Billie Joe Armstrong spent some time during his recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! talking about one of Green Day’s biggest fans: Tennis icon Serena Williams.
In the video below, Kimmel talked about having Green Day perform on his show years ago and inviting Williams to attend because he knew she was a huge fan of the band. Following that performance, Kimmel and his children would get a personal tour of Wimbledon from Williams while she was competing during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Williams told Kimmel during the tour, “You introduced me to Green Day, so I owe you.”
Armstrong would add after that story about how the band would run into Williams following her various matches while they were on tour.
“We would run into her in different countries in Europe because she was kicking everybody’s ass in that particular country,” said Armstrong. “She would then come to the show and…Well, I think she would literally try to see how fast she could beat her opponent so she could actually come to the gig.”
Williams would often request a song for the band’s setlist with Armstrong saying, “She would end up showing up and would always ask us to play this song ‘Disappearing Boy’ [from our 1990 debut album 39/Smooth], which is a song we wrote years and years ago. She’s great, one of the sweetest people.”
