Ongoing History Daily: Mike Dirnt, Green Day’s casualty victim

Green Day bass player Mike Dirnt once had a reputation for getting hurt. 

The first major incident was at the Woodstock festival in August 1994.  During a mud fight with the crowd during Green Day’s set, Mike ended up being tackled in the confusion by one of the security guards assigned to protect him.  He fell against one of the speaker monitors and broke a bunch of teeth. That resulted in some emergency dental surgery. 

A couple of years later, Green Day had to abort their Insomniac tour when a longtime heart condition made it impossible to continue.  And then in June 1998, he got into a fight with Arion Salazar, the bass player for Third Eye Blind.  As Mike fought with Arion, someone nailed him in the head with a beer bottle, fracturing his skull.

This is why Green Day has an expensive medical plan.