Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong is about to re-enter the music world with a spring tour and an appearance at Austin’s South by Southwest on the schedule next month, but the rocker, fresh from a rehab stint, is now speaking about the issues that forced him to seek treatment and leave the touring life last fall.
In the new issue of Rolling Stone, the frontman details his years of alcohol and prescription drug abuse. He recalls, “I couldn’t predict where I was going to end up at the end of the night. I’d wake up in a strange house on a couch. I wouldn’t remember how. It was a complete blackout.”

Armstrong’s issues came to a head at the iHeartRadio festival in Las Vegas last year when he delivered an onstage tirade that included the smashing of instruments and a thorough tongue-lashing of festival organizers who had a clock counting down the band’s set time. Shortly after the incident, the band apologized and Armstrong sought treatment.

He says of the Vegas show, “I remember tiny things. The next morning, I woke up. I asked [my wife] Adrienne, ‘How bad was it?’ She said, ‘It’s bad.’ I called my manager. He said, ‘You’re getting on a plane, going back to Oakland and going into rehab immediately.’”

The full Rolling Stone interview with Armstrong arrives on newsstands this Friday.

-loudwire.com