Basic Info
Full Name: Michael Ryan Pritchard Age: 39; May 4, 1972
Hometown: Berkeley, California, USA
Eye Color: Blue
Natural Hair Color: Brown
Height: 5'10"
Marital Status: Married first wife, Anastacia in 1996. Later remarried second wife, Sarah in 2004 but then divorced. Mike and his wife Brittney, married on March 14, 2009.
Children: Daughter, Estella Desiree (Stella), born April 1997, to Anastacia; Son, Brixton Michael, born October 11, 2008 to Brittney, Daughter Ryan Ruby Mae born November 2010 to Mike and Brittney
Family: Mike was adopted. His adoptive parents divorced when he was 7, and both are now remarried. Mike has at least one step sister, named Myla.
Instruments: Bass, farfisa, guitar, drums, and a baseball bat.
Businesses: Mike owns Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, in Emeryville, CA.
Other Bands: Mike still plays with The Frustrators. He has also played with Screeching Weasel, Crummy Musicians, and Squirtgun. Most recently he has been playing with the Network and Foxboro Hot Tubs.
Biography
Michael Ryan Pritchard, now known as Mike Dirnt, was born on May 4,
1972. Mike's mother was a heroin addict. He was given up for adoption
when he was a baby to a Native American mother and a white father. When
he was 7, his adoptive parents got a divorce. Mike lived with his father
for a while, but confrontations sent him back to his mother. He lived
there on the borderline of proverty, while his sister left home at the
age of 13. "There were all sorts of things happening," says Mike. "When I
was in fourth or fifth grade, my mom stayed out all night, came home
the next day with a guy, and he moved in. I'd never met the guy before,
and all of a sudden he's my stepdad. We didn't get along for years.
Later on, when I hit high school, my mom moved away from us, and me and
my stepdad got real close. He instilled a lot in me. The one thing my
family did give me is blue-collar morals. But then he died when I was
17."
By
that point, Mike had already moved out, leaving home when he was 15 to
live out of his truck. He then rented a room in Billie's mom's house,
and later he lived in a punk squat. Billie and Mike began living for
their weekends at the Gilman Street Project. Mike still continued to go
to school, play in Sweet Children (which later became Green Day, of
course), and live on his own. He supported himself by working as a cook.
Mike almost didn't graduate from high school, because his mother
refused to sign one of his mandatory-attendance forms. "I took my mom
aside," Mike says. "I said, 'This is how it is. You have so much shit
going on in your life, so if once every semester you ask me if I've done
my homework and jump all over my case, that's not right. Have I failed
yet? No. And I'm going to graduate if you stay off my back. The one time
in your life you chose to have morals, and it's going to fuck me up.
Don't play mom once a year. It doens't fucking cut it.'" In the end,
Mike did graduate from high school, and he even took more than a year's
worth of courses at a community college. Then Billie and Mike moved into
a squat in Oakland, California (the inspiration for "Welcome to
Paradise").
Mike married his long-time girlfriend Anastacia in 1996, and their daughter, Estella-Desiree, was born in April 1997. Mike loves his daughter very much, and his nickname for her is "Hero." Today, Mike and Anastacia are divorced but still remain very good friends. He remarried in 2004 to Sarah, however his wife left him because he was spending too much time in the studio recording American Idiot. Mike married his wife, Brittney, in March of 2009. He and Brittney welcomed the birth of their son, Brixton Michael, on October 11, 2008. He and his family now reside in Oakland, California. Mike also owns a cafe/resturant named Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, named after a song by the Clash. The cafe is located in Emeryville, CA.
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