FMQB Productions and Reprise Records present Inside Green Day: 21st Century Breakdown, a one-hour world radio premiere special airing on stations across the country between May 4 – 15.

All week, FMQB.com will be presenting exclusive excerpts from the special, hosted by KITS (Live 105)/San Francisco’s Madden, and his conversation with Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool.

Throughout the special, the band discusses many of the songs that make up 21st Century Breakdown. Armstrong says of lead single, "Know Your Enemy," "it’s kind of empowering yourself to question everything and  declaring your own independence. Which has always been a theme with us in all our records. It’s a big, bold, strong broad stroke."

As for "East Jesus Nowhere," Dirnt describes the song as "a call against hypocrisy in religion, more than speaking out against any one in particular." Armstrong adds, "The whole point of it is to look at your own humility… A lot of people use religion to sort of become God themselves, or play God. You see it in eight years of George W. Bush, you see it in suicide bombers, you see it every day."

Come back to FMQB.com tomorrow for more from Green Day's exclusive conversation about 21st Century Breakdown.

Yesterday, we looked at the massive success of 2004's American Idiot, and asked if Green Day will be able to top that record. Armstrong said, "I think every record has pressure to it. That’s the biggest challenge, how do you rise to the occasion? So there’s definitely pressure on this record to try to outdo ourselves… You just have to have a lot of patience and take a lot of time and that’s what we decided to do." He added that having "a lot of different directions to go" with the material creates a different pressure. Dirnt noted that "We had the luxury of taking more time with the record" and Armstrong added that to relieve such pressure, their mantra was to "just write good songs."

In other Green Day news, the band has announced the venues for their upcoming summer arena tour of North America. The tour begins in Seattle on July 3 and winds up in Los Angeles on August 25. The complete list of venues can be found at GreenDay.com. European tour dates have also been announced, with the trek kicking off in Lisbon, Portugal on September 28 and winding up in Turin, Italy on November 12.

Also, Fuse will celebrate the release of 21st Century Breakdown with a full day of Green Day programming on Friday, May 15, the album's release date. Starting at 6 a.m., the music channel will air videos, interviews and more from the Bay Area trio.

21st Century Breakdown will be released on Friday, May 15. Radio stations interested in airing the broadcast special can find more information here.