was going to be [Japanese noise band] the Boredoms on the first half, and us on the second half as the opening band. And then all of a sudden, he comes back in and he’s like, ‘I don’t want them on the bill.’ Apparently, he thought that we were a band that was put together by [record executive] Mo Ostin at Warner Bros.”
Rubeli added, “To Perry’s credit, I was able to go through [Green Day’s] history in the Bay Area and how they had released indie records and eventually he said, “Okay, they can do half the tour, but I want the Boredoms on the other half.'”
Armstrong lamented, “For us it was really disappointing, because Perry was someone that we really respected. I think that made us want to play [Lollapalooza] even more, actually, because we wanted to prove that he had his head very far up his own ass.”
Advertisement
Green Day ended up taking out their frustrations with Farrell onstage, with Armstrong dedicating the song “Chump” to the Jane’s Addiction singer.
Armstrong remembered, “He had minions that would come up and say, ‘Perry Farrell’s really angry that you dedicated ‘Chump’ to him. And I’m like, ‘Tell him to stop acting like one.'”
The Green Day frontman went on to say he never interacted with Farrell until the two met later that summer at Woodstock ’94 and briefly shook hands.
While Green Day were the opening act on Lollapalooza ’94, they went on to become one of the biggest bands to emerge from that lineup, which was headlined by The Smashing Pumpkins, and also featured Beastie Boys, The Breeders, Nick Cave, A Tribe Called Quest, and others.
LOLLAPALOOZA: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festivalwas written and curated by best-selling authors Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour. Pick up a copy at Amazon.
Green Day are playing the Coachella festival in Indio, California this weekend and the next weekend, followed by the Welcome to Rockville and Bottlerock Napa Valley festivals in May, and a series of European/UK festivals in June and July. Tickets to their upcoming shows are available here.
Advertisement
Watch Green Day performing “Chump” during Lollapalooza ’94 below.
