Green Day's popularity had grown to such a degree that everyone, including Livermore realized that the band had outgrown its record label. The trio left Lookout on friendly terms and went in search of a label that could provide the kind of tour support and promotion it needed to advance to the next level. After a short bidding war, the group signed with Reprise Records in April 1993 (part of the deal was that Lookout would retain the rights to the first two albums). Green Day entered the studio, spending five weeks to complete recording on its third effort, Dookie, which packed fourteen songs into only thirty-nine minutes. The album hit stores in February 1994, and within a couple of months, had sold more than a million copies, spurred on by copious amounts of radio and MTV airplay for the singles "Welcome to Paradise" and "Longview."
As 1994 progressed, Green Day's profile grew even higher. After completing its own club tour, the band joined the lineups of both the Lollapalooza Festival and Woodstock '94. Green Day's Woodstock gig was one for the history books: a huge mud fight ensued between the band and the audience, so many mud-covered fans wound up onstage by the end of the set that one of the security guards mistook Dirnt for a marauding fan and broke several of his teeth while attempting to haul him off the stage. Later in the year, the band pulled off quite a feat, when it staged an arena tour with no ticket prices set higher than $20. Throughout all these tours and festivals, fans came to rely on one thing, that Armstrong was liable to drop his pants at any given moment. Unlike Jim Morrison, he didn't get into too much trouble for his flashing ways, although he once had to pay a fine of $140 in Milwaukee.
When the touring was finally over, American sales of Dookie had surpassed the ten million mark, not too shabby for a band whose initial goal was just to be the best immature, bratty punksters around. Although dead-tired, the punksters didn't rest much in 1995. Both Armstrong and Cool became fathers that year, and Dirnt got married. They recorded a song called "J.A.R." for the Angus soundtrack. They also managed to complete another album, even though they fired their managers partway through recording sessions, because they believed them to be responsible for leaking "J.A.R." to radio stations several weeks prior to the single's scheduled debut. Despite all the legal and logistical problems that resulted from the firing, Insomniac was still released within the year. Though the album didn't approach the success of Dookie, it still sold several million copies in the U.S.
Armstrong, Dirnt, and Cool took a much-needed break following their tour in support of Insomniac. They spent the summer months of 1997 recording the eighteen-track Nimrod. The album, released on October 14, features the lead-off single "Hitchin' a Ride." In an unusual move for Green Day, the record includes a few guest performances: violinist Petra Haden of the band that dog lends a fiddle on "Hitchin' a Ride" and "Last Ride In"; and horn players Gabriel McNair and Stephen Bradley appear on "King for a Day."