The Birth of Green Day's "American Idiot" Musical

Michael Mayer

It was eerie to discover that you were such a fan of Green Day. When I interviewed [Spring Awakening composers] Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, I kept mentioning Green Day whenever the subject of the song "Totally Fucked" came up.
It was the effect I wanted. I was listening to American Idiot a lot when we were putting the final chunk of Spring Awakening together. I was literally like, "Guys, listen to this groove. Listen to that fat guitar lick. Why can't we have this under here?"

But the "American Idiot" album is not a complete story, more like songs and a couple of mini-operas.
The people in it are a little older than those in Spring Awakening. It's not the same adolescent thing. But it is a response to a seriously fucked-up environment, a political and social situation that became untenable.

Why American Idiot instead of another classic punk record? Why not London Calling by the Clash?
American Idiot felt so complete to me. The version we will end up performing will have other songs in it — two B sides from the European release and four from the new album [21st Century Breakdown]. But American Idiot has a huge emotional arc. There was an amazing narrative that was, at times, perplexing and ambiguous, but also so full of possibilities with a multitude of voices. Some of the songs — I heard them as dialogue. Our biggest challenge at the moment is the central section. The "St. Jimmy"/"Jesus of Suburbia" matrix is a complicated thing. That is what we're still grappling with. Every song on the album will be played in sequence. But the sequences will be interrupted by other songs and text.

How protective is Billie of his original material?
I am basically doing the libretto. Billie was very much a part of it. I kept calling him and e-mailing him every different version of my scenario. But the libretto is basically akin to the libretto of [the Who's] Tommy — there is no dialogue per se. I am inventing the way in which these songs function as dialogue — as narrative, as emotional maps.

He actually knows a lot about classic musical theater. He grew up with those songs, performing them as a child.
That was the thing that connected us so strongly. After we did the first concert version of the libretto — with these 12 actors and singers, performing the whole thing for the band — we all went out afterwards for dinner. I don't know why, but as a certain point, Billie and I were sitting across from each other, singing a song together from Gypsy. It was hilarious.

What do you hear in Billie as a songwriter, beyond the punk speed and guitars?
His songs have a richness and emotional pull that you don't get from other songs in that genre. They are usually one-note rants — terrific, engaging. But there is a purity of humanity deep inside Billie's songs. And it's also his voice.

How would you describe it?
It's unusual — tinged with a real edge, a kind of violence. But inside that shell is a sweet aching yearning that comes through in everything he sings. It seems contradictory. And that contradiction is fascinating.

Do you think he could compose for the theater?
When we were together the other night, he did say, "The next thing, after this, I want to write something completely new for you to direct."

If you've got the gift, who knows where it comes from and why. The great thing is to keep feeding it and take care of it. What is so remarkable to me is to watch him allow that gift to grow and to be unfettered by constraints that people want to put around it. At a certain point, songwriting is more important than image and labels.

He's not afraid of being uncool.
And you know what? That's the coolest thing of all.