Music

Read a 1996 letter from an angry parent to Green Day, and Billie Joe's response

by Nicole Villeneuve

Sometimes (often, really), Letters of Note strikes gold. Here, we have a letter from an angry parent to Green Day about the “trash” that was their 1995 album Insomniac. Says the mother:

“Why don’t you do something positive and clean up your act!!!! Isn’t there enough garbage in the world? All the thoughts you are helping to put in the minds of our youth is scary. You have so much influence why not use it for something GOOD?”

YEAH WHY NOT, BILLIE JOE? His response (he would have been 24 at the time):

“I don’t write music for parents, grandparents, or eight year olds. I write for myself and I’ll say anything I damn well please.”

Something tells us the eight-year-old would have sided with Billie Joe. You can read the letters in full below.