Touching testimonial from a fan: “Green Day saved me”

If Alicia Deschine is alive today and has been preparing to release a third album since the beginning of her singer-songwriter career, she owes it to Green Day and, above all, to her idol Billie Joe Armstrong.

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“I really went through hell in high school,” says the 27-year-old Quebec artist.

“I was being bullied a lot. At a certain point, I wanted it all to stop. I found comfort in Green Day songs, writing and composing and was able to cling to life, ”continues Alicia Deschênes.

She’ll obviously be in Plains of Abraham on Sunday night, her heart full of hope for some stage time, no less, with Billie Joe Armstrong.

“My dream… let me play with youShe wrote on a poster that she would hold it up high so the singer could see it.

“I dream of one day being able to thank him,” she says.

Hasret in Agora

Alicia Deschênes discovered Green Day at the age of eight, when her father bought the album American idiot. “I fell in love with music for the first time,” she says.

Since then, she has been trying by all means to play with him on stage or just talk to him. She almost got there in the Agora de Québec, during a punk-rock band’s concert in 2010.

“It’s the most heartbreaking thing,” says the musician.

She won the competition for the first time fan club. The prize: special tickets delivered by Billie Joe in person, but not as personal as she had hoped.

The first disappointment.

Then, during the concert, a fan was invited to join them on stage for the song longview.

“I had a big poster to go sing. I was in the second row of seats, and I stood up and everyone started screaming. Billy Joe saw me and told me to come over. Finally, I don’t know if it was because of my age or the fact that I was in the stands, but the bouncers wouldn’t let me pass.” I couldn’t go. They took someone else.”

deceptive picture

She still has a photo with Billy Joe, a moment that was almost instantly stolen, upon exiting a show at Montreal’s Electric Fauvons.

An intrepid fan thumped a guitar, and the singer was sprinting toward his car surrounded by security guards when Alicia DeChene yelled, “Please Billy Joe, I’ve been waiting for this moment for 14 years!”

He told me: 14 come here. We took a picture and left. It’s a memory I cherish.”