Green Day honored with star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
From left: Tre Cool, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt of Green Day pose with their new star during a ceremony on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
HOLLYWOOD – A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was unveiled Thursday honoring the punk rock trio Green Day for a career that has included induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and selling more than 75 million records.
“Thank you to all of our fans that bought our records and come to our shows,” frontman Billie Joe Armstrong told the cheering crowd gathered for the event. “We love you guys so much.”
Actor Ryan Reynolds and Rob Cavallo, who produced many of Green Day’s recordings, joined Armstrong and fellow band members Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool at the ceremony at 6212 Hollywood Blvd., adjacent to Amoeba Music.
Tre Cool, from left, Billie Joe Armstrong, and Mike Dirnt of Green Day pose with their new star during a ceremony on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
The ceremony came 12 days after the second of Green Day’s two back-to-back Saturday performances at Coachella and 22 days before the release of the deluxe edition of its most recent studio album, “Saviors,” which includes five new songs: and acoustic renditions of “Suzie Chapstick” and “Father to a Son.”
“We’ll never say thank you enough for everybody and everyone who was involved with whatever we’ve done over the years,” Dirnt said. “But this is for all of us, thank you.”
The star is the 2,810th since the completion of the Walk of Fame in 1961 with the initial 1,558 stars.
Green Day was formed in 1986 in Berkeley and released its breakout album “Dookie,” in 1994, which sold over 10 million copies, and achieved double diamond status (20 times platinum) by the recording industry trade group the Recording Industry Association of America.
“Dookie” reached second on the Billboard 200 and included three No. 1 singles on Billboard’s alternative songs chart — “Longview,” “Basket Case” and “When I Come Around.”
The album has been included on all four versions of Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list and first in the 2017 version on its “The 50 Greatest Pop-Punk Albums” list.
“Dookie” was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2024 as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
“Dookie” is widely credited with popularizing and reviving mainstream interest in punk rock.
It was named after a child’s slang word for a lump of excrement `Dookie”’ also brought Green Day the first of its four Grammy awards, winning for best alternative music performance.
The trio received three other nominations in 1995 — best new artist, losing to Sheryl Crow, best hard rock performance for “Longview,” and best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal for “Basket Case.”
Green Day won its next Grammy in 2005 for best rock album for “American Idiot.” What band members called a “punk rock opera” also received nominations for album of the year, record of the year, best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal and best short-form music vocal.
“American Idiot” was adapted into a Broadway musical, winning Tonys for best scenic design of a musical and best lighting design of a musical in 2010 and receiving a nomination for best musical, losing to “Memphis.”
Green Day won the Grammy for record of the year in 2006 for “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” an emo hard rock power ballad from “American Idiot,” named after a painting by Gottfried Helnwein that depicts James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley together in a downtown diner, with the title reflecting their deaths.
Green Day’s most recent Grammy came in 2010 for best rock album for “21st Century Breakdown,” a rock opera the band called a rumination of “the era in which we live as we question and try to make sense of the selfish manipulation going on around us.”
Entertainment Weekly has called Green Day, “The most influential band of their generation,” while Rolling Stone declared, “Green Day have inspired more young bands to start than any act this side of Kiss.” (CNS)
