Green Day have spoken out about the fate of material recorded for their ‘lost’ album ‘Cigarettes And Valentines’. Watch our video interview with the band above.

The unreleased record was written and recorded in 2003 and was intended to be the proper follow-up to 2000’s ‘Warning’. When the album was nearly finished, the recordings were stolen from the studio and the back instead recorded the seminal ‘American Idiot’. However, rough mixes of the tracks were later recovered and the title track would be recorded and released for live album ‘Awesome As Fuck’.

The record was said to be ‘quick-tempoed’ punk in the same vein as their classic albums ‘Kerplunk’ and ‘Insomniac’, and many fans speculated that it was released as ‘Money Money 2020’ by side-project The Network – which frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has repeatedly denied.


“It’s pretty much in the vault right now,” Armstrong told NME. “There was the one song, ‘Cigarettes and Valentine’ that we brought out live, I don’t know, we’ll see if any of that stuff ends up seeing the light of day.”

Bassist Mike Dirnt said: “There’s always a lot in the vault, but we tend to look forward rather than reaching back.

Armstrong added: “There’s one song that was written a long time ago that’s on the new record [‘Revolution Radio‘] called ‘Young Blood’, and that got a facelift and new lyrics and stuff like that.”

Green Day also spoke to NME about the mood in America after Donald Trump’s election win – revealing that it ‘feels like there’s been a death in the family’. The band also gave us an update on the long-awaited ‘American Idiot’ movie, saying that it will be ‘surreal and offensive‘.

The band return to the UK to tour in early 2017, performing at Leeds First Direct Arena 5 February, Manchester Arena (6) and London O2 Arena (8) – and will headline British Summer Time Festival at Hyde Park in London on Saturday 1 July.