Mike Dirnt

Mike Dirnt

Michael Ryan Pritchard (also known as Van Gough) (born May 4, 1972, age 38) is an American musician, best known as the bassist, backing vocalist and co-founder of the American punk rock band Green Day. While at school, he would play "air-bass." While pretending to pluck the strings, he made the noise, "dirnt, dirnt, dirnt". As a result, his schoolmates began to call him "Mike Dirnt".

Life and Career

Dirnt was born and raised in California. Mike's mother was a heroin addict. He was given up for adoption when he was a baby to a Native American mother and a white father. He has one sister, Myla. When he was 7, his adoptive parents got a divorce. Mike lived with his father for a while, but confrontations sent him back to his mother. He lived there on the borderline of poverty, his sister left home at the age of 13. "There were all sorts of things happening," says Mike. "When I was in fourth or fifth grade, my mom stayed out all night, came home the next day with a guy, and he moved in. I'd never met the guy before, and all of a sudden he's my stepdad. We didn't get along for years. Later on, when I hit high school, my mom moved away from us, and me and my stepdad got real close. He instilled a lot in me. The one thing my family did give me is blue-collar morals. But then he died when I was 17."

Dirnt had left home when he was 17 to live out of his truck, but later rented a room in Billie Joe Armstrong's house. He attended Salesian High School (where he briefly played with the band Helder and the Heldernauts), John Swett High School, and ended up graduating from Pinole Valley High School in 1990; Green Day went on its first tour the day after graduation.

However, Dirnt almost didn't graduate. He had missed school because of work, and his mother wasn't around to sign absentee forms. Two unexcused absences caused him to lose a full grade point; and at the end of senior year, he had lowly results instead of the grades he'd worked to achieve. "I took my mom aside", Mike says. "I said, 'This is how it is. You have so much shit going on in your life, so if once every semester you ask me if I've done my homework and jump all over my case, that's not right. Have I failed yet? No. And I'm going to graduate if you stay off my back. The one time in your life you chose to have morals, and it's going to fuck me up."

Dirnt met Billie Joe Armstrong in 1982 at age 10 in the Rodeo Elementary School cafeteria, a few months before Armstrong's father died of Esophageal cancer. He and Armstrong first founded Sweet Children in 1987 at age 15, and they then started their current band Green Day with former Isocracy drummer John Kiffmeyer (a.k.a. Al Sobrante) and then switched to their present drummer, Tré Cool. Some years before, Dirnt moved in with Armstrong because his mother and sister moved away from Rodeo. Dirnt did not want to move away from his new-found best friend and love for music.

Green Day's Woodstock '94 gig was one for the history books: a huge mud fight ensued between the band and the audience. So many mud-covered fans got up on stage by the end of the set that one of the security guards mistook Dirnt for a marauding fan, tackled him, and broke several of his teeth while attempting to haul him off the stage.

He used to play a Gibson G3 bass, but during Nimrod., Tré Cool accidentally broke it on stage trying to show fan Brendan Taylor how to spin a bass around his back. Armstrong then sent Dirnt's bass tech out to get him a new bass. It resulted in a '69 Fender Precision Bass. He later asked Fender to make him a custom P-Bass, and the result is modeled after the '51 P-Bass with a '59 Custom Shop "Hot Rod" Split-Coil Pickup, a BadAss III bridge and a thinner neck. It was released in early 2004.

Armstrong credits Dirnt as "The best bass player in the history of punk rock" in Bullet in a Bible.

Personal Life

Dirnt has a daughter, Estelle Desiree, who was born in April 1997 (with first wife Anastasia) and has the nickname "Hero." He won full custody over her in the summer of 2008 and took her to live in Oakland. In 2004, he married his then girlfriend Sarah. The two divorced that same year. On March 14, 2009, Dirnt married Brittney Cade. Their wedding was a private ceremony in Brittney's hometown of Ojai, California. Dirnt has two children with Cade: a son, Brixton Michael, born on October 11, 2008, and a daughter, Ryan Ruby Mae, born on November 29, 2010.

Dirnt is part owner of Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, a diner in Emeryville, California.The diner gets its name from a song by punk band The Clash entitled "Rudie Can't Fail," off of their album London Calling.

After the album Warning was released, Dirnt needed surgery for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

 

''' *Discography '''
 * Green Day
 * 39/Smooth (1990) -- bass guitar, vocals
 * Kerplunk! (1992) -- bass guitar, vocals
 * Dookie (1994) -- bass guitar, vocals
 * Insomniac (1995) -- bass guitar, vocals
 * Nimrod (1997) -- bass guitar, vocals, baseball bat (as written in the album's liner notes)
 * Warning (2000) -- bass guitar, vocals, farfisa on "Misery"
 * American Idiot (2004) -- bass guitar, vocals, lead vocals on "Nobody Likes You"
 * 21st Century Breakdown (2009) -- bass guitar, vocals, lead vocals on "Modern World"
 * edit] The Network
 * Money Money 2020 (2003) -- vocals, bass guitar
 * Omega 3000 (TBA)

edit] Foxboro Hot Tubs
'*Stop Drop and Roll!!!'' (2008) -- bass guitar, vocals '''

edit] The Frustrators
Bass and backing vocals on all

'*Achtung Jackass'' (2002) -- bass guitar, backing vocals '''
 * Bored in the USA (EP) (2002) -- bass guitar, backing vocals
 * Griller (EP) (2011) -- bass guitar, backing vocals

edit] Screeching Weasel
'*How to Make Enemies and Irritate People'' (1994) -- bass, backing vocals '''
 * Suzanne Is Getting Married (EP) (1994) -- bass and backing vocals on track 1

edit] Squirtgun
'*Squirtgun'' (1995) -- bass and backing vocals on "Make It Up" '''

Other Media Appearances

'* King of the Hill '' - (TV Series - 1997) - teenager '''
 *  Riding in Vans with Boys  (Film - 2003) - himself
 *  Live Freaky! Die Freaky!  (Film - 2006)
 *  The Simpsons Movie  (Film - 2007) - himself
 *  Heart Like a Hand Grenade  (Film - 2008) - himself
 *  Green Day: Rock Band  (Video Game - 2010) - himself

Bands

'''*Green Day '''
 * The Network
 * Foxboro Hot Tubs
 * The Frustrators
 * Screeching Weasel
 * Squirtgun

Equipment

'Basses'

'''*Mike Dirnt Precision Bass (in several different colors including: black, white and a two-tone sunburst) '''
 * Fender 1969 Vintage Precision Bass (w/ a BadAss II Bridge, Seymour Duncan Antiquity Pride II Pickups) aka "Stella"
 * Fender Standard Precision Bass
 * Fender American Jazz Bass (used with the S-1 Switch "down")
 * Fender 1966 Vintage Precision Bass
 * Gibson G3 Bass
 * Peavey Patriot Bass (no longer used)

'Amplification'

'''*Mesa/Boogie M-2000 Head (x3) '''
 * Mesa/Boogie 6x10 Custom Cab (x2+)
 * Mesa/Boogie 1x18 Cab (x2+)
 * Mesa/Boogie 2x10 Cab (x2+)
 * Fender Pro 1200 Head (x2)
 * Fender Pro 800 Head (x1)
 * Fender Pro 810 Cab (x3+)

'Misc'

'''*Ernie Ball Super Slinky Strings '''
 * Shure ULX Wireless
 * Custom Audio Electronics Switcher
 * Custom Moody 2.5" Signature Leather Straps
 * Custom "Dirnt" Dunlop Tortex Picks .76 mm and .88 mm
 * Zinky Master Blaster Boost Pedal
 * Zinky True Grit Overdrive Pedal

Dirnt plays exclusively with a pick as opposed to plucking the strings with his fingers.