 FULL NAME : Michael Ryan Pritchard (Dirnt)
BIRTHDATE : born May 4, 1972
HOMETOWN : Berkeley, California, USA
EYE COLOR : Blue
NATURAL HAIR COLOR : Brown
HEIGHT : 5'10
MARTIAL STATUS : Married
CHILDREN : Estelle Desiree (Stella); born April 1997, to ex-wife, Anastasia
FAMILY : Mike was adopted as a child. His adoptive parents divorced when he was aged 7, and both are now remarried.
INSTRUMENTS : Bass, farfisa, guitar, drums,
OTHER BANDS : Mike still plays with The Frustrators . He has also played with the Screeching Weasel, Crummy Musicians, and Squirtgun.
ROLE : Bass player Biography Mike Dirnt, born Michael Ryan Pritchard was brought into this world on the 4th of May 1972. His Mother, a heroin addict, put him up for adoption when he was only six weeks old. As a kid, Mike was frequently plagued by illnesses (including a heart condition) that were thought to be related to his birth mother’s deadly addiction. His adoptive parents, Cheryl Nasser and Patrick Pritchard lived in a suburb five miles from Rodeo with their own child, Mycla. Unfortunately, Mike’s adoptive parents divorced when he was just seven. Mike was forced to choose between his struggling Native American mother and European father. In the end he chose his mother, who re-married to a man that Mike would eventually have a very close relationship with. “When I hit high school, my mom moved away from us, and me and my step dad 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.” As Mike grew up he became an intelligent, hyperactive boy, with ‘scrawny limbs, goofy grin, and a blonde bowl-cut.’ Mike met Billie Joe Armstrong one cold, winter break at Carquinez Middle School. It was a few months before Billie Joe’s father would die, and Mike was one of his few friends that ever got a chance to meet him. Their passion for music set the basis for an almost instant friendship. “Mike really wanted to play guitar,” Billie Joe’s older brother David remembers. “One day Billie had Mike over, and me and my buddies were about to go out for the night and we saw them sitting on me and Billie’s bed, which I’d separated into twin beds by then. One was sitting on one side, and one was on the other. Billie was teaching Mike chords. That was about six o’clock. I got home at two o’clock in the morning, and they were still there. And Billie looked at me and said, ‘Hey Dave, watch what Mike can do.’ And Mike knew four or five songs from start to end. That’s the connection they had. I don’t think Mike knew a note at the beginning of the night. But when I came home, he could play (Ozzy Osbourne’s) ‘Crazy Train,’ and a couple of Van Halen songs. And he knew them well. That’s the way they could communicate.” It wasn’t long after that, that they discovered the beauty of punk rock. This new genre led them to The Gilman Street Project, a completely independent punk club. But because of financial troubles at home, Mike was not yet ready to devote his whole life to music. He got an after-school job at a local seafood restaurant and even managed to buy himself a pick-up truck. At the tender age of 15, Mike moved out of his home to live out of his truck, and later rented a room at Billie Joe’s house. This wasn’t long after the beginning of Sweet Children, a band founded by Mike and Billie with one of their close friends on bass. Unfortunately, the band was yet to find a permanent drummer. The introduction of Al Sobrante (from the band Isocracy) as a drummer meant that Sweet Children had enough street credit to get a slot at Gilman, and saw Mike finally move into the bass position. This kick started Sweet Children’s (or soon to be Green Day’s) musical career. On the first day of their debut tour, the band was waiting outside Pinole High School for Mike to finish his graduation, which almost didn’t happen. Because of work, Mike had missed a lot of days from school and he needed to his mother to sign his absentee forms. “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. Don't play mom once a year. It doesn’t fucking cut it.’” Mike even managed more than a years worth of courses at a community college. After Tre replaced Al Sobrante, the Green Day trio was finally complete. Mike married his long time girlfriend Anastasia in 1996 and their only child; Estelle-Desiree was born in April 1997. Inspiration for the song ‘Pulling Teeth’ came from a pillow fight between Mike and his wife that resulted in Mike, accident-prone as always, breaking both of his arms. Anastasia and Mike are now separated, but remain good friends. He remarried to a girl called Sarah in 2004, but in the end she ‘left him because he was spending too much time in the studio recording American Idiot.’ He is currently dating and resides in Berkeley, California Current Projects Mike owns his own café/restaurant named after a song by the Clash, Rudy’s Can’t Fail Café, in Emeryville, CA. He is also thought to be linked with band The Network, as well as playing for The Fustrators, Screeching Weasel, Crummy Musicians and Squirtgun. An animated Mike also appeared in the recent Simpson’s Movie. - Paige
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