Even though he claims that he hates conspiracy theories, there are a lot surrounding Billie Joe Armstrong in his personal and professional career. Most of these theories are some I’ve gathered from fans I’ve met at their concerts or online. Although they make me laugh and I find some ridiculous, others are somewhat eerie. Here are a few of them.
Billie Joe Armstrong Is the Mastermind Behind 9/11 I actually was able to find this conspiracy theory on a sub-reddit. According to the poster, Billie Joe foreshadows 9/11 by releasing the song Macy’s Day Parade on the 2000 album Warning. He then mocks Americans and hints at being a mastermind by writing songs like American Idiot, Last of the American Girls, etc. People also noticed that Wake Me Up When September Ends is the 11th song on the album American Idiot, which hints at 9/11.
Despite having some ironic points, These are all purely coincidental and aren’t valid enough points for most people to believe he actually had anything to do with 9/11. However, they were interesting observations.
Billie Joe Never Wrote American Idiot This conspiracy theory was found here. The conspiracy discusses the theory that a writer at Warner Brothers Studios wrote the storyline of American Idiot to make into a film, but later was given to Green Day via a contract to then make their way into the music industry. Many people believe this because Billie Joe once wrote “simplistic” songs, in reference to the album Dookie for it’s simple melodies and lyrics. In comparison, American Idiot is elaborate and complex. Many people believe that from this point onward in their career, Warner Brothers Studios have been providing Green Day with their lyrics in a contract and profit off the band within the industry.
Why this theory isn’t true is evident within their music. Lyrics in their past music prior to American Idiot are repeated within American Idiot. An example of this is in their song Hold On, they mention “a shadow of doubt”, which is also repeated in songs before this one and songs after American Idiot, such as East Jesus Nowhere. This shows that the writer of the song has been fixated on the idea of a shadow of doubt for years.
As well as this, Green Day had overly simplistic, repetitive, and in most cases, redundant and embarrassing lyrics for a lot of their songs on The Trilogy. This is because during this time frame, Billie Joe Armstrong was abusing substances while writing songs for the band. If Warner Brothers were so interested in making a profit on the band, why would they allow for them to create the three most hated albums of their career, and get a huge chunk of their fanbase to give up on them?
Billie Joe Armstrong AI Era Onward is NOT the Real Billie Joe Armstrong I happened to hear this conspiracy theory from a fan I met at one of their concerts. The fan had explained to me that she felt that the BIllie Joe Armstrong featured in American Idiot is not the real Billie Joe Armstrong. She had multiple theories on what happened to the real Billie Joe; he was killed by the music industry and replaced with someone with a similar look, or he created a dupe of himself and uses it to perform, or that he left the music industry due to the failure of Warning in 2000, and the band decided to seek out someone else.
The fan believed this for a few reasons. The first is because Billie Joe Armstrong has always had crooked teeth; his two upper teeth tended to fold upon one another. Within some of their recent music, it is evident that his teeth were straight in these photos, and appears to have a different gumline as well. I have noticed this too and assumed he had got dental work done. However, within 2013 onward, pictures depict him having crooked teeth once again…why were his teeth straight from 2004-2009? I have no answer to this.
She also believed this because of Billie Joe’s voice change. To give you an idea, here are some voice clips.
Billie Joe off of their first album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIXTyWhs99s
Billie Joe in the middle of their career: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDHBnkyCmUI
Billie Joe now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHPKOy3dtqQ
Even his speaking voice is different…
Billie Joe then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9_r7V2lsmw
Billie Joe now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SMWxsHsg2A
Although his voice is different, his style of speaking hasn’t really changed…as well as this, there is a video depicting the progressive change in his voice. It was just because he has been singing for so long. Singers naturally show signs of their voice getting different, especially as they age.