The Untold Truth Of Green Day

On February 9, 2011, seemingly out of the blue, Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong revealed on Twitter the inspiration for three of the band's best-known songs. According to his tweet, "She," "Sassafras Roots," and "Whatsername" are all about "a girl named Amanda." According to Alan di Perna's "Green Day: The Ultimate Unauthorized History," she's also the subject of "She's a Rebel" and, most intriguingly, the devastating breakup jam "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)." So who exactly is this Amanda person?
Well, in 1991, after returning home from a club tour, Armstrong broke up with his girlfriend, Erica Paleno, and coupled with a woman named Amanda, a "militant punk rock feminist" he knew from the Berkley scene. (They were both regulars at 924 Gilman Street, the venue where the band played a lot of its early shows.) The relationship didn't last, and according to Marc Spitz's "Nobody Likes You: Inside the Turbulent Life, Times, and Music of Green Day," Amanda dumped Armstrong right around the time when "Dookie" made the band international superstars in 1994.
Armstrong was devastated, and he came up with "Good Riddance" in response. He wound up holding on to it for almost four years, ultimately including it on the 1997 Green Day album "Nimrod." But while Armstrong ultimately married someone else, he couldn't quite move on from Amanda. She not only heavily influenced the song "Whatsername" but the character of the same name in the band's concept album "American Idiot."
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