You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
I'm Rishikesh Hirway.
This episode has some explicit language, including a mention of drug use.
Green Day is a punk band from the East Bay in California.
Billy Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Trey Cool have been playing music together since 1987.
They've sold over 90 million records.
They've won four Grammys, including twice for Best Rock Album.
They put out their first album in 1990 and their second album, Kerplunk, in 1991.
And then they moved to a major label.
And in 1994, they put out their third album, Dookie, which was huge.
It helped bring punk into the mainstream.
And this month is its 30th anniversary.
So for this episode,
I talked to Billy Joe Armstrong about the making of one of Green Day's biggest hits of all time.
Basket Case.
Coming up, you'll also hear from Rob Cavallo, who produced the album.
Plus, you'll hear two different demo versions of Basket Case,
the first of which is basically a totally different song.
Billy Joe Armstrong traces the history of Basket Case from its origins as a cassette recording in a punk basement,