Billie Joe Armstrong discusses sexuality and being a "bisexual icon"

"Being a Gen X-er, I feel like there was a seed that got planted where it was the era in the '90s that we came up, where men were discovering more of being with other men and being more bisexual, and coming out with that, whether it was someone like Kurt Cobain or what I was saying," Armstrong said to PEOPLE noting that we're living in a world which is more open to queerness, as opposed to back in 1995 when he first came out as bisexual.

"It's way more complex now, as far as sexuality. You're like, 'Wow, we've really come a long way.' Even though it's still kind of looked at as being taboo, I think people now are a lot more brave than they've ever been. I think people are way more open now."

ty billie joe armstrong our bisexual king 👑 pic.twitter.com/alCIKljZ3y

— Kara🦄 (@bailedup) January 23, 2024

"Sexuality is always so much more than what the standard, nuclear-family type of way of looking at things," he says. "But I have been married — there's this other side of me that's very conventional when it comes to my 30-year marriage to my wife. But I just look at sexuality: It's not one way or the other. And if anybody ever tries to say that, I don't think they're really being honest with themselves," he continues.

There is a song called "Bobby Sox", which features on their latest album, Saviors, in which Armstrong discusses sexuality and said: “It’s the ’90s song that we never wrote. It started out being a song I wrote for my wife but as it materialised, I wanted to switch it up and added, ‘Do you wanna be my boyfriend?’ on top of ‘Do you wanna be girlfriend’… So the song becomes a kind of universal anthem." In response to being called a "bisexual icon", he added: "I like it. I think it's fucking cool that someone calls me a bisexual icon. I've seen that before. I'm like, 'fuck, yeah!'"