Mike Dirnt, formerly Micheal Pritchard, born May 4, 1972, lived in poverty, born to a heroin-addicted mother and a white father. When Dirnt was seven, his adoptive parents divorced, and Dirnt bounced between the two until finally settling in with his adoptive mom and older sister. That, too, was short lived, and soon Dirnt struck out on his own, working, among a handful of jobs, at Rod's Hickery Pit where Billie Joe's mom was a waitress. Dirnt rented a room on the side of Billie Joe's house at one point.

Mike married his girlfriend Anastasia in August of 1996, they now have a daughter named Estelle-Desiree born in April 1997. The pressures of being in Green Day have become to much for Mike and Anasasia's marriage to withstand and they are now seperated. Mike says he is still very good friends with her and calls his daughter his "hero".