Billie Joe Armstrong

As a musician, lyricist, and front man for the pop-punk band Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong became one of the most successful and influential rock stars of his generation. Forming the group that would eventually be known as Green Day with childhood friend Mike Dirnt in the late 1980s, Armstrong wrote nearly all of the songs featured on their breakout major label debut, 1994's Dookie. Hits like "When I Come Around" catapulted Armstrong and the band to MTV stardom. Follow up efforts such as Insomniac and Nimrod were also successes. Everything changed when the high-concept American Idiot hit stores in 2004. Described as a "punk rock opera," the album debuted at No. 1, far surpassing Green Day's previous efforts and returning them to rock music's upper-echelon. Armstrong expanded on the operatic structure with 21st Century Breakdown, the band's eighth studio album, which usurped the position of the best-selling record in Green Day's history. Praised by many for playing a key role in the resurgent interest in punk rock, Armstrong was undeniably a major force in American rock music.