10 Things You Never Knew About Green Day
3. They Were Going to Break Up Before Dookie
In the grand scheme of Green Day's discography, Dookie is the one moment where everything seemed to kick into high gear. Despite all of the true punk fans who were crying sellout ever since the band signed to a major label, this is when Armstrong started turning in some of his greatest songs like Basket Case and She, with Cool and Dirnt right at his side pushing the entire song forward. Even though it seemed like all the stars aligned at the time, it wasn't necessarily that smooth of a transition.
In the months leading up to Dookie, Armstrong and Dirnt were still having a hard time settling into Cool's groove behind the kit. Though miles better than their former drummer Al Sobrante, Cool's style of playing was much too frantic for the group's songs at first, as he tried to cram as many impressive fills he could into the mix.
Even with the major labels calling on Green Day, the group were so unsure as to whether they had a future or not that they very nearly broke up before their chart topping success. Considering the amount of potential they still had, their decision to come together to see how it goes turned into one of the greatest success stories in the history of punk music. Dookie might be the soundtrack to the '90s for many, but it was not all sunshine and roses getting there.