Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong became a father on February 28, 1995, when his wife Adrienne gave birth to their son Joey (named after Joey Ramone). Armstrong was already stretched thin, and now he wasn't getting any sleep because the baby would keep him up. His thoughts were scrambled into a "brain stew," which is what this song is about.
Armstrong suffered from insomnia, so he had trouble going back to sleep after the baby would wake him. He still managed to be productive, writing songs as he stayed up through the night. In "Brain Stew," he wrote about exactly what he was feeling, a technique that also produced the up-all-night rock classics "25 Or 6 To 4" and "Sunshine Of Your Love."
In addition to fatherhood, Armstrong's paranoia and insomnia were caused by methamphetamine, which he'd been experimenting with. He provides a detailed (and rather gruesome) account of his meth use on "Geek Stink Breath," also on the Insomniac album.
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