"That sounds like the demons from hell are rising... I felt like I was being possessed": Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong reveals the Van Halen song which blew his nine-year-old mind, and continues to do so today

Billie Joe Armstrong
(Image credit: Rick Kern/Getty Images)

Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong has spoken about the hard rock albums that helped lay the foundations for his musical career, and revealed the Van Halen song that blew his mind as a nine-year-old... and continues to do so today.

Speaking on the WTF with Marc Maron Podcast, Armstrong says, "Two of the first records that I ever bought was For Those About To Rock by AC/DC, and Fair Warning by Van Halen. It's crazy, because people always thought of AC/DC... I guess because of the cover of Highway To Hell... like, AC/DC was more of the 'devil' band, and Van Halen was more of like, the pop, happy band... but when I heard the beginning of Mean Streets, and the way that he [Eddie Van Halen] plays that guitar solo at the beginning, I was like, that sounds like... the demons from hell are rising right now, and I felt like I was being possessed or something, I had a crazy reaction to it. To this day, still, when I listen to that solo, it just blows my mind."

Later in the conversation, Armstrong admits that one of the things that ultimately turned him off heavy metal was the fact that, in the 1980s, the genre became like "The Guitar Olympics."

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"I'm like, I don't have time to sit here and play guitar in my room until I get close to, anywhere close to Eddie Van Halen. But what I did notice about Van Halen was that they wrote kick-ass songs, with melody, and fun lyrics, and I felt that came the most natural."

Armstrong also admits though that he felt immensely proud after recently learning a metal guitar solo that he's wanted to learn for 40 years.

"I learned, on YouTube, how to play the guitar solo for Crazy Train, Randy Rhoads," he reveals. "Here I am, 51-years-old, and I'm patting myself on the back for a guitar solo that I've been learning how to play since I was 10!"

Green Day release their 14th studio album, 'SAVIORS' on January 19.

Listen to Billie Joe Armstrong on the WTF with Marc Maron Podcast below:

Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

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