American Idiot Chords by Green Day

_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [C#m] _ _
[G#] _ _ [C#] _ [F#] _ [G#] _ [G#] _ [C#] _ _
[G#] _ _ [C#] _ [F#] _ [G#] _ [Em] [E] Don't wanna be an American idiot
[C#] [F#] Don't [C#] _ [F#] _ [E] want a nation under the [G#] new [C#] mayor
[F#] _ [G#] _ [N] Can you hear that sound [G#] of [C#] hysteria?
[F#] _ [G#] _ [F#] [D#m] The subliminal [Am] mark for [G#] [C#] commission
[F#] _ [G#] _ [C#] _ I'm too under your kind [G#] attention
One cross the alien [D#] mission
Everything is a mental [G#] fear
_ _ _ [C#] _ Tell me centuries of [G#] tomorrow
We're not the ones who'll [D#] be followed
For that's it, that's it, look
[N] _ _ _ _ [C#m] _ [F#] _
[C#] _ _ _ [F#] _ [G#] _ [N] Well, maybe I'm the fat cat [G#] America
[C#] [F#] I'm [G#] _ [F#m] [A#] not a part of the [G#] redneck agenda
[C#] [F#] Not [G#] _ [Em] _ everybody's super [G#]-malignant
[C#] [F#] That's [G#] _ [N] when I wonder, they [E] ain't from Illinois
[C#] _ [F#] _ [C#m] _ [C#] I'm too under your kind [G#] attention
One cross the alien [D#] mission
Everything is a mental [G#] fear
Tell _ [C#m] _ me centuries of [G#] tomorrow
We're not the ones who'll be [D#] followed
For that's it, that's it, [G] look
You know what?
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_ [C#m] _ [F#] _ [G#] _ _ [C#] _ [F#] _ [G#] _
[E] [F#m] I'm right here, _ [C#m] _ _ _
man
That's right, [F#] hey
[G#m] Oh
_ [A] [G#] That's [E] right, [C#] hey
[F#] _ [G#] _ _ [C#m] _ _ [G#m] _
_ [C#] _ [F#] _ [G#] _ _ [C#] _ [F#] _ [G#] _
_ [C#] _ [G#] _ _ _ [C#m] _ [F#] _ [G#]
Are [C#] you guys ready [F#] to sing [G#] along?
[E] _ _ [F#] _ [G#m] _
[C#] I want you [G#] to sing so loud
That [C#] every fucking [F#] redneck [G#] in America
Hears you [C#] tonight, alright?
[G#] _ [E] _ [C#] _ [F#] _ [G#] _
[C#] Don't [F#] wanna be an [G#] American idiot
[F#] One nation [G#] controlled by the [C#] mayor
[G#] Information age [G] of the Zika _ _
[B] _ [C#] I'm too under your kind [G#] attention
One cross the [E] alien [D#] mission
Everything is a mental [E] fear
[G#] _ _ _
_ [C#] Tell me centuries of [G#] tomorrow
We're not the ones who'll be [D#] followed
For that's it, that's it, look
[G#] You know [C#] what? _
[E] _ [C#m] _ _ _ _ _ [F#] _ [G#] _
_ [C#m] _ [F#] _ [G#] _ _ [C#m] _ [F#] _ [G#] _
[N] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
[N] _ Welcome to the Green Day World Tour 2005
I _ think to do something that you feel in your heart that's great
You need to make a lot of mistakes to get there
Anything that's, I think, successful is a series of mistakes
With American Idiot, I mean, it started off with having band practices
And we came back and we started getting back into band practice
Down in [A] Billy's basement and stuff
And [E] literally after two or three weeks
We were just like, this sucks
We know how to have band practice
This is not how we want to approach making a record
_ [G#] I mean, even to the point where [C#] Billy called me at one [N] point
And was like, do you even want to do this anymore?
American Idiot was sort of a whole new
[Fm] Let's take on the planet sort [G] of vibe
You should do it at least once in your lifetime
[G#] I think we were kind of [G] scared when we were doing demos
But I think that there [A#] was some point [Gm] that like, you know, fuck [C#m] it
If people [D] fucking hang us, then [N] fuck it
Day one of the record, I mean, first thing we did
Everything was about setting the goals of this record
You know, American Idiot, after recording it
We knew we had accomplished something
That was completely above anything else we'd ever done
As soon as we wrote American Idiot, we kind of looked at each other like,
This is, this is better
We set that bar and then we sort of looked at ourselves like,
Okay, now we have a mountain to climb
I write a lot of songs when I'm going on walks
And I was kind of thinking like, who is the American Idiot?
What is this person?
Who is that guy?
What kind of character is going to come out of that?
Who is it?
And I just remember going on this walk and then thinking
I'm the son of rage and love, Jesus of suburbia
I mean, those two lines right there for me were, oh my god, here we go
It was opening up something that not only was completely a new thing
But there was something about it that dug up some past, like, _ demons that,
That you, seemed like you closed off a long time ago
But you never reconciled with
And then those two lines came out and it was,
They excited me and scared the living piss out of me at the same time
Every single line that you write,
You hang on every single word and you hang on every single moment
And for Jesus of suburbia, when people are singing it back to you,
They're not just reflecting what you've,
The things about the song that you're wrapped up in
But it's also what their lives are wrapped up in it too
It's too much of an emotional moment
It's one of the most emotional moments in a song I've ever written
That's the only way you can look at a song like that
It's like you can't sit here and look at it and say, oh, this is a catchy number
This is, you know, oh god, I'd love to dance to this song
For a song like Jesus of suburbia,
There's too much emotion at stake to just simply say it like that
You can, you don't even have to say you love that song
I don't even think that's a way to describe it
It's not about, it's about all the emotional baggage that you come with
And that you are just, you finally have an outlet for
That's what Jesus of suburbia is to me
And when it's reflected back at you by 65,000 people,
It's, I don't know, it's a feeling you can't even describe _ _ _