Mike Dirnt

For the former American football wide receiver, see Mike Pritchard. Mike Dirnt (born Michael Ryan Pritchard; May 4, 1972) is the American bassist and backing vocalist for the American punk rock band Green Day. While at school, he would play "air-bass". While pretending to pluck the strings, he made a noise: "dirnt, dirnt, dirnt". He later adopted his stage name, "Mike Dirnt". Dirnt was born in Orlando, Florida but grew up in Rodeo, California. He... more

For the former American football wide receiver, see Mike Pritchard. Mike Dirnt (born Michael Ryan Pritchard; May 4, 1972) is the American bassist and backing vocalist for the American punk rock band Green Day. While at school, he would play "air-bass". While pretending to pluck the strings, he made a noise: "dirnt, dirnt, dirnt". He later adopted his stage name, "Mike Dirnt". Dirnt was born in Orlando, Florida but grew up in Rodeo, California. He was adopted by a Native American mother and a European American father. He has one stepsister, Myla, who left home when she was 13. Soon after Dirnt's 6th birthday, his adoptive parents divorced, leaving him torn between his father, a prosperous computer programmer, and his struggling mother. "I grew up with my mom hating the white man and loving me," he has said. His mother later remarried. "When I was in fourth or fifth grade, my mom stayed out all night, came home the next day with a guy, and then he moved in. I'd never met the guy, and... less