Billie Joe Armstrong on how Green Day's Dookie took inspiration from Mötley Crüe

26 January 2024, 08:53 | Updated: 30 January 2024, 16:18

The Green Day frontman told Chris Moyles how the glam metal rockers' Too Fast For Love LP inspired their 1994 album.

Billie Joe Armstrong has discussed how Green Day were inspired by Mötley Crüe when making their Dookie album.

The band are celebrating 30 years of the seminal 1994 LP - which includes hits such as Basket Case and Welcome To Paradise - this year.

When speaking on The Chris Moyles Show about the writing process and the crafting of a record, the Radio X DJ recalled how York band Shed Seven described going back and forth over the amount of space they wanted between tracks on their album.

As it turns out, it was a consideration for Green Day as early on as the 90s and they took inspiration from none other than the Hollywood hair metal rockers.

"That sort of thing doesn't go unnoticed," mused the Green Day frontman. "I remember when we did Dookie, I wanted each track to go really quickly right into the next. I didn't want to have much room in between.

"That kind of came from Mötley Crüe's first album, Too Fast For Love, where each song just is like (gestures) boom, boom, boom."

He added of the band's debut record, which was released in 1981: "There's never a dull moment."

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The frontman also talked about the lyrical honesty of the band's Dilemma single, which sits on their new album Saviors, and is one. of his favourite on the release.

The rocker explained: "Any time you're writing something that comes from an honest place, it's trying to admit things to yourself that you wouldn't normally admit, or something.You know, like feeling like a lab rat or something like that?

"One of the lines of the song, 'I was sober now, but I'm drunk again'... That could be looked at like a good thing or a bad thing for some people! That's one of my favourite tracks on the record."

Green Day - Dilemma (Official Music Video)

He added: "I'm really liking Fancy Sauce, the last track on the record. Its kind of like a children's lullaby in a straitjacket. Look Ma, No Brains is one of my favourite punk rock tracks that I've ever written."

"There's a lot of British influence on there, that's for sure" Billie Joe said of the album as a whole. "And kind of like our local punk scene, a song like 1981 is like the stuff that a lot of the bands we played with were into."

Green Day - who are completed by bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool - will take their new songs on the road for The Saviors Tour this year, where they also plan to play Dookie and American Idiot in their entirety.

Sharing the news on X, they wrote: "Gonna be rocking the planet all 2024 can’t wait to be playing these songs along with Dookie and American Idiot in full on The Saviors Tour!!!"

Support for their UK dates comes from The Hives, Nothing But Thieves, The Interrupters, Donots and Maid of Ace.

Green Day's 14th studio album, Saviors, is out now and is on course to score a UK number one this Friday (26th January).

Stream it in full below:

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See Green Day's 2024 UK and Irish dated for The Saviors Tour:

• Friday 21st June 2024: Manchester Emirates Old Trafford
• Sunday 23rd June Isle Of Wight Festival
• Tuesday 25th June Bellahouston Park, Glasgow
• Thursday 27th June Marlay Park, Dublin
• Saturday 29th June 2024: London - Wembley Stadium