At Saturday's Outside Lands concert in San Francisco, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong asked, "Alright, who knows how to play the guitar? I need a guitarist. I need a guitar-ISH. It's only three fucking chords." Over at stage left, a 10-year-old boy named Montgomery got Billie Joe's attention, saying he could play.
"Alright kid, get your ass up here!"
Armstrong threw a guitar around him, and the boy killed it. Without any hesitation, he played the chords for the song "Knowledge," a cover from Operation Ivy, a Berkeley band that used to perform at the city's punk rock club 924 Gilman, where Green Day also got its start…
The boy kept going — and the crowd roared far louder than any other moment in the show. One woman standing behind me was sobbing and screaming at the same time.
When Armstrong asked the boy his name, he replied it was Montgomery. Armstrong told the boy he'd call him Monty — and the crowd started chanting his new rock star name.
"Oh, and you can keep the guitar," Armstrong said.
