Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong claims that the band nearly "killed" themselves working on their new album 21st Century Breakdown .
Armstrong admitted that he and his bandmates felt so much pressure trying to better their 2004 record American Idiot that they made themselves seriously ill.
He said: "This is the album that could have killed us. We had set the bar so high with American Idiot.
"We all became sick as dogs. I was close to being hospitalised but they caught me in time. I had boogie woogie flu!"
However, he did concede that the success of American Idiot also had its benefits, adding: "We had the opportunity to be more creative than ever before because we have a lot more listeners out there."
