Along with Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid, and The Linda Lindas, they will go on a two-month stadium tour in Europe starting on May 30 and returning to the United States on July 29.
Aside from the new songs, the group of 51 men is commemorating two other anniversaries: 30 years have passed since the release of their big-label debut, "Dookie," and 20 years have passed since the release of "American Idiot," their most socially conscious album that was influenced by the George W. Bush administration.
During the The Saviors Tour, Green Day will play all of the songs from both albums in addition to a few new songs and a ton of old hits. "I think (those albums) have aged great," Armstrong says, seated between Dirnt and Cool during a video call. "When we first recorded 'Dookie,' we wanted to accomplish something we could play 20 years later. With 'Idiot,' it has a way, especially around election time, of always coming up. So I think of that record as topical when what was going on in 2004 still resonates today."
Meanwhile, on New Year's Day, Billie Joe Armstrong said he woke up to a barrage of cryptic texts.
The previous evening, the leader of Green Day performed at a benefit for Project Chimps, a refuge for ex-research chimps that he assisted in founding, along with his side project, The Coverups, which he founded with Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt.
Armstrong wasn't considering the pre-recorded version of "American Idiot" by Green Day that aired on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve," in which he substituted "I'm not a part of the MAGA agenda" for the line "I'm not a part of a redneck agenda," which he had been doing in live performances of the song for a number of years.
Yet the change seems to have been felt on the broader platform, evoking either applause or anger depending on one's political inclinations.
"I was so surprised," Armstrong says. "When I woke up to texts from people like my brother saying, 'That was so (expletive) cool what you said onstage,' and I was like, what? Chimpanzees? Then all of a sudden it's Fox News and Elon Musk and Tom Morello. I was like, 'Ohhhhh, I said that.' It just shows you how easily triggered people are and the power of music and how it can get people talking. It's not like I put out a tweet. I changed one word and it was all over the place. Job well done, I guess."
Though Green Day, consisting of Armstrong, Dirnt, and drummer Tré Cool, has never been as overtly political as bands like Rage Against the Machine or Black Flag, they have never wavered in their poetic portrayal of a divided and uneasy America. The group's fourteenth studio album, "Saviors," which consists of fifteen sharply focused tracks spread over forty-five minutes, is released on Friday.
Green Day reteamed with veteran producer Rob Cavallo for "Saviors," which takes its name from a song on the album about "feeling desperate for answers and leadership and getting out of the mess we're in," according to Armstrong.
The mastermind behind some of the group's most important records, including "Insomniac," "Nimrod," "Dookie," and "American Idiot," hadn't collaborated with Green Day since their poorly received 2012 trilogy, "Uno!" "Dos!" and "Tres!" The band's 30 years of shared history helped them in the studio, as was to be expected.
"Rob has that energy that translates to us," says Cool. "If we get confident, maybe we'll try stuff and he'll help us walk away from it when it's right." Adds Dirnt, "He's fiercely energetic and competitive. We've made some amazing rock records together and it's a hell of a drug when you get it right."
