Green Day is a California-based pop punk/punk rock band, consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong (lead vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (born Michael Pritchard; bass, backing vocals), and Tre Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright III; drums, backing vocals). Since their sixth album, the band has included close friend and associate, back-up guitarist Jason White. Their success has been a major influence on other prominent pop-punk bands, such as Sum 41 and Blink-182.
Their album Dookie has been certified diamond (10 million copies shipped) in the United States since its release in 1994. Their second best-selling album American Idiot, released in 2004 (a decade after Dookie), has been certified quadruple platinum in the U.S., has sold over eleven million copies worldwide, and won the 2005 Grammy Award for "Best Rock Album". In 2005 Green Day swept the MTV Video Music Awards, winning seven out of eight nominations: "Video of the Year," "Best Rock Video," "Best Group Video," "Best Direction," "Best Editing," "Best Cinematography" (all of which were for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"), and the "Viewer's Choice Award" for "American Idiot". The band was most recently awarded an American Music Award for "Favorite Album" for American Idiot.