Serena Williams is one of the greatest tennis players of all time and has an extensive list of achievements in her storied career. While she can certainly look back with pride at all she’s accomplished, she may take an equal amount of joy in another area of life. Being a massive Green Day fan.
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Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live as the two spoke about run-ins they’ve had with the tennis superstar.
Williams had the opportunity to meet the band on one of Kimmel’s shows years ago. She thanked Kimmel for the experience during an unlikely time. While she was competing in the Olympics.
Kimmel and his kids were at the 2012 Olympics in London and Williams gave them a tour of Wimbledon. Worried that it may affect her performance and focus, Kimmel told Williams that she didn’t have to go ahead with the tour. Williams responded, “no no, you introduced me to Green Day so I owe you.”
The tour proved to be no big deal as Williams ended up winning a gold medal.
Armstrong had a good laugh at the story and then shared an interesting tidbit about the song Williams’ would often request when she would go to see them.
“We would run into her in different countries in Europe because she was kicking everybody’s ass in that particular country,” Armstrong said. “She would then come to the show and she would always ask us to play… Well, I think she would literally try to see how fast she could beat her opponent so she could actually come to the gig.”
He added: “She would end up showing up and would always ask us to play this song ‘Disappearing Boy,’ which is a song we wrote years and years ago. She’s great, one of the sweetest people.”
“Disappearing Boy” comes off the band’s 1990 debut record 39/Smooth and according to Setlist.fm has only been played in concert 113 times. You could say Williams served up an ace with her song choice.
WATCH MORE: From plays to weed: How bands like The Killers and Green Day got their name
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