Tré Cool

Life and career

Frank Edwin Wright III was born in Frankfurt, West Germany, to American parents Frank Edwin Wright II and Linda Wright. He lived in Willits, California, with his father and his elder sister Lori. He has German heritage, and his father was a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. Wright's closest neighbor was Larry Livermore, who at the time was the singer of the punk band The Lookouts. When Wright was 12, Livermore recruited him as the drummer of The Lookouts and Tre took on the name of "Tré Cool," using both the French word "très" (meaning "very") and the English word "cool" as a way of saying he was "very cool." Trey, a play on Wright's family's generational titles, had already been Wright's nickname prior to the addition of "Cool."

When Green Day's drummer, John Kiffmeyer, left the band, the group recruited Tré Cool to be their drummer. In his second year, Tré Cool dropped out of high school and opted to earn a GED. He began taking classes at a local community college but would again drop out as the band became a more time consuming priority. During this time the band considered breaking up because it took a long time to adjust to playing with Tré Cool.

Tré Cool's father was supportive and overhauled a bookmobile to transport the band. He would later say: "I watched them go from a bunch of kids to a group of musicians with work ethic," also adding: "On their first tour or two, it was more of a party than anything else. I still scratch my head and say, 'How in the hell did they make it?' They used to practice in my living room here – a lot of the songs they did on Dookie. You hear it coming together, and you don't expect people are going to go out and buy it. But when it does, you just say, 'Wow that's so cool.'"

In 1998, after Green Day won a "Moon Man" Trophy at the MTV Music Awards, Tré Cool famously climbed on the Universal Globe at Universal Studios. Tré Cool is one of the two only people to ever do this, the other person being Jai Brooks.

Tré Cool won "Best Punk Drummer" in DRUM! Magazine's 2011 Drummies, which recognizes some of the best drummers across music genres. He was also featured in the Nitpick Six: The Six Best Drum Fills and ranked in at number 6 for the intro to "Basket Case". In 2014, LA Weekly named Tré Cool one of the "Top 5 Punk Drummers of All Time," listing him at number 2.

Personal life

Tré Cool was the first member of Green Day to become a father on January 12, 1995 with the birth of his daughter Ramona Isabel. Tré then married his longterm girlfriend Lisea Lyons, a photographer with a degree in English Literature and a Masters in Fine Art in March. Lisea and Tré divorced the following year and Lisea moved with Ramona to New York. In 2000 Tré Cool married Claudia Suarez (Bovino) and Tré Cool's second child Frankito (meaning "Little Frank") was born on March 26, 2001. He is the godson of Billie Joe Armstrong. Tré Cool is also the godfather of Armstrong's two children, Joseph and Jakob. Tré Cool and Suarez divorced in 2003 and Claudia has primary custody of their son Frankito. In 2010 Tré began dating New York ballet dancer and fashion designer Dena Roberson. Cool had her name tattooed on his chest. Tré Cool was engaged to Dena at Supperclub in San Francisco on March 31, 2011 announced the news Facebook some days later. In 2012 Tré Cool began dating New York based model and artist Karli Henneman. Henneman appeared briefly in the Green Day documentary Cuatro and a photograph of her legs was posted by Tré Cool posed in front of his car with the hashtag "Lita" (Henneman often signs her paintings using this name). Tré was engaged to 28 year old former Miss Supercross and paddock girl Sara Rose Lipert in January 2014, and they were married on October 11, 2014.

Musical style

Before joining Green Day, Tré Cool employed a more intricate drumming style. He explained that "When I started, I had too many drums. I was a little reggae-happy and into fancier beats than was needed. It took me a while to get it: Play the song, don't play the instrument. I started figuring out how to make the band a stronger unit, to make it jump." After playing with Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt, Tré Cool adopted a more rhythmic style with fewer drum fills to match Dirnt's bass lines.

Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune referred to Tré Cool as "Green Day's most potent weapon", adding that "His monstrous kick-drum wallop evokes John Bonham, while his manic fills make him punk's answer to Keith Moon." His stage persona has also been compared to Moon. Sound engineer Neill King, who worked with Green Day on Dookie, noted that Tré Cool shares Moon's "wild animal approach" to playing drums, and explained that the band encountered difficulties while recording "Basket Case" due to his unpredictable style: "It's not that Tré wasn’t a good drummer, but in terms of his performances we wanted the best of the best...So, although we wanted him to do all of his wild fills and crazy drumming, we couldn’t just let him go. He’d drift in and out of time, which is terrific live, but which was unacceptable on radio at that time."

Singing and songwriting

Tré Cool sang and played guitar on the tracks "Dominated Love Slave" and the hidden song on F.O.D. "All by Myself", from Kerplunk and Dookie, respectively, both of which he wrote and composed (on "Dominated Love Slave", guitarist and vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong played drums). He wrote and sang the subtrack "Rock and Roll Girlfriend" from the medley "Homecoming" featured on the album American Idiot. He also sang and composed the track "DUI" ("Driving Under the Influence"), which was recorded for Green Day's fifth studio album Nimrod (1997) and was due to be released on the compilation album Shenanigans in 2002, but was omitted and can only be found online.

During a radio interview at Washington DC's alternative station DC 101, Tré Cool sang and played acoustic guitar on a short song entitled "Like a Rat Does Cheese," a song about the pleasure of fellatio.

Several live tracks also exist, usually from around 1993, such as "Food Around the Corner", a song from the 1943 Elmer Fudd cartoon An Itch in Time. Another live track, "Billie Joe's Mom" was also recorded.

Tré Cool had also recorded a version of Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain."

Discography

DVD

The Lookouts

Foxboro Hot Tubs

The Network

Other media appearances