Billie Joe Armstrong has covered David Bowie with Iron Maiden‘s Bruce Dickinson, and dedicated a version of Nirvana’s ‘Drain You’ to the late L7 icon Jennifer Finch. Watch below.
The Green Day frontman performed the tracks at two recent shows with The Coverups. Formed in 2018, the covers band played an intimate show in London early last year. They’d previously been joined on stage in the capital by Courtney Love.
Armstrong is joined in the group by Green Day touring member Jason White, their audio engineer Chris Dugan, and tour manager Bill Schneider (also of Pinhead Gunpowder).
On Monday (July 20), The Coverups took to the stage at The Roxy in West Hollywood, California, where they treated the crowd to a stacked set of rock ‘n’ roll classics. At one point in the gig, they delivered a rendition of ‘Drain You’ from Nirvana’s seminal 1991 album ‘Nevermind’.
“This song goes out to Jennifer Finch from L7,” Armstrong told the crowd to introduce the faithful cover. His tribute followed the death of Finch, aged 59, two days prior on July 18. The bassist and pioneering figure in LA’s punk scene had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
At their next show, held at San Diego’s Hard Rock Hotel last night (Thursday July 23), The Coverups brought out Iron Maiden frontman Dickinson to lend vocals to a Bowie classic. The group took on the late music legend’s 1972 song ‘All The Young Dudes’.
The band later covered another Bowie favourite, ‘Ziggy Stardust’, as well as hits by the likes of The Strokes, Tom Petty, Buzzcocks and Bryan Adams.
The Coverups are renowned for their chaotic shows where they put their spin on tracks by iconic artists such as Bowie and The Rolling Stones. In 2018, they invited Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan to perform with them.
Adrienne Armstrong, the wife of Billie Joe, had donated to a fundraiser to help with the high expenses of Jennifer Finch’s treatments and care – with $300,000 being raised in less than three days last week. Other contributors included Garbage, Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, Brian ‘Head’ Welch from KoRn, and Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament.
Sharing the news of the musician’s passing over the weekend, L7 said they were “shattered by the loss of our beloved bandmate, sister and friend Jennifer Finch, whose fierce spirit, humour and boundless creativity helped shape L7 and changed all of our lives forever”.
The band hailed Finch as “a true original who lived entirely on her own terms”, adding that “the impact she made on music, art and everyone lucky enough to know her cannot be measured”.
In other news, Billie Joe Armstrong has formed a new supergroup called Cretin Family with Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and former Ramones bassist CJ Ramone. They’ll perform at a 50th anniversary Ramones concert in LA next month.
Green Day recently announced the soundtrack to their upcoming coming-of-age film Nimrods and shared a new track, ‘I’m Never Gonna R.I.P.’. Their latest album, ‘Saviors’, arrived in 2024. NME gave the record a four-star review, describing it as “their best work since ‘American Idiot’”.
The trio spoke to NME at the BRITs 2024 about the LP landing at Number One in the UK. “I didn’t know what to expect, I mean, when you’ve been at it this long, you hope for the best,” Armstrong said. Drummer Tré Cool added: “That’s fucking amazing… It’s the best place to be at Number One in my opinion.”
