19 Years Ago – Green Day Release ‘American Idiot’

There are times in life where you have to overcome a major setback in order to find your way back to success. Such was the case for Green Day who enjoyed one of the biggest successes of their career after having to scrap a proposed album after the tapes went missing. To understand what came next, it’s best to look at the dynamics of what was going on in the band at the time.

After the commercial disappointment of their 2000 album Warning, the group put out a Greatest Hits collection in 2001 and tensions had grown to a near breaking point within the band. As Mike Dirnt told Rolling Stone, “Breaking up was an option. We were arguing a lot and we were miserable. We needed a shift in direction.”