Green Day Drummer Tré Cool: We'll Headline Glastonbury "If They Ask"
Green Day drummer Tré Cool has told NME the band would headline Glastonbury Festival's Pyramid Stage "if they ask us." The interview came ahead of the UK release of Nimrods, a new film inspired by the band's early touring days, which opens in British cinemas on August 11.
What Cool actually said
Asked whether Green Day has ever come close to headlining Glastonbury, Cool called it "the last great festival that we haven't done." He said he only ever sees the day's schedule, not backstage politics: "They're not really calling the drummer!" The trio has previously headlined Coachella, Riot Fest, Lollapalooza, Reading & Leeds, Download, Pinkpop and Rock am Ring — leaving Glastonbury as one of the few major festivals still missing from their résumé.
Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong attended Glastonbury as a spectator in 2019 to watch his son's band, SWMRS, perform. The festival is taking a fallow year in 2026 to let the Worthy Farm site rest, and returns the following summer from Wednesday, June 23 to Sunday, June 27.
Who else is in the running
Festival organizer Emily Eavis recently shot down rumors that Madonna would headline, telling press that roughly 95% of what's reported about Glastonbury isn't true, and that the headliner lineup is already locked in. Bookmakers' favorites for the Pyramid Stage slot reportedly include Sam Fender, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Little Simz, with Harry Styles, Radiohead, Fontaines D.C., Muse and The Rolling Stones also mentioned — Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have both hinted the Stones could tour again in 2027; their only Glastonbury headline set to date was in 2013.
Nimrods, a biopic, and the American Idiot movie
Nimrods is written and directed by Lee Kirk, a fictional teen comedy about three high schoolers who mistakenly believe their band has been booked to open for Green Day's New Year's Eve show. The band appears as themselves in the film and also serves as producers. The soundtrack features several of the band's classic tracks plus a new song, "I'm Never Gonna R.I.P." At last week's Los Angeles premiere after-party, the band played a surprise pop-up set.
Asked about the recurring idea of a biopic, Cool said the proposal resurfaces periodically, but the band "isn't done yet" and doesn't want to spend its energy looking backward. As for the long-discussed American Idiot film: in 2011 reports said Tom Hanks was interested in producing, screenwriter Rolin Jones said in 2013 the script was "nearly finished," and in 2016 Armstrong told NME the project had been greenlit by HBO with him reprising his Broadway musical role as St. Jimmy — but by 2020 he said the plans had "pretty much gone away."