Green Day’s origins stretch farther back than Blink-182’s, but ultimately, both groups would be defining pop-punk bands of the early 2000s. There was a stretch during that time, though, where there was a friendly(ish) rivalry between the groups.
In an interview with NME, Blink’s Mark Hoppus spoke about the experience of Green Day opening for Blink on the Pop Disaster Tour, saying, “That was very strange because I grew up listening to Green Day. I literally waited for the day that Dookie came out, and I was in line waiting to buy it. I was a huge fan, then we’re touring with them, but it was a weird thing where Green Day were dipping at the time and Blink were ascendent. We were billed as co-headliners, but Blink were closing every night, and that was a strange sensation for us. Headlining over your idols is a little strange.”
He went on to speak about the sort-of-friendly competition between the two groups:
“We showed up, we thought we were cool, we had a No. 1 record [Take Off Your Pants And Jacket], we were the first punk band to ever have a No. 1 record, Green Day were on their way down for a little bit. We walked in thinking we were hot sh*t and Green Day walked in ready to fight — musically of course, they were super cool to us the whole time.
My wife and Billie [Joe Armstrong]’s wife were great friends. Billie was super nice to us. Then, when it came time to get on stage… It’s like athletes: We could be on different teams, but when we get on the field, we’re going to try and kick your ass.
We didn’t come with that attitude, but they did. They blew us off the stage the first few nights and we were like, ‘Oh sh*t, we have to up our game.’ Then it was this battle back-and-forth about who could put on the better show and who could win people over. It definitely made us a better band. I think I inspired them so much they were like, ‘We have to kill Blink-182 with an awesome album called American Idiot.’”
Read the full interview here.