Green Day Recording Next Album With Butch Vig

Rumor spread last week that Green Day were at work on their follow-up to American Idiot when Garbage singer Shirley Manson appeared on Carson Daly’s show and dropped a bomb: her bandmate Butch Vig was going to be overseeing the album instead of longtime Green Day producer Rob Cavallo. Well, the rumor is true: Billboard tracked down a YouTube video posted this weekend that confirms Vig’s involvement with this as-yet-untitled album that’s due in 2009.

The pairing of Vig with Green Day represents a merging of some serious 1990s firepower. Before his work in Garbage, Vig famously produced Nirvana’s Nevermind and Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream, albums that launched those bands into the stratosphere. Green Day hardly need a commercial boost, as American Idiot was their strongest seller since 1994’s Dookie, but, hey, every little bit helps, right?

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