“He started crying, and goes, You're the only one that understands me”: Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong recalls the day he made his childhood hero Eddie Van Halen cry

Billie Joe Armstrong and Eddie Van Halen.

Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong has spoken about an emotional meeting he had with Eddie Van Halen, one of his childhood heroes, and admitted that talking to the legendary guitarist was a “heavy experience.”

In a recent appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, Armstrong revealed that one of the first records he ever bought was Van Halen’s Fair Warning, and said that listening to Eddie Van Halen’s guitar solo on Mean Streets blew his nine-year-old mind. Yesterday, during an appearance on the Howard Stern show, Armstrong also revealed that the very first concert he ever attended, as a 12-year-old, was a Van Halen show, and that he was so overwhelmed with excitement that he actually cried, as the Pasadena quartet were his favourite band at the time.