Green Day Originally Wrote This Massive Hit for 5 Seconds of Summer

One of Green Day’s fan-favorite hits was almost a 5 Seconds of Summer song.

In celebration of their upcoming 14th studio album, Saviors, out on Friday (Jan. 19), Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong looked back on some of the band’s biggest tracks with People this week, where he revealed the interesting origin story of “Still Breathing,” which is featured on the 2016 album, Revolution Radio.

“There’s a band called 5 Seconds of Summer who wanted me to write a song for them,” Armstrong shared. “All of a sudden I was writing the lyrics, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s no f—ing way I’m giving these guys this song.’ There’s all those [lyrics] where it’s the last moment of someone’s life — it’s so intense. It’s just a song about being a survivor.”

“Cause I’m still breathing on my own / My head’s above the rain and roses / Making my way away / My way to you,” Armstong sings in the chorus of the song, which peaked at No. 11 on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart.

Saviors, which will be released via Reprise/Warner Records, is a follow-up to 2020’s Father of All Motherf–kers and was recorded by Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirt and drummer Tré Cool in London and Los Angeles, marking a reunion with longtime producer Rob Cavallo.

“Saviors is an invitation into Green Day’s brain, their collective spirit as a band, and an understanding of friendship, culture and legacy of the last 30 plus years. It’s raw and emotional. Funny and disturbing. It’s a laugh at the pain, weep in the happiness kind of record,” the group said in an Instagram announcing the project.

“Honesty and vulnerability,” they added, noting that the album is about, “Power pop, punk, rock, indie triumph. disease, war, inequality, influencers, yoga retreats, alt right, dating apps, masks, MENTAL HEALTH, climate change, oligarchs, social media division, free weed, fentanyl, fragility.”