Let's Get Dangerous

Who’s the Green Day song “She” about? Is she single?

VH1: How much of Dookie is a love letter to your wife Adrienne?

Billie Joe: There really weren’t any songs about her at that time. A lot of the songs are about this girl from San Diego, who went to Cal Berkeley. Adrienne and I weren’t going out at the time. We lost contact with each other for about a year. She got engaged to a guy in Minneapolis. I got involved with this other girl. I lived in the basement in Berkeley with all these guys from the East Bay and she lived upstairs in the apartment. We ended up having this year-long relationship. The song “She” was about her. 

VH1: How did you come to write it?

Billie Joe: She gave me this poem about this empowering woman, which I think is called “She.” I wrote the song as an answer back to her. My now ex-girlfriend is also on the songs “Sassafras Roots” and “Chump.”

VH1: So how did you and Adrienne get back together?

Billie Joe: My ex-girlfriend was moving to Ecuador to live there for the spring semester. At that point we were going to go on our tour and just keep going. So we had a hasty breakup. I never really talked to her ever again.

VH1: So what’s it like now for Adrienne to be married to you and your biggest record is filled with songs about another woman?

Billie Joe: I know she likes that song!