Green Day’s Mike Dirnt on Billie Joe Armstrong’s Health: ‘I Know That My Friend’s Life is in Danger’

By now, most people have seen, or at least heard about, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong unleashing a profanity-laden rant at the recent iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas. Soon after the outburst, Armstrong packed his bags for rehab to deal with issues arising from substance abuse. The band has been relatively quiet about the details on Billie Joe's health, but bassist Mike Dirnt recently went so far as to say, "I know that my friend's life is in danger."

In the latest issue of Kerrang magazine, Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt opened up about the band's current situation, which forced them to cancel an upcoming tour. "Billie doesn't take things lightly and he wouldn't take rehab lightly, either," Dirnt tells Kerrang. "He's in the middle of some really big things, but we're going to pull through. It's killing everyone. Green Day has never been a band that sits still, but sometimes you have to step back and let life go on rather than try to control everything."

Green Day had been preparing themselves for a tour with some warm-up shows, one of which we recently covered at New York City's Irving Plaza. There was nothing alarming about Billie Joe's demeanor or the overall mood of the band while onstage, but according to Dirnt, this is an incredibly serious time for the band members as they support their frontman.

'I know that my friend's life is in danger and that's all I care about,' Dirnt says. 'We're brothers-in-arms waiting for Billie to return healthy, but we're not going to force anything. Tré and I will be standing here for Billie.'

Green Day are currently in the middle of releasing a triple-album, '¡Uno!', '¡Dos!', '¡Tre!'. With '¡Uno!' having dropped in September, '¡Dos!' is set for release on Nov. 13 and '¡Tre!' will hit stores on Jan, 14.