Billie Joe Armstrong: Meltdown Was Turning Point

That's when he knew he had to get help, he tells 'Rolling Stone'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 27, 2013 10:29 AM CST
Billie Joe Armstrong: Meltdown Was Turning Point
This Sept. 21, 2012 file photo shows Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day on stage at the iHeart Radio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.   (Photo by Eric Reed/Invision/AP, file)

For the first time, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong is talking about rehab and substance abuse in the wake of his onstage meltdown last year. He'd struggled with alcohol and prescription drugs for years—"I couldn't predict where I was going to end up at the end of the night," he tells Rolling Stone. "I'd wake up in a strange house on a couch. I wouldn't remember how. It was a complete blackout." But the meltdown at the iHeartRadio festival was a turning point.

"I remember tiny things" about that night, he says (among other things, he smashed a guitar and ranted that he wasn't Justin Bieber). "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 complete interview appears in the issue out Friday. (More Billie Joe Armstrong stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X