You have to search the absolute demons of your soul to make a great record.

I started off small and then this was just the great opportunity.

We do have American Idiot picked up by HBO and I wrote the record and concept to it. [We have] the writer Rolin Jones and [director] Michael Mayer [who also directed the Broadway production], so we'll see what happens.

I don't like LA. The majority just seem to be so artificial. Look at how they worship everything they think is fashionable. Isn't it sick?

Controversy What controversy This is reality. What I see is that no matter if you're a conservative or a liberal or whatever side you stand on, this is the reality of the situation - that people's families and their young kids are being affected.

It's not necessarily getting older or the change that comes with it, I think it's more about the memories that you have. Where you can look at your life in these eras.

I loved the independent spirit of the whole experience, instead of doing a big Hollywood picture, or something like that where I would have felt more out of place.