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Thinking back to Dookie’s success over 25 years ago, it seems like you went from playing small venues to the larger ones pretty quickly. How did you adjust to that sudden fame?

We had a lot of shows under our belts. I think that’s a big part of what helped us make that jump. We had just played so many shows by the time that record came along and was a success. But, afterwards, we continued to do the same and in doing that we’ve really honed our craft.

Who was the template for you guys in terms of your live shows?

If there was a template for Green Day it was the punk rock community that we grew up in and really breaking down the barrier between the band onstage and the crowd and making us all feel like one. That’s the big thing we were able to do. Also, as we played over the years, we have a very short filter for bulls— or boredom, so if there’s a show and it’s not going great we will literally stop and do a 180 and make it successful. Life’s too short to go through the motions. After years and years of touring, we make it great.

You started the band as a teenager. How did your dreams of rock stardom measure up with where you ended up?

It’s weird. I feel like when we were little kids, we just wanted to be good enough to play someone’s backyard party. Then once that happened, we wanted to be good enough to play clubs. After that, it was play clubs and tour. So it was all these gradual steps. I never thought I’d get to a place where I could say I’ve done pretty much everything I wanted. But, if you’re a creative person, there are always new things for you to try. Would anyone expect us to play a backyard now? No. Would anyone expect us to write an album in 12 hours and put it out the next day? No. These are things we could still do and that’s what I love about this band. We don’t have a rule book or playbook. If we feel like we’re getting stuck in a lane or it’s getting too formulaic, we’re going to burn that playbook and throw it out the window.