'Billie came down with heavy dehydration,' Green Day tell MTV News ahead of their performance on Thursday's Video Music Awards.

LOS ANGELES — Three days after Green Day were forced to cancel a show in Bologna, Italy following frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's hospitalization, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool were backstage at Staples Center, getting ready to rehearse for their performance on the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards.

Since announcing Armstrong's hospitalization, Green Day had yet to provide an update on their frontman's condition (though TMZ caught him arriving at LAX on Tuesday, where he mouthed to their cameras that his voice was completely gone), so we pressed them for details, and they delivered.

"Billie came down with heavy, heavy dehydration; it was like severe dehydration, influenza, and it was just a really, really bad situation." Dirnt said. "He woke up in the morning and it was bad. Let's put it this way, if you're in your hotel room and you're vomiting profusely, it's not fun. So what are you gonna do? It's hard to sing while you're puking."

And though Armstrong wasn't doing press, his Green Day mates said that he was recovering nicely (on a strict regiment of "Push-ups, prayers and vitamins," according to Dirnt), and from the sound of things, it was back to business for one of the hardest-working bands in rock. They're not about to let a little dehydration get in the way.

"We're going to make our way back to Bologna and play that show ASAP," Dirnt said. "We don't miss many shows; we've maybe missed five shows out of our entire career and we pride ourselves on that, but we're human."

And as for their VMA performance, well, it sounds like it's gonna be a doozy.

"We're ready to rock, we're gonna be here, we're gonna have a good time," Dirnt said with a smirk. "We're going to drink chicken blood"

"And angel piss," Cool added.

And if that isn't enough to make you tune in, we don't know what is.