Bassist Mike Dirnt has revealed his side of Green Day's recent problems, describing it as "dealing with a sh-t show".
Their issues his a peak in September last year when frontman Billie Joe Armstrong was admitted to rehab after relapsing as an alcoholic, prompting an on-stage breakdown.
"It was very tense back there. They locked us in a room for about six hours," Dirnt told Rolling Stone. "I won't say 'locked'. But I didn't want to hang out in the hallway with everybody's entourage. I felt like a rat in a cage. It was a confined space with a lot of weird people around, people we didn't know wandering in and out.
"
When Billie showed up, it was, 'You're not right. What's going on?' I kept an eye on things, and it just went progressively downhill. Me and Billie - we don't play like 12-year-olds anymore. But at one point, I was like, 'Let's goof around. Somehow, we ended up wrestling backstage. I thought, 'If I can just get some of this out of him...' But with the mood depressants and alcohol, it doesn't end up in a jovial party."
Dirnt adds that he's not mad about what Armstrong specifically said during his on-stage rant, and agreed with what he said. The problem, he says, was how Armstrong went about saying it. "I was watching my friend and going, 'You're out of your f--king mind'. And we were dealing with a sh-tshow," said Dirnt.
The bassist then tried to reason with him after the incident, but "then it turned to anger. Then it came full circle to 'I'm angry for what you're doing to you. Whatever the f--k is going on, that's not you, and it's gone so far down. You're doing it alone, and you're not letting us in.'"
Armstrong has been battling to stay sober after this period, during which he had so many drinks and prescription painkillers in his bag that it "sounded like a giant baby rattle."
