Fall Out Boy on Green Day’s Rock Hall Induction: ‘A Win for Punk Rock’

Fall Out Boy played an afternoon show on Saturday in D.C., but they weren’t going to miss inducting Green Day into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that night in Cleveland. Backstage, they talked about what the punk trio means to them.

What did it feel like to stand up there with those guys at that peak moment of their career?
Pete Wentz: One of the coolest things about Green Day to me is being in a working rock band or working punk rock band, Green Day represents all of us. So seeing them up there is absolutely amazing. We played in D.C. today and they were like, can you guys do this? And it’s a big deal. I can’t think of any other band we would want to do that for.

Joe Trohman: It’s crazy. When Pete and I got together and started what would become Fall Out Boy there were literally three bands we wanted to emulate: the Descendants, Saves the Day and Green Day. I remember growing up with Dookie, watching the “Basket Case” video, listening to the stuff on Lookout Records. To stand up there and present them the award… I can’t really believe it, to be honest. 

What do they mean to you in how you guide your own careers?
Patrick Stump: This isn’t lip service: Every time we’re at one of those points in our career, turning points, literally every time Green Day comes up because we look at how they handle things. When you look at their track record at every stage of the game, they do kind of the coolest thing they could do – the most raddest, honest thing you can do as an artist. Bringing people onstage, putting out a folk record and putting out American Idiot, which was a ballsy record

Wentz: People talk about Green Day and [whether they’re] punk rock, and it’s not like they’re domesticated. Green Day’s threat level is very high. People had kind of written them off and American Idiot came out and it smashed you in the face, you know? Around every corner they’ve made the decision to do what Green Day wants to do, which is sometimes turning left when everyone expected them to turn right. 

Trohman: We use them as a model because we can relate to how they started. They started from humble beginnings, a basement band sleeping on people’s floors, the Ford 15-passenger. We did the same stuff. They’re our reference point for everything. They went from the basement band to the giant commercial-success band.