5SOS Star Ashton Irwin On Why He Is A Green Day Fanboy

Ashton Irwin and his bandmates in 5 Seconds of Summer don’t exactly play their cards close to their chest when it comes to the music they love. Irwin has made no secret of the fact that the 5SOS boys grew up on the music of bands like Green Day, My Chemical Romance, and Blink 182. Ashton and bandmates Calum Hood, Michael Clifford, and Luke Hemmings see themselves very much as a modern version of the pop-punk bands they grew up admiring.

As Ashton and 5SOS toured the world, they have worked incredibly hard to shake off the boy band label that they hate so much. To be fair, Irwin and his mates do not deserve that label. They play their own instruments and write most of their own material. How Irwin must regret opening for label mates One Direction. Of course, Ashton and 5SOS gained a huge amount of exposure by touring with One Direction, but not all of the exposure was positive.

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According to Digital Spy, Irwin recently told Chatty Man Alan Carr that 5SOS “sucked” when they were on tour with One Direction.

“So yeah we came over here, supported one of your home-growns, One Direction, and we weren’t too sure about that at the beginning, because they were like a boy band, and we were worried the kids would be a little scared of guitars and we were loud and we kind of sucked at the time.”

Ashton showed that he has a sense of humor and is a down-to-earth guy when he also told Carr that he could see One Direction fans in the audience covering their ears when 5SOS played. Irwin and 5SOS have left those days firmly in the past. 5SOS earned rave reviews during their recent world tour, and most critics seem to agree that the new album, Sounds Good, Feels Good, marks a new chapter for the band.

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Irwin and his mates were obviously thrilled to see their new release debut at No. 1 on the Billboard chart when it was released last month. This means that both of their studio albums debuted at No. 1, and Entertainment Weekly reports that 5SOS are the first band to achieve that feat.

It is already clear that Irwin and his pals are carving out a major music industry career, but it seems that Ashton is still working to shed that boy band image. So when 5SOS appeared on The Howard Stern Show to promote their album, they took the unusual step over playing a cover of Green Day’s “American Idiot.” Irwin and 5SOS earned high praise from Stern, who said that their version was “beautiful.”

Some might say that taking on what many people see as Green Day’s seminal recording was a huge risk, but Irwin was unrepentant. Ashton explained his admiration for Green Day and rates them as the top pop-punk band of all time. Irwin explained that it is Green Day’s energy as a live band that really inspired him.

“For me, it was their live performance, and the energy that the band has. Also, they didn’t take themselves too seriously. But they [came] from a tough upbringing, and that appealed to a guy like me. I felt like I could relate to their music when I was younger, and I still can now. That’s the mark of a great band.”

According to the Daily Mail, Irwin recently split from his girlfriend, Playboy model Bryana Holly. Ashton revealed that his hectic schedule, touring, and recording made it all but impossible to maintain a relationship. Ashton has never publicly acknowledged his relationship with Bryana, but the couple were spotted across the U.S. and Europe together.

What do you make of 5SOS’s version of “American Idiot?” Do Ashton Irwin and his pals do the song justice?

[Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]