Ongoing History Daily: Green Day’s Al Sobrante. Who?

You’ve probably heard of Tre Cool, the Green Day drummer with the funny nickname. But did you know there was another one?

When Green Day first formed as Sweet Children in 1986, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt bounced between drummers for a couple years before settling on their friend John Kiffmeyer in ’88. Kiffmeyer was better known by his stage name of Al Sobrante, and is credited as such on Green Day’s early releases. But where did that name come from?

The story goes that Kiffmeyer was out running one day, and somehow tripped and knocked himself out. When he came to, he awoke near a sign that read “Welcome to El Sobrante, California,” which was Kiffmeyer’s hometown. But he was woozy and misread it as “Welcome, Al Sobrante, to California.”

Kiffmeyer was confused and briefly believed he himself was the Al Sobrante the sign was referring to, and after retelling the story the name stuck.