VH1: How much of Dookie is a love letter to your wife Adrienne?
Billie Joe: There really weren't any songs about her at that time. A lot of the songs are about this girl from San Diego, who went to Cal Berkeley. Adrienne and I weren't going out at the time. We lost contact with each other for about a year. She got engaged to a guy in Minneapolis. Then I got involved with this other girl. I lived in the basement in Berkeley with all these guys from the East Bay and she lived upstairs in the apartment. We ended up having this year-long relationship. The song "She" was about her.
VH1: How did you come to write it?
Billie Joe: She gave me this poem about this empowering woman, which I think is called "She." I wrote the song as an answer back to her. My now ex-girlfriend is also on the songs "Sassafras Roots" and "Chump."
VH1: So how did you and Adrienne get back together?
Billie Joe: My ex-girlfriend was moving to Ecuador to live there for the spring semester. At that point we were going to go on our tour and just keep going. So we had a hasty breakup. I never really talked to her ever again.
VH1: So what's it like now for Adrienne to be married to you and your biggest record is filled with songs about another woman?
Billie Joe: I know she likes that song! I've been married for almost eight years, so Adrienne and I are comfortable enough that I've had a past. She's got a past, too. She was engaged, had boyfriends, had flings, and I'm comfortable with that, otherwise I wouldn't be married to her. Adrienne is the only woman I'll ever love.
VH1: What do you feel you were addressing in "Basket Case?"
Billie Joe: "Basket Case" was about anxiety attacks and feeling like you're ready to go crazy. At times I probably was. I've suffered from panic disorders my entire life. I thought I was just losing my mind. The only way I could know what the hell was going on was to write a song about it. It was only years later that I figured out I had a panic disorder.
