Mike Dirnt

Mike Dirnt (born Michael Ryan Pritchard on May 4 1972 in California, United States), is an American musician who is currently the bassist and backing vocalist for the American punk rock band Green Day. While at school, he would play "air-bass." While pretending to pluck the strings, he made the noise: "dirnt, dirnt, dirnt," so his schoolmates started to call him "Mike Dirnt."

Biography

Mike Dirnt grew up in California. He was adopted by a Native American mother and a European American father. He has one sister, Myla. His parents divorced when he was seven years old. His mother remarried a few years later. When asked about his stepdad, he says, "We didn't get along for years." The one thing my family did give me is blue collar morals. But he died when I was 17." Dirnt had left home when he was 17 to live out of his truck, but later rented a room in Billie Joe Armstrong's house. He attended Salesian High School (where he briefly played with the band Helder and the Heldernauts), John Swett High School, and ended up graduating from Pinole Valley High School in 1990, and Green Day went on their first tour the day after graduation.

Tré Cool

Tré Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright III; December 9, 1972) is a German-born American drummer for the punk rock band Green Day. He replaced the band's former drummer John Kiffmeyer in 1990.

Biography

Frank Edwin Wright III was born December 9, 1972 in Frankfurt, Germany, making him the youngest member of Green Day. He lived in Willits, California with his father and his older sister, Lori. His father, a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, decided to move the family there to insulate them upon his return to the United States.

Wright's closest neighbor was Larry Livermore, who at the time was the singer of the punk band The Lookouts. At age 12, Livermore recruited Wright to join The Lookouts and gave him the name of Tre Cool relying on both the French word très (meaning very) combined with the word cool. However, the silent "s" has been incorrectly dropped in the spelling.

When Green Day's drummer, John Kiffmeyer, left the band they recruited Cool to play drums. Cool decided to drop out of high school in his sophomore year. Instead, he passed an equivalency test and earned his GED, and began taking classes at a nearby community college. He had to drop out of college, however, when the demands of Green Day's touring intensified.

Cool's father, who owned a small company, overhauled a bookmobile and even served as the driver on three separate tours. "I watched them go from a bunch of kids to a group of musicians with work ethic," he later recalled. "On their first tour or two, it was more of a party than anything else. I still scratch my head and say, 'How in the hell did they make it?' They used to practice in my living room here - a lot of the songs they did on Dookie. You hear it coming together, and you don't expect people are going to go out and buy it. But when it does, you just say, 'Wow that's so cool.'"

In 1998, after Green Day won a "Moon Man" Trophy at the MTV Music Awards, Tré Cool famously scaled the Universal globe at Universal studios, but escaped with no punishment - only compliments and cheers. Cool has been the only person to ever do so.

Tré was once notorious for burning his drum kit, on stage, upon completion of every set on the "Warning" tour. He has a tradition also that if he cracks a cymbal during a concert, he gives it away at the end.

Singing and songwritting

Tré sings and plays guitar on the tracks "Dominated Love Slave" and "All by Myself", from Kerplunk! and Dookie, respectively, both of what he wrote and composed. He wrote and sang the subtrack "Rock and Roll Girlfriend" from the medley "Homecoming" featured on the album American Idiot. He also sang and composed the track "DUI" ("Driving Under the Influence"), which was recorded during the Nimrod sessions and was due to be released on Shenanigans (a compilation of B-sides), but it was omitted and can only be found online.

During a radio interview at Washington DC's alternative station DC 101, Tré sang and played the guitar to a short song titled "Like a Rat does Cheese," a song about the pleasure of fellatio. This song was acoustic.

Several live tracks also exist, usually from early dates around 1993, such as "Food Around the Corner." a song from the 1943 Elmer Fudd cartoon "An Itch in Time." Another live track, "Billie Joe's Mom" was also recorded.

Tré had also recorded a version of Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain." It was posted on YouTube on August 1, 2007. His cover was mentioned in several news journals.

Personal life

Tré married his long-time girlfriend Lisea Lyons, a photographer, in March 1995 and had a child, Ramona Isabelle Wright, born January 12, 1995. They divorced sometime in 1998. In May 2000, he married again to a woman named Claudia. They split up in 2003 and had one son together, Frankito ("Little Frank"), was born on February 14, 2001. He is currently dating a girl named Ruri.

Equipment

Tré has used the drums of different companies. He currently uses Leedy drums and Zildjian cymbals. In the past, he used DW, Ludwig and Slingerland drums. Currently, he is still listed as an endorser in Ludwig's website.

Drum kit: Leedy custom maple set in White Marine Nitron with Remo heads

• 18"×22" Bass drum with a Clear Powerstroke 3
• 9"×13" Tom with a Coated Emperor on batter and Clear Ambassador on reso
• 16"×16" Floor Tom with a Coated Emperor on batter and Clear Ambassador on reso
• 16"×18" Floor Tom with a Coated Emperor on batter and Clear Ambassador on reso
• 6.5"×14" Leedy Broadway Standard Snare with a Coated Emperor x on batter and hazy snare side Ambassador

Cymbals: Zildjian

• 14" K Constantinople/Z Special hi-hats
• 19" K Dark Crash Medium Thin
• 19" A Medium Thin Crash
• 22" A Deep Ride
• 21" A Sweet Ride
• 20" Oriental Classic China

Drumsticks: Zildjian Tré Cool Signature

Mark Hoppus

Mark Allan Hoppus (born March 15, 1972) is an American musician and record producer. Hoppus is one of the founding members of the pop punk band Blink-182 and the alternative rock band +44. He plays bass guitar and provides vocals for both bands. As of late, Hoppus has produced albums for groups like Idiot Pilot, New Found Glory, The Matches, and Motion City Soundtrack. He is known for his lower voice and, in Blink-182, usually sings either lead or provides harmony and backing vocals for fellow singer Tom DeLonge. He is also known for his concern over the environment and global warming.

Tom Delonge

Thomas Matthew "Tom" DeLonge, Jr. (born December 13, 1975) is an American rock musician. He is the guitarist and one of the two lead vocalists for the pop punk band Blink-182 as well as the guitarist and lead vocalist for the alternative rock band Angels & Airwaves. In addition, he started the band Box Car Racer with his close friends Travis Barker and David Kennedy.

Early years

Tom DeLonge was raised by his mother, Connie and his father, Thomas, who is of German & Irish descent, in Poway, California. He has an older brother, Shon, and a younger sister, Kari. Tom was expelled from Poway High School during junior year after being caught drinking at a school basketball game. He then went to Rancho Bernardo High School. When he returned to Poway High School during his senior year, the students voted him Homecoming King, despite the fact that he wasn't even on the ballot. ^[1] Becoming a musician was not his first calling. "I was originally going to be a firefighter. I was in the San Diego Cadet Program,” says DeLonge.Some of his influences are the Descendents, Screeching Weasel, Dag Nasty, Bad Religion, NOFX, Pink Floyd and The Cure.

Quick Decisions

A game warden noticed how a particular fellow named Sam consistently caught more fish than anyone else, whereas the other guys would only catch three or four a day. Sam would come in off the lake with a boat full. Stringer after stringer was always packed with freshly caught trout. The warden, curious, asked Sam his secret. The successful fisherman invited the game warden to accompany him and observe. So the next morning the two met at the dock and took off in Sam's boat. When they got to the middle of the lake, Sam stopped the boat, and the warden sat back to see how it was done.

Sam's approach was simple. He took out a stick of dynamite, lit it, and threw it in the air. The explosion rocked the lake with such a force that dead fish immediately began to surface. Sam took out a net and started scooping them up.

Well you can imagine the reaction of the game warden. When he recovered from the shock of it all, he began yelling at Sam. "You can't do this! I'll put you in jail, buddy! You will be paying every fine there is in the book!" Sam, meanwhile, set his net down and took out another stick of dynamite. He lit it and tossed it in the lap of the game warden with these words, "Are you going to sit there all day complaining, or are you going to fish?"

The poor warden was left with a fast decision to make. He was yanked, in one second, from an observer to a participant. A dynamite of a choice had to be made and be made quickly! Life is like that. Few days go by without our coming face to face with an uninvited, unanticipated, yet unavoidable decision. Like a crashing snow bank, these decisions tumble upon us without warning. Quick. Immediate. Sudden. No council, no study, no advice. Pow!

Eminem

Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album The Slim Shady LP, which won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. The following album, The Marshall Mathers LP, became the fastest-selling hip hop album in history. It brought Eminem increased popularity, including his own record label, Shady Records, and brought his group project D12 to mainstream recognition.

The Marshall Mathers LP and his third album, The Eminem Show also won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LP's. In 2002, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Lose Yourself" from the film 8 Mile, in which he also played the lead. "Lose Yourself" would go on to become the longest running #1 hip-hop single. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. Eminem is the best-selling artist of the decade, and has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide to date, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Eminem is also ranked as one of the 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time by Rolling Stone magazine. He was also named the Best Rapper Ever by Vibe magazine. Including his work with D12, Eminem has achieved eight #1 albums on the Billboard Top 200 and 12 number one singles worldwide. In December, 2009 Eminem was named the Artist of the Decade by Billboard Magazine. According to Billboard, Eminem has two of his albums among the top 5 highest selling albums of the 2000s.

My Chemical Romance

My Chemical Romance is a Grammy-nominated American rock band from New Jersey, formed in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, bassist Mikey Way, guitarists Frank Iero and Ray Toro and drummer Bob Bryar. Shortly after forming, the band signed to Eyeball Records and released their debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love in 2002. They signed with Reprise Records the next year and released their major label debut Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge in 2004; the album was a commercial success, selling over one million copies.

The band eclipsed their previous success with 2006's The Black Parade, featuring their hit singles, "Welcome to the Black Parade", "Famous Last Words", "I Don't Love You", and "Teenagers". The band also filmed a live DVD in Mexico City, titled The Black Parade Is Dead!, which was released in July 2008.