Now that Green Day have confirmed details of their first live show since member Billie Joe Armstrong went into rehab, the rocker has opened up about his experience of getting treatment.

The 40-year-old star told Rolling Stone that it was a tough cycle of drinking and playing live shows, which eventually became so toxic that he essentially "a functioning alcoholic":

"I played onstage loaded a lot. I'd have anywhere from two to six beers and a couple of shots before I went onstage, then go and play the gig and drink for the rest of the evening on the bus. Fall asleep, wake up the next day, feel like s***, do sound-check... it was over and over again. In that way, I was a functioning alcoholic."

"I've been trying to get sober since 1997, right around Nimrod. But I didn't want to be in any programs. Sometimes, being a drunk, you think you can take on the whole world by yourself. This was the last straw. I had no choices anymore."

Billie Joe also spoke about his drug addiction and confessed that it spiralled out of control:

"I started combining them to a point where I didn't know what I was taking during the day and what I was taking at night. It was just this routine. My backpack sounded like a giant baby rattle [from all of the vials inside]."

Green Day will perform at SXSW on March 15 at ACL Live at the Moody Theatre.

Watch Billie Joe's on stage breakdown below: