Green Day gets the gold

Green Day's latest album, 21st Century Breakdown, has been certified gold for sales of more than half a million copies, according to the trio's publicist. The disc just sailed past the 600,000 mark when this week's Billboard album chart came out on Wednesday morning (July 1st). The record, which was released on May 15th, still has a long way to go before it matches the sales of the band's 2004 effort, American Idiot, which sold six million copies in the U.S. and 12 million worldwide.

21st Century Breakdown debuted at Number One on the Billboard U.S. album chart, while also topping the charts in 24 other countries.

Green Day has notched eight previous gold sales awards, for all seven of its previous albums plus a greatest hits compilation, with five of those also earning platinum or multi-platinum certification.

The band will launch its highly anticipated North American tour this Friday (July 3rd) in Seattle.