Worry Rock - Prologue.
Title: Worry Rock - Prologue
Author: Rebecka
Pairing: young!(Billie Joe/John, Billie Joe/Tre)
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Everybody in this story belong to themselves and I’m just using them for my own guilty pleasure, for entertainment only and completely without permission. I’m not making any profit out of it. Even though there are a lot of real facts in this story, remember that it is still fiction and I’m not saying that anything of this is true.
Word Count: 1 441 words.
Chapters: There will be eight chapters, excluding the prologue and epilogue. Every chapter will have its own rating, and word count, but the pairing remains the same through the whole story.
Notes: It takes place in the formation and beginning of Green Day’s career. Billie Joe is dating John (Al Sobrante) when said drummer leaves the band to go to college. (I call Al Sobrante ‘John’ through the whole story, because the Tre I’m writing never gets to know him as Al.) Will Billie let their new drummer Tre in? Will Tre ever succeed on becoming the world’s greatest drummer? This story is told from Tre’s Point of View and is therefore almost all about him, his drums and his feelings for his new friends.
Dedication: This is dedicated to Tracy, because she’s the wall I bounce ideas against and she’s helped me with the grammar. Hopefully, there won’t be any mistakes, but since it isn’t beta-read and since I’m Swedish and this isn’t my first language, don’t get too judgmental if you find something that’s spelled wrong. This is just for fun, but it’s also a great way to learn languages in.
And, a second dedication goes out to Barb, because she’s become a great friend to me and there’s no one better to babble about Tre with. So, hopefully, she’ll enjoy this little piece just as much as I enjoy talking to her.
It’s also dedicated to anyone who comments and follows the whole story. So, if you read it, please leave a comment, short or long, simple or rambling, it doesn’t matter - I just want to know what you guys think.
Worry Rock - Prologue
--
I’ve always known that I wanted to be a drummer. Ever since I first laid my eyes on Keith Moon’s two Premier Bass drums and I saw the guy take away his hi-hat to replace it with only crash and ride cymbals, I knew that I had someone to follow.
I was very interested in music when I was younger and when we moved to California, and I met my neighbour and future band mate, that’s when everything started.
His name was Lawrence Livermore and he owned the record label Lookout! Records. Every time my dad was away, I remember sneaking over to Lawrence’s house to watch him and his friends play, in a band called The Lookouts.
I remember it like it was yesterday, the first time Lawrence wanted me to try out his drum kit. The snare was broken and they only had one cymbal, and I had no idea what I was doing, but I started to beat out a solid bass drum beat with my foot, and then they followed with guitar and bass and soon I was forming something that actually sounded good!
Lawrence was thrilled, and it didn’t bother him at all that he recruited me to his band, even though the other guy’s were a lot older than me. I was only twelve.
We did good, though, and we started to play downtown, in front of people for once. I was really enjoying myself, and it was easy to get to know other musicians and bands once we got into a place called 924 Gilman Street. As Lawrence knew most of the bands playing there, he made me hang out with him while he listened to a lot of them, letting me see what it was all about.
And, I must say, it was quite exciting to be one of the guys in the gang, you know. I was hanging out with a lot of people who were in their twenties, and maybe even older, but I soon found a couple in my own age to talk to.
I remember when I first met Mike, one of my best friends nowadays. He was in a band called Sweet Children and was quite a regular at Gilman Street.
It was easy to get to know him, to make friends with him even. He was funny and I remember that he made me laugh a lot, and even though we were two different kinds of people, we both shared one true passion - music. I could talk for hours about the different bands I was into, and then listen as he did the same, and yes, it was a quite nice friendship we created.
Mike played bass and was always in company with his two band mates, Billie and John. John liked to change his name a lot (and he was also known as Al Sobrante), and was a nice guy and all that, but he was left-handed and I always thought it was funny to watch him play. He had his hi-hat on his right side and used to do all these weird flams, making it sound so wrong that it almost sounded right, you know? He did these weird solo-parts where it almost sounded like he was crashing his whole kit, like someone was falling down a flight of stairs. It was weird, but I liked him. He was cool.
He was dating the singer of the band, Billie, or Billie Joe as he always corrected me to say. Billie was one of those people who looked like he was aimed for the stars, you know. He had that “famous”-look to him.
I became really close to Billie, because he came over to Lawrence’s house a few times to talk about an up-coming record. After they had talked things through, we used to go outside and hang out, and he’d tell me about his family and school and how he just wanted to move away from this town.
And I used to nod and listen and try not to get lost in his emerald coloured eyes. I’d never told him about my sexuality, but I used to joke about girls and lie about getting laid from time to time, just so he wouldn’t suspect anything.
Truth be told, I was really jealous of John.
When Sweet Children recorded their first record, and changed their name to Green Day in the process, they became really big over at Gilman. It became clear that Green Day was going to be too big for that place one day, and when it was time for them to hit the road and do their first tour, I was really sad to see them go.
But I did my thing and I played with Livermore as much as I could. When I didn’t play with my band, I was down in my basement, playing alone and fantasizing about getting famous one day.
I always wanted a DW drum kit, just like the one Marky Ramone played, you know. I guess it was because I watched a lot of California bands, but that was like my dream; to own a DW kit. I wanted to try out to maybe create my own kit some day, and to see if Keith Moon’s way really was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.
I liked how I could build my own kit and learn from my own mistakes. But, I watched guys in big, famous bands and I was almost shocked on how many drums they used for so little sound.
That’s when I decided to follow my own instinct and not build a kit after any of my idols. I was going to become better than them some day, I was sure of it.
Just when I had gotten my own rhythm settled and worked so hard on creating a kit that was somewhat only mine, Lawrence came to me, looking almost devastated. Apparently, Green Day was back from their tour, and things weren’t looking too good for them.
I rushed down to Gilman, meeting up with Mike outside the front door, looking awfully tired and not at all like the happy, bubbly friend I’d gotten to know earlier. He was practically shaking as I leaned in to give him a hug, because that’s what we did, and when I looked into his eyes and he told me that John wanted to leave the band, I knew what was coming.
“Billie’s giving up,” he’d said, short and simple and yet worth so much, and it was so heavy and hard to comprehend that it left me in complete shock. John was leaving and Billie wasn’t willing to continue without his boyfriend. I could see the pieces of Mike’s shattered heart in his eyes, pleading for me to put them back together. And, I knew what I had to do.
If you haven’t played in a real punk band before, you haven’t played anything. Green Day’s music was fast, really fast, and when I listened through their record for the first time since I’d told Mike I’d give it a try, I was already nervous.
This was my chance, my big opportunity to prove to everybody, including a certain Billie Joe that I was good enough to be a face of punk. I needed to stretch myself so far that John would look back and regret his choice to leave this band, and I was going to do it faster than anyone could’ve ever imagined.
I had to re-arrange my new drum kit, I had to borrow John’s left-handed style, to impress Billie and get his attention and it was hard. The guy was a fucking mess.
John had gone away to college, but not too far away for the couple to break up and Billie was like a love-sick puppy when he wasn’t in the presence of his lover. But I tried my hardest to look passed that, to maybe go and find a future somewhere in his eyes, and after practising so hard that my fingers were burning with blisters, I thought I saw something in him.
Green Day was now Billie, Mike and me, and I don’t think I’ve ever challenged myself this hard before. Mike and I worked really well together, and his bass sounded like it was made for my toms. But Billie and I had trouble connecting, and I think he had a problem seeing me as a replace for his former drummer. But I didn’t care, I was going to show him what I was made of, and I was going to blow his mind.
--
To Be Continued.
Author: Rebecka
Pairing: young!(Billie Joe/John, Billie Joe/Tre)
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Everybody in this story belong to themselves and I’m just using them for my own guilty pleasure, for entertainment only and completely without permission. I’m not making any profit out of it. Even though there are a lot of real facts in this story, remember that it is still fiction and I’m not saying that anything of this is true.
Word Count: 1 441 words.
Chapters: There will be eight chapters, excluding the prologue and epilogue. Every chapter will have its own rating, and word count, but the pairing remains the same through the whole story.
Notes: It takes place in the formation and beginning of Green Day’s career. Billie Joe is dating John (Al Sobrante) when said drummer leaves the band to go to college. (I call Al Sobrante ‘John’ through the whole story, because the Tre I’m writing never gets to know him as Al.) Will Billie let their new drummer Tre in? Will Tre ever succeed on becoming the world’s greatest drummer? This story is told from Tre’s Point of View and is therefore almost all about him, his drums and his feelings for his new friends.
Dedication: This is dedicated to Tracy, because she’s the wall I bounce ideas against and she’s helped me with the grammar. Hopefully, there won’t be any mistakes, but since it isn’t beta-read and since I’m Swedish and this isn’t my first language, don’t get too judgmental if you find something that’s spelled wrong. This is just for fun, but it’s also a great way to learn languages in.
And, a second dedication goes out to Barb, because she’s become a great friend to me and there’s no one better to babble about Tre with. So, hopefully, she’ll enjoy this little piece just as much as I enjoy talking to her.
It’s also dedicated to anyone who comments and follows the whole story. So, if you read it, please leave a comment, short or long, simple or rambling, it doesn’t matter - I just want to know what you guys think.
Worry Rock - Prologue
--
I’ve always known that I wanted to be a drummer. Ever since I first laid my eyes on Keith Moon’s two Premier Bass drums and I saw the guy take away his hi-hat to replace it with only crash and ride cymbals, I knew that I had someone to follow.
I was very interested in music when I was younger and when we moved to California, and I met my neighbour and future band mate, that’s when everything started.
His name was Lawrence Livermore and he owned the record label Lookout! Records. Every time my dad was away, I remember sneaking over to Lawrence’s house to watch him and his friends play, in a band called The Lookouts.
I remember it like it was yesterday, the first time Lawrence wanted me to try out his drum kit. The snare was broken and they only had one cymbal, and I had no idea what I was doing, but I started to beat out a solid bass drum beat with my foot, and then they followed with guitar and bass and soon I was forming something that actually sounded good!
Lawrence was thrilled, and it didn’t bother him at all that he recruited me to his band, even though the other guy’s were a lot older than me. I was only twelve.
We did good, though, and we started to play downtown, in front of people for once. I was really enjoying myself, and it was easy to get to know other musicians and bands once we got into a place called 924 Gilman Street. As Lawrence knew most of the bands playing there, he made me hang out with him while he listened to a lot of them, letting me see what it was all about.
And, I must say, it was quite exciting to be one of the guys in the gang, you know. I was hanging out with a lot of people who were in their twenties, and maybe even older, but I soon found a couple in my own age to talk to.
I remember when I first met Mike, one of my best friends nowadays. He was in a band called Sweet Children and was quite a regular at Gilman Street.
It was easy to get to know him, to make friends with him even. He was funny and I remember that he made me laugh a lot, and even though we were two different kinds of people, we both shared one true passion - music. I could talk for hours about the different bands I was into, and then listen as he did the same, and yes, it was a quite nice friendship we created.
Mike played bass and was always in company with his two band mates, Billie and John. John liked to change his name a lot (and he was also known as Al Sobrante), and was a nice guy and all that, but he was left-handed and I always thought it was funny to watch him play. He had his hi-hat on his right side and used to do all these weird flams, making it sound so wrong that it almost sounded right, you know? He did these weird solo-parts where it almost sounded like he was crashing his whole kit, like someone was falling down a flight of stairs. It was weird, but I liked him. He was cool.
He was dating the singer of the band, Billie, or Billie Joe as he always corrected me to say. Billie was one of those people who looked like he was aimed for the stars, you know. He had that “famous”-look to him.
I became really close to Billie, because he came over to Lawrence’s house a few times to talk about an up-coming record. After they had talked things through, we used to go outside and hang out, and he’d tell me about his family and school and how he just wanted to move away from this town.
And I used to nod and listen and try not to get lost in his emerald coloured eyes. I’d never told him about my sexuality, but I used to joke about girls and lie about getting laid from time to time, just so he wouldn’t suspect anything.
Truth be told, I was really jealous of John.
When Sweet Children recorded their first record, and changed their name to Green Day in the process, they became really big over at Gilman. It became clear that Green Day was going to be too big for that place one day, and when it was time for them to hit the road and do their first tour, I was really sad to see them go.
But I did my thing and I played with Livermore as much as I could. When I didn’t play with my band, I was down in my basement, playing alone and fantasizing about getting famous one day.
I always wanted a DW drum kit, just like the one Marky Ramone played, you know. I guess it was because I watched a lot of California bands, but that was like my dream; to own a DW kit. I wanted to try out to maybe create my own kit some day, and to see if Keith Moon’s way really was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.
I liked how I could build my own kit and learn from my own mistakes. But, I watched guys in big, famous bands and I was almost shocked on how many drums they used for so little sound.
That’s when I decided to follow my own instinct and not build a kit after any of my idols. I was going to become better than them some day, I was sure of it.
Just when I had gotten my own rhythm settled and worked so hard on creating a kit that was somewhat only mine, Lawrence came to me, looking almost devastated. Apparently, Green Day was back from their tour, and things weren’t looking too good for them.
I rushed down to Gilman, meeting up with Mike outside the front door, looking awfully tired and not at all like the happy, bubbly friend I’d gotten to know earlier. He was practically shaking as I leaned in to give him a hug, because that’s what we did, and when I looked into his eyes and he told me that John wanted to leave the band, I knew what was coming.
“Billie’s giving up,” he’d said, short and simple and yet worth so much, and it was so heavy and hard to comprehend that it left me in complete shock. John was leaving and Billie wasn’t willing to continue without his boyfriend. I could see the pieces of Mike’s shattered heart in his eyes, pleading for me to put them back together. And, I knew what I had to do.
If you haven’t played in a real punk band before, you haven’t played anything. Green Day’s music was fast, really fast, and when I listened through their record for the first time since I’d told Mike I’d give it a try, I was already nervous.
This was my chance, my big opportunity to prove to everybody, including a certain Billie Joe that I was good enough to be a face of punk. I needed to stretch myself so far that John would look back and regret his choice to leave this band, and I was going to do it faster than anyone could’ve ever imagined.
I had to re-arrange my new drum kit, I had to borrow John’s left-handed style, to impress Billie and get his attention and it was hard. The guy was a fucking mess.
John had gone away to college, but not too far away for the couple to break up and Billie was like a love-sick puppy when he wasn’t in the presence of his lover. But I tried my hardest to look passed that, to maybe go and find a future somewhere in his eyes, and after practising so hard that my fingers were burning with blisters, I thought I saw something in him.
Green Day was now Billie, Mike and me, and I don’t think I’ve ever challenged myself this hard before. Mike and I worked really well together, and his bass sounded like it was made for my toms. But Billie and I had trouble connecting, and I think he had a problem seeing me as a replace for his former drummer. But I didn’t care, I was going to show him what I was made of, and I was going to blow his mind.
--
To Be Continued.