These are a couple of my favorite Billie Joe video interviews from the Dookie era. The first one is with Kurt Loder on MTV in 1995. You don’t imagine as you’re watching this that this sweet, polite guy is the same the one who snarls and drops his pants on stage, and calls his fans stupid. I don’t know why but somehow I love hearing that his mother calls him Billie Joe (rather than Bill or Billie I guess), or maybe it’s just hearing his own name come out of his mouth. And it’s funny that REM, of all bands, is what inspired him to become a showman on stage.

This video has been around the internet for a long time, originally posted by Green Day Videos. It seems to cut off at the end, but as far as I know it’s the only copy available.

In the second one, he directly addresses calling his fans stupid: “No, you don’t understand, you missed the point, I’m insulting you!” He also has some sharp words about the band’s management and the music industry. But somehow he’s still sweet. Or maybe I’m just one of the many fans who don’t get that he’s calling me stupid and I love him for it…

I don’t know where this video is from or why it’s subtitled in Portuguese. I thought it was funny that the translator didn’t understand what “I’m a grower not a shower” means, and translated it as, “I’m an adult not an exhibitionist.”

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