The new comedy flick Nimrods hits the cinema this week. Following the story of a young band tricked into thinking they're opening for Green Day, it's also in part based on the story of the Cali punk kings themselves. Drummer Tré Cool gave us the lowdown on breaking into Hollywood, Spinal Tap moments, and what he's done to “thousands of roadies...”
If you’re in need of a trip to the cinema to witness a story of heroes trying to overcome impossible odds on a timeless quest, then forget about The Odyssey, as that’s got precisely zero Green Day in it. Nimrods, on the other hand, out in cinemas now, features a generous quota of content from the Californian punk behemoths.
Lee Kirk, the film’s writer and director, is no stranger to Green Day, of course, having worked with Billie Joe Armstrong on his 2016 film, Ordinary World, in which Billie played a punk musician-turned-disillusioned family man who throws a party to rekindle past glories with his former bandmates.
This time around, Billie Joe approached Lee with the aim of making a film about Green Day. While the resulting effort, Nimrods, features Billie Joe and his real-life bandmates Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool appearing as themselves, the main focus is on three teenagers, Tommy, Fred and Chad. As the result of a prank, the three mistakenly believe their band Analog Dogs have been asked to support Green Day in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve.
The trio drive from Kansas City to LA (in a stolen yellow taxi no less) for their date with destiny in a coming-of-age story that shares the spirit of ’80s movies that Billie Joe and Lee grew up on, including The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Nimrods is based on Green Day’s unsuccessful early years as a touring band, before 1994’s Dookie catapulted them to superstardom. There are a number of autobiographical elements included, such as brothers Tommy and Wayne having lost their father – as Billie Joe and his five siblings did when their dad died of cancer in 1982 – and being raised by a working single mother (played in the film by Jenna Fischer, best known as Pam in the American version of The Office). It’s a funny film, but also inspiring and very sweet.
The latter is an adjective that surprises drummer Tré Cool.
“I hadn’t thought of it in that way, but it is sweet,” he agrees. We got him to take us inside their new silver-screen endeavour, and how much of the band themselves is in it...
There are so many directions a film featuring Green Day could be taken, why was it important to focus on a coming-of-age story about the romance of early touring life?
“Well, we are a success story, of sorts, so our movie wouldn’t be a tragedy. And it wouldn’t be a slasher film. If you’re going to have someone feel something, then you have to have them feel things we would have felt. I think the human aspect of it came through, just as Billie’s always been really honest with his lyrics, very personal and very vulnerable, telling the story of his life through the songs over the years. That was translated and cooked into the script: the characters of Tommy and his brother losing their father, and living with their mom who works, and being in a band. It wasn’t just happenstance that those details were in the script. Lee [Kirk, director] knows a bit about Billie’s life. I cry every time about those brothers [in the film], and they have this moment towards the end of the film that’s awesome.”
Nimrods features some pretty outlandish attempts to sneak into a Green Day show. What’s the most outlandish method you’ve heard a fan attempt over the years?
“I don’t want this to read as a how-to guide on how to get into a Green Day concert, but all those means of sneaking in that are in the movie have actually been attempted. Usually, I don’t think the security tells us when that happens – they’re like, ‘Let’s keep this between us!’”
The film casts aspersions about the attractiveness of roadies. Do you feel any guilt about that?
“I didn’t suggest anything! Talk to Jenna Fischer [who plays Tommy and Wayne’s mother].”
She says the line “Have you seen roadies?!”, but presumably you had input into the script…?
“No… Look, I’ve blown thousands of roadies.”
Right… going back to things that are actually in the film, what autobiographical elements did you in particular feel strongly should be included?
“The character of Gravy. We had this puppet called Gravy, and Mike would operate Gravy for the most part. Gravy toured with us, he was like a therapy puppet. We didn’t have phones to entertain us back then, so we had Mike and his puppet. But the puppet disappeared on one fateful tour. We actually think he escaped, because the window of the van was broken, all of our money was gone, a bunch of tapes were missing, but luckily they couldn’t get at our equipment. But yeah, we either got robbed and they took the puppet, or the puppet was in on it. Perhaps Nimrods could become a franchise and Gravy can get a spinoff.”
There’s a moment in the film when Chad, the drummer of Analog Dogs, is chastised by his bandmates for being on time and reliable. Given what this suggests about drummers, does that mean you’ve not been punctual over the years?
“I’m very punctual. I put the 'punk' in punctuality. Being on time is what I do as a drummer. There was one time, though, that I got stuck in an elevator on the way to stage. The pre-show song was playing, the Ramones [Blitzkrieg Bop], and the rest of the guys were asking, ‘Where’s our drummer?!’ The crowd was anticipating us and it reached the point when we’d run out on stage, then the elevator started moving. Just at the point when the other guys are saying, ‘Oh, I guess we’re not doing this’ I ran up and we could start the show. But that was beyond my control.”
Did Spinal Tap occur to you in the moment or after the fact in that situation?
“Oh, it’s every day!”
The film is also a celebration of the analogue and of the tactile, the ways people made and consumed music before digital technology. Do you miss the days when, as the Analog Dogs do in the film, bands could pass demos on to you?
“I feel like that stuff is easier now. You can easily follow someone on social media, or find out everything about a band via a QR code. Kids are really smart. Demo tapes were really cool and I have nostalgia for them, but the guys now have things figured out. I think it’s cool that Lee didn’t want to have a bunch of cellphones in the movie.”
When you were given demos by bands over the years, are there any particularly bizarre or funny band names that you can recall?
“Halfway To Uranus. That’s a good one.”
It certainly is. There are a lot of Green Day songs in the movie from throughout the band’s career, from 1990’s 39/Smooth, to your most recent record, Saviors – was it difficult to curate them? Was it a case of matching songs to the emotional beats of the script once it was completed?
“We were surprised, as we didn’t know what songs they were using. That was decided by Lee and company. Lee’s son is a massive Green Day fan – I’d say more than a fan at this point, so he knows all the music and Lee did a deep dive with him over the period of a couple of years and dug out what he thought would be the best stuff. I thought their choices were amazing. When they went into Haushinka [from 1997’s Nimrod], I was like, ‘Woah, this is awesome!’”
Has the experience of working on Nimrods had any impact on new Green Day music?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about…”
Perhaps some of that old school nostalgia has permeated new tunes you might be working on?
“I can’t tell you any of that. Nice try, though!”
Can you at least say what percentage of the way you might be through a new record?
“Who says we’re making a record?! We’re doing movies!”
Fair enough… we had to try! Finally, then, what’s the thing you’d most like Nimrods to achieve?
“I just want people to walk away from it wanting to pick up a guitar or bash some drums, and play some songs with their friends. For them to realise that anything is possible!”
Nimrods is in select UK cinemas this week.
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