Billie Joe Armstrong grew up in Rodeo, CA, the youngest of six. His father, Andy Armstrong,[citation needed] was a retired minor league baseball player and a jazz drummer, who worked as a bartender and truck driver for Safeway to support the family. He died of cancer on September 10, 1982 when Armstrong was 10. The song "Wake Me Up When September Ends", is a memorial to his father. His mother Ollie worked at Rod's Hickory Pit, where Armstrong and Mike Dirnt got their first gig during their early years.

Armstrong's interest in music started at a young age. He recorded a song titled "Look For Love" at the age of five on the Bay Area label "Fiat Records".[1] As a teenager he originally was into metal music, but got into punk after hearing the Sex Pistols song "Holidays in the Sun".[2] He attended, Hillcrest Elementary School, John Swett High School, and then Pinole Valley High School, dropping out on February 16, 1990, a day before his 18th birthday, to pursue his musical career.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Joe_Armstrong