Meet the cast of American Idiot here.

Afterward, Green Day revealed what it was like to teach the band how to learn the American Idiot songs properly. “There’s one way to simply listen to a record and learn how to play the songs,” Armstrong tells Rolling Stone, “but we sat down with them and showed them how. They’re amazing musicians. Technically, they’re better than we are.”

American Idiot was a reaction to “the age of paranoia” brought by George W. Bush’s presidency, but Green Day still believe the album’s message has resonance in the age of Obama and health care reform. “We live in a very divided country still and we’re just at the beginning of tackling a few of [these problems],” says Dirnt. “If anything, the statements in the play and everything else that’s going on in the world stand more today than maybe four or five years ago.” Armstrong was more blunt, joking, “We really hope the world stays kinda fucked up so our record stays relevant.”

After years of performing these songs, Armstrong still gets floored by hearing them live. “Watching ‘Last Night on Earth’ had a big impact on me,” he says. “Hearing women sing those songs instead of me has been eye-opening — they sound so much better than I do.”

As for the rumors that Tom Hanks’ Playtone studios will be doing an adaptation of American Idiot for the big screen, the play’s director Mayer suggested something is definitely in the works, although he’s taking things one step at a time. “We’re not dealing with [the movie] at all yet,” he says. “We just want to do our show, open it on Broadway, have that experience and then explore those options. Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman at Playtone are fabulous and they’re friends of ours. And they’ve had access and it’s been great to hear their enthusiasm [for the movie project].”

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American Idol eliminated its final four semifinal contestants last night, removing any chances of another Idol hero named Lambert breaking out this season — or of original songstress Lilly Scott getting a chance to bring her quirky style to the Top 12 stage. Scott, the blond-haired multi-instrumentalist who shouted out her Moog synth and performed an interesting take on the Beatles’ “Fixing a Hole” during the Top 24 rounds, was voted off along with Alex Lambert (who didn’t take the news well, to put it mildly), dramatic crooner Todrick Hall and earnest 19-year-old Katelyn Epperly. Watch Scott’s “A Change is Gonna Come” above.
Photo: Becker/FOX
That means the Top 12 singers — who will be tackling songs by the Rolling Stones — include Aaron Kelly, Andrew Garcia, Casey James, Crystal Bowersox, Didi Benami, Katie Stevens, Lacey Brown, Lee Dewyze, Michael Lynche, Paige Miles, Siobhan Magnus and Tim Urban.

The Rock Daily favorites: Siobhan Magnus, who turned out three fascinating and powerhouse performances during the semifinals (of Aretha Franklin’s “Think,” Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” and the Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun”), and Crystal Bowersox, whose gritty blues vibe finally gelled on her cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason.”

Bowersox:

Magnus:

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Photo: AFP/Getty

Two years ago American Idol celebrated the music of the Fab Four, and next week the show’s Top 12 will pick up that rockin’ tradition by belting out songs by “the Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World,” the Rolling Stones. Host Ryan Seacrest made the announcement of next week’s musical theme on a radio promotion taped during last night’s episode, Entertainment Weeky reports. As it’s still too early on in the competition for celebrity mentors, it’s highly unlikely Mick Jagger or Keith Richards will participate, though Richards mentoring the kids on partying and excess for an hour would likely be more entertaining than the performances themselves.

We won’t know which contestants are singing what Stones classics until next week, but we’re already placing bets on what we expect to hear. On the ladies’ side, we anticipate “Satisfaction,” “Tumbling Dice,” “Time is on My Side,” “Gimme Shelter” (if a contestant is brazen enough to handle both Mick and the female leads) and, thanks to Susan Boyle, “Wild Horses.” For the men, we’re thinking “Brown Sugar,” “Miss You,” Sympathy for the Devil,” “Angie,” “Honky Tonk Woman” and “Waiting on a Friend.” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” seems destined for the group performance, and let’s just add that any contestant who mines Goats Head Soup gets our automatic vote.

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• Post-Paula Depression

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“There ain’t no grave/Can hold my body down,” Johnny Cash sings on the title track of his final album, the sixth in his American Recordings series with Rick Rubin. The disc, American VI: Ain’t No Grave, will arrive on February 26th, what would have been Cash’s 78th birthday. As Rolling Stone reported, Scott and Seth Avett of the Avett Brothers play on the LP, along with Benmont Tench, Mike Campbell, Smokey Hormel, Matt Sweeney and Jonny Polonsky. Producer Rubin explained the album was completed while Cash was in poor health, in between trips to the hospital and during the time Cash was mourning the loss of his beloved wife, June Carter Cash. But despite the hardships, Cash was defiant. “He didn’t really have fear and he already was dealing with pain,” Rubin said. “I think he had acceptance. When he knew he was going to die, he was calm and matter of fact about it, and … that was it.”

Check out classic photos of Johnny Cash.

Rubin took Rolling Stone through American VI track by track in our next issue, on stands February 17th. Pick up a copy then for the full story, and hear “Ain’t No Grave” here now:

American VI: Ain’t No Grave Track List:

1. “Ain’t No Grave” (traditional)
2. “Redemption Day” (Sheryl Crow)
3. “For The Good Times” (Kris Kristofferson)
4. “I Corinthians 15:55″ (Johnny Cash)
5. “Where I’m Bound” (Tom Paxton)
6. “Satisfied Mind” (J.H. Red hayes, Jack Rhodes)
7. “It Don’t Hurt Anymore” (Don Robertson and Jack Rollins)
8. “Cool Water” (Bob Nolan)
9. “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream” (Ed McCurdy)
10. “Aloha Oe” (Queen Lili’uokalani)

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Photo: Ufberg/WireImage
Last week Page Six stoked a rumor that Howard Stern is a possible candidate to replace the departing Simon Cowell on next season’s American Idol. Today the shock jock addressed the reports on his satellite radio show, admitting the job wouldn’t be out of the question. “There’s not a better job on the planet than judging a fucking karaoke contest,” Stern said, MTV reports. “It might be possible, we’ll see.”

As Rolling Stone reported last week, Stern’s five-year, $500 million contract with Sirius XM expires in January 2011, freeing up the radio personality to pursue other opportunities. While the New York Post wrote last week that Idol’s overtures to Stern might just be a leverage tool to help secure Stern a lucrative new contract from his current employer, Stern seemed pretty open about taking on the Idol job because he’s long been a fan of the show. “If I do say so myself, I can’t imagine anyone else but me replacing [Cowell],” Stern said. “I mean, how else are they going to make that show work? Who knows how to broadcast and who knows how to be interesting? And who’s not afraid to speak their mind?”

Idol producers are rumored to be considering offering Stern a contract that mirrors his five-year, $500 million deal with Sirius XM, but considering Paula Abdul and Idol split ways over a few million and Cowell will only make a reported $50 million per season to executive produce and judge on The X Factor, that figure seems a little excessive. “A $100 million to judge a karaoke contest? Yeah, I think I would do that show for $100 million,” Stern said. “It would be the best thing that happened to me. What a cush job: $100 million for four months. Who wouldn’t take that?”

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His comments about Idol immediately riled Season One champion Kelly Clarkson, who immediately responded in an open letter on her I Am Kelly blog. “Thank you for that ‘Captain Obvious’ sense of humor because you know what, we not only hit the high notes, you forgot to mention we generally hit the ‘right’ notes as well,” Clarkson wrote (she signed her post “One of those contestants from American Idol who only made it because of her high notes”).

“Every artist has a bad performance or two and that is understandable, but throwing blame will not make the situation at hand any better,” Clarkson noted in the post titled “Scott Borchetta,” just in case there was any confusion who it was addressed to. “I have been criticized left and right for having shaky performances before (and they were shaky) and what my manager or label executives say to me and the public is ‘I’ll kick butt next time’ or ‘every performance isn’t going to be perfect.’ ”

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