Billie Joe Armstrong thinks it is "cool" to be a "bisexual icon".

The Green Day frontman - who revealed in a 1995 interview that he was attracted to both men and women - is proud that people look up to him as a role model.

He told People magazine: "I like it. I think it's cool that someone calls me a bisexual icon. I've seen that before. I'm like, 'Yeah!' "

The 54-year-old rocker - who has sons Joey, 28, and Jajob, 25, with wife of 29 years Adrienne - thinks the younger generation are "more brave" when it comes to speaking about their sexuality these days because he thinks people are more willing to be "open".

He reflected: "Being a Gen X-er, I feel like there was a seed that got planted where it was the era in the '90s that we came up, where men were discovering more of being with other men and being more bisexual, and coming out with that, whether it was someone like Kurt Cobain or what I was saying.

"It's way more complex now, as far as sexuality. You're like, 'Wow, we've really come a long way.' Even though it's still kind of looked at as being taboo, I think people now are a lot more brave than they've ever been. I think people are way more open now."

The 'Warning' hitmaker also dismissed people who have questioned whether or not he really is bisexual because of his long marriage to his wife.

He said: "Sexuality is always so much more than what the standard, nuclear-family type of way of looking at things.

"But I have been married — there's this other side of me that's very conventional when it comes to my 30-year marriage to my wife.

"But I just look at sexuality: It's not one way or the other. And if anybody ever tries to say that, I don't think they're really being honest with themselves."