Green Day frontman has spoken about collaborating with Billie Eilish at the recent FireAid benefit concert, calling the singing “awesome”.
Eilish joined the trio for a performance of their 2009 song ‘Last Night On Earth’ at the Kia Forum in California last week. The star-studded show raised funds to support the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires, and help prevent future blazes in the area.
Armstrong and co. later shared an image of themselves backstage with Eilish, writing: “It was an absolute honour to play @fireaidla last night.
“We had the best time with our friend @billieeilish, who joined us for ‘Last Night On Earth’. LA, we are sending all our love to you. You can still donate to fire relief efforts at fireaidla.org.”
The frontman has since recalled the team-up during an interview with Billboard at the Grammys 2025, where Green Day lost out on the Best Rock Album award to The Rolling Stones.
“It’s funny, when [Eilish] first started coming out, I saw some footage of her on Instagram – I saw some merch, and there was a headband that said ‘Billie’ with an ‘ie’, and I said, ‘I have to have that!’” Armstrong told the outlet.
“And then so she sent me a bunch of merch that had ‘Billie’ on it, and I was like, ‘Yes!’”
He continued: “I saw her play a couple of times and she was fantastic, and you just knew something special was gonna happen with her. But the fact that we got to play together… she’s a pretty awesome young lady, and it was an honour to be able to share the stage with her.”
Back in 2019, Armstrong and Eilish interviewed each other in a special edition of Rolling Stone magazine.
“I know this sounds [weird], but I always gravitate toward music that sounds like freedom,” Armstrong told her at the time.
“And that’s what I get from your music. It’s like an earnest person that’s expressing themselves and incorporating new sounds. Some of it sounds like jazz to me, if that’s cool to say?”
Eilish said that ‘Dookie’ was one of her favourite albums, and in a later interview with NME, Armstrong explained: “Her brother Finneas came to one of our shows and Tré [Cool, drummer] gave him a pair of sticks when he was, like, 12 years old.”
In addition to being nominated for Best Rock Album (‘Saviors’) at the Grammys 2025, Green Day were also in the running for Best Rock Song (‘Dilemma’) and Best Rock Performance (‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’).
Eilish was up for seven awards including Album Of The Year (‘Hit Me Hard And Soft’), but ultimately went home empty-handed. The singer performed live at the ceremony, taking to the stage for ‘Birds Of A Feather’.
The pop star’s brother and collaborator Finneas has urged fans to avoid getting into “fights with other artists’ fans in comment sections” after Eilish lost her Grammys 2025 nominations.
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