Each new fact we learn about James Gandolfini, accomplished actor and friend of SpongeBob, fills us with a simple kind of joy. This is probably because Gandolfini and Tony Soprano are inseparably linked and everything funny or nice we hear about him must inevitably clash with an ill-founded mental image of him actually just being the horrible, psychologically-tormented New Jersey mob boss he played so well for so long.
The latest tidbit to provide this effect is that Gandolfini apparently loved listening to Green Day, especially their 1994 hit Dookie.
This fascinating information, relayed in a screenshot by @Lily_Mastr0 on Twitter, comes courtesy of Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos’ Christopher Moltisanti), who replied to a question about what sort of music Gandolfini liked with a single band name: Green Day.
Imperioli followed up on this by telling another Instagram user that he wasn’t messing around. “He would play the vinyl of Dookie in his trailer at work. Totally serious,” he writes. “No joke. He loved Green Day.”
There isn’t anything to do with this trivia other than to tuck it away in the back of your mind, savoring it during Tony’s most horrifyingly violent or self-destructive moments while working through the next, inevitable Sopranos rewatch.
It’s a powerful image, impossible to shake. @knockovercity describes meditating on a mental snapshot of “James Gandolfini enthusiastically singing along to ‘Longview’ and feeling a serene calm wash over my body.’” @jp_mcdade gives us a thin-lipped, Tony-accented hint of what this might look like, bringing it closer to reality.
We can only sit with all of this, dreaming vivid dreams (perhaps brought on by intense food poisoning) about which new Gandolfini Facts we’ll be given next.
[via Stereogum]
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