~The Grammy nominations are in: Green Day was nominated for: Best Rock Performance “21 Guns”, Best Rock Song “21 Guns”, Best Rock Album 21st Century Breakdown.

~Video of Green Day performing at the AMA awards on GDA.

~Photos of Green Day at the MTV EMA awards on Getty Images. Edit: videos on Green Day Mind.

~Green Day will perform at the MTV VMA awards Sept. 13. [Sent by MTV]

As you know by now, Green Day lost the “Best Act Ever” award at the MTV EMAs to 80s pop singer Rick Astley.

There are some music industry awards that Green Day seems to consider a genuine honor. When they were nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year for American Idiot (which they lost, though they won Best Rock Album the same year), they seemed to appreciate their peers’ recognition of their work, especially after years of having been dismissed as snot-nosed pop-punkers with the success of Dookie, which has always been, in my opinion, a first-rate album that was greatly underrated by many music critics.

But I wouldn’t guess that they care very much about a somewhat silly award like Best Act Ever from the MTV EMAs. Given people’s varying tastes for different types of music, there’s no such thing as a “best act ever,” and if one were to try to come up with one by applying somewhat objective standards, Tokio Hotel and Britney Spears would arguably not even be in that category. So I for one am not at all displeased that the whole somewhat nonsensical affair was highjacked by the pranksters behind the Rickrolling craze.

The turn of events is best described in an article in The Times. Last year, 79 million votes were cast for the MTV EMA awards in all categories. This year, Astley received more than 100 million votes, more than the total votes cast for every other winner combined.

Rick Astley himself, who declined to participate in the awards show despite reports that MTV “begged” him to come, said: “I just felt it was a bit of a daft award. How can you present the best act in the world ever? It was just a bit ridiculous.”

The reasons behind Rickrolling the awards are not just to have a bit of fun, but also to stage a kind of tongue-in-cheek protest of the tactics of the music industry — and major players within it like MTV — to try to shape what the public should like and what music people should buy. The Rickrolling pranksters were saying, in effect: you want to manipulate us, well, we can manipulate you, and have a giggle doing it too. Rick Astley, who should be commended for getting the joke instead of getting a swelled head, said, “It shows you can’t decide what people want at the end of the day. You can try and ram it down their throats but you can’t.”

On a more serious note, the awards show was a showcase for the excitement that many are feeling over the election of Barack Obama to the US presidency.

~As expected (earlier posts here and here), Green Day lost the Best Act Ever award at the MTV EMA awards today to Rick Astley due to the “Rickrolling” craze. More info on GDA.

~MTV UK has confirmed the nominees for Best Act Ever for the MTV EMA awards that were announced Tuesday by MTV Germany, and they have added Rick Astley to the list. And yes, Green Day is among the nominees! Go to MTV EMA to vote. (For an explanation of how Rick Astley became a web sensation, read this article on “rickrolling.”)

~According to MTV Germany, the artists nominated for Best Act Ever in the MTV EMA awards, which will be held Nov. 6 in the UK, are Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Green Day, Tokio Hotel, and U2. [ Via Aguilera World ]

~Help Green Day get nominated for the MTV Europe Music Awards, set to take place on November 6 in the UK, by voting here.

Holy shit! As everyone now knows, at least everyone who lives in the US and had a chance to watch My Night at the Grammys on TV tonight, Green Day’s performance of American Idiot from 2005 was voted the number one favorite Grammy moment by fans!

If nothing else, it shows that Green Day has the most dedicated fans, who took the time to vote, but surely many people who are not hardcore fans must have voted for their performance as well for it to come out on top.

And Billie Joe’s little comments throughout the show? Sigh! He’s so lovely and unassuming, always. I think his was the very first comment they showed, when he said, “The Grammys, that’s like the big cheese, you know?” Not an exact quote, it’s from memory. How cute is that?

He also commented on the tribute to Joe Strummer of The Clash, in which Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and Dave Grohl (and someone else I don’t remember) sang The Clash’s London Calling. Billie Joe said something along the lines of, “The tribute to Joe Strummer was amazing, just to see those guys trading off different verses.”

And he also said that he thought it was great when Linkin Park and Jay Z played together, and the best part was when Paul McCartney came out at the end: “I thought that was pretty amazing.”

But the best comment of his was about Green Day’s own performance. He said they’re at their best when they’re performing, on award shows and TV shows, and being invited not only to the Grammys but also to perform, they really wanted to be the best they could be. “We really tried to be the best band that we could that night.” Double sigh!

Well, I have no doubt this will be all over the internet in no time for all to see. It’s great just seeing his little face…

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Update: There’s a video on YouTube of Green Day’s performance. It includes the introduction by Melissa Etheridge, and halfway through the song you can see Billie Joe’s commentary about Green Day’s performance. The person who taped it is heard singing along and squealing, which is kind of funny. It doesn’t include the earlier bits where Billie Joe commented on the various performances during the other parts of the show.

[ Source ]
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More: Andres posted a better quality video on GDA.

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And another tiny tidbit: Billie Joe commenting on the tribute to The Clash. It’s only a few seconds long. Download.

Well, we knew that Green Day’s performance of American Idiot will be included in the telecast as one of the top 25 performances voted on by viewers. At least that’s certainly the impression that’s been given: there’s even a tiny clip of Green Day in the TV promo for the show. The latest news is that Billie Joe will be among the artists offering up their recollections of their own Grammy moments.

Christina Aguilera, Billie Joe Armstrong, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Elvis Costello, Celine Dion, Alan Jackson, Elton John, Ricky Martin and Usher will join hosts Etheridge, Hill and Keys in remembering their own remarkable moments as performers and winners on past GRAMMY telecasts.

So, that’s exciting news, to see Billie Joe even for a few minutes. Hmmm, is it wrong to be giddy? Nah!!!!

My Night at the Grammys will be aired November 30 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

Posted April 17, 2007 by Ashley Morris:

“Back story: in 1994, I went to Lollapalooza at the fair grounds. A buddy of mine was tour manager for L7. So he got us backstage, which was basically the UNO lakefront arena. We got munchies, beer, and got to stay out of the heat.

“Anyway, my buddy and I were hanging out in L7’s dressing area, and Billy Joe (of Green Day) came in with his blue hair, just to hang out. Donita gave him hell, saying he was trying to hit on them when he had a wife back home.

“Later, we ran into Mike Dirnt. This was right after the Woodstock fiasco, where the security didn’t know that Mike was the bass player, and broke several of his teeth.
We asked Mike what happened, and he pulled his lip up and showed us the fine work the dentist did. I think he was riding a skateboard when we stopped him.

“That tour, Dookie was just hitting it big time, and Green Day had the best selling album of anybody on the show. Still, they were frugal, and Tre’s dad was driving their tour bus: a converted bookmobile. The other acts all had monstrous coaches.

“So, Green Day was an amazingly down to earth bunch of guys (like most punk bands I’ve met), nice as they could be, and it was a blast.”

Posted April 13, 2007 by Howie Klein:

“A few months ago I got to present Green Day with the Spirit of Liberty Award at the annual People For the American Way banquet. While I was backstage with the band, the lead singer, Billie Joe Armstrong, told me about how powerfully moved he had been a few weeks earlier when the band toured New Orleans and saw the unfathomable magnitide of the disaster there—and how little had been done to ameliorate the plight of people there by the Bush Regime and their congressional allies. This week Billie and his wife Adrienne packed up their two sons, Joey and Jakob, and headed down to the 9th Ward to work as volunteers with Habitat for Humanity. An independent Green Day fan site is covering their progress down there every day.

“I had the privilege of working with Green Day when I was at Reprise Records and I always knew these were the kind of parents Billie and Adrienne would be.”