Billie Joe Armstrong has shared his reaction to Green Day‘s music being included in an episode of The Office US.
During the latest instalment of their Office Ladies podcast, Jenna Fischer (who played Pam in the hit show) and Angela Kinsey (Angela) broke down a 2009 festive episode called ‘Secret Santa’.
The Christmas special sees Andy (played by Ed Helms) and Dwight (Rainn Wilson) sing Green Day’s 2004 single ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’ on karaoke at an office get-together.
Fischer, who is friends with Armstrong, revealed that the frontman had binge-watched The Office in 2019 and she asked him to provide a summary for ‘Secret Santa’ to introduce the most recent Office Ladies deep dive.
“It’s Christmas time at Dunder Mifflin. Jim and Dwight are in charge of this year’s Christmas party, and they’re doing a pretty good job,” he began. “Jim tells Phyllis she can play Santa, something she’s wanted to do for years. This naturally causes Michael to spiral…”
Later, Fischer asked the musician if he recalled giving The Office permission to use ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’ for Helms and Wilson’s karaoke scene.
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“I was binge-watching The Office for the first time, and I was watching that episode and then all of a sudden the song came on and I was… completely taken by surprise,” Armstrong explained.
“And like I think my face started to get red, and Andy started singing harmonies, which was almost like the… because we do have a musical for ‘American Idiot’, and he sang the same exact harmony that’s in the musical. So it was, it was good.”
Responding to the audio message, Fischer said: “Well, I just love it that he was surprised by his own song during that rewatch.” Kinsey replied: “I know, that’s so sweet.”
You can listen to the podcast in full here.
Office Ladies was launched back in 2019, and sees Fischer and Kinsey break down The Office episode-by-episode by sharing behind-the-scenes stories, interviewing the cast and crew, and answering questions from fans.
Back in November 2021, John Krasinski spoke about refusing to film a scene for The Office that saw his character Jim cheat on wife Pam. “That’s the only time I remember putting my foot down,” he said in an oral history of the show.