<P> Green Day has sold more than 85 million records worldwide . The group has won five Grammy Awards: Best Alternative Album for Dookie, Best Rock Album for American Idiot, Record of the Year for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", Best Rock Album for the second time for 21st Century Breakdown and Best Musical Show Album for American Idiot: The Original Broadway Cast Recording . In 2010, a stage adaptation of American Idiot debuted on Broadway . The musical was nominated for three Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Scenic Design and Best Lighting Design, losing only the first . In the same year, VH1 ranked Green Day 91st in its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2015, their first year of eligibility . </P> <P> In 1986, friends Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, 14 years old at the time, formed a band called Sweet Children . The group's first live performance took place on October 17, 1987, at Rod's Hickory Pit in Vallejo, California . In 1988, Armstrong and Dirnt began working with former Isocracy drummer John Kiffmeyer, also known as "Al Sobrante". Armstrong cites the band Operation Ivy (which featured Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman of Rancid) as a major influence, and a group that inspired him to form a band . </P> <P> In 1988, Larry Livermore, owner of Lookout! Records, saw the band play an early show and signed the group to his label . In 1989, the band recorded its debut extended play, 1,000 Hours . Before 1,000 Hours was released, the group dropped the name Sweet Children; according to Livermore, this was done to avoid confusion with another local band Sweet Baby . The band adopted the name Green Day, due to the members' fondness for cannabis . </P> <P> Lookout! released Green Day's debut studio album, 39 / Smooth in early 1990 . Green Day recorded two extended plays later that year, Slappy and Sweet Children, the latter of which included older songs that the band had recorded for the Minneapolis independent record label Skene! Records . In 1991, Lookout! Records re-released 39 / Smooth under the name 1,039 / Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, and added the songs from the band's first two EPs, Slappy, and 1,000 Hours . In late 1990, shortly after the band's first nationwide tour, Kiffmeyer left the East Bay area to attend Humboldt State University in Arcata, California . The Lookouts drummer Tré Cool began filling in as a temporary replacement and later Cool's position as Green Day's drummer became permanent, which Kiffmeyer "graciously accepted". The band went on tour for most of 1992 and 1993, and played a number of shows overseas in Europe . The band's second studio album Kerplunk sold 50,000 copies in the U.S. </P>

Where did green day get their name from