From the article "Look, Mom: I'm Gigging with Green Day again" Times Colonist Newspaper, October 1, 2005.By Adrian Chamberlain"Riley Smith, a 21-year-old from Esquimalt, was having a really crappy week.  He walked to the grocery store and forgot his bank card. It meant trudging home and back. Then he backed into an expensive automobile at the driving range. And then his own car-- a humble 1979 Volkswagen Rabbit-- was vandalized, with both locks being broken.It wasn't the end of the world, just a run of lousy luck.  Nonetheless, when Smith went to Tuesday's Green Day concert at GM Place, he didn't expect to be picked to perform with the band.  (The punk-pop band has a ritual of choosing three audience members-- guitar, bass, and drums-- to play their song Knowledge.  It's part of the punk rock do-it-yourself ethos, dictating that anyone can grab an instrument and hammer away.)Smith was in the mosh pit with a sweaty, churning mass of tattooed rockers.  They alternately shoved each other and propelled crowd surfers --their arms and legs flailing like impaled insects-- towards the stage.  Smith bulldogged his way to the front clutching a sign that said "Billie Joe-- I can play guitar, pick me!"Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day's hyper-frenetic singer, spied the poster and invited him onstage.  The pair hugged, with Armstrong jokingly grabbing Smith's butt.  Then Smith, his bleached hair leached white under the glare of spotlights, seized the rock star's black guitar and grinded out the chord progression to Knowledge.  The sold-out crowd of 14,000 cheered, making an ear-searing sound like a 747 achieving lift-off.Afterward, Armstrong gave Smith that same guitar: an Epiphone Les Paul Junior.  I was amazed how confident this young man was.  At the end of the tune, he leapt off the drum riser as though he'd been doing this for years.  It turns out this is the third time Smith has been chosen to play onstage with Green Day, which surely is a record.  No wonder he prowled the stage like Dave Navarro."I was confident even the first time I did it," he said this week.  "I don't know why."He first got into Green Day in Grade 5.  His babysitter used to play the band's 1994 album, Dookie.  Something about the music-- buzzcocks-style guitars and catchy melodies-- grabbed him.  Smith bought his own Dookie cassette tape and became hooked.When he was a Grade 12 student at Esquimalt High, Smith traveled to the Tacoma Dome to see Green Day.  That was the first time he played with the band.  He held up a yellow poster with purple letters that read:  "Billie Joe, I can play guitar, pick me.""I'll always remember.  It was pretty insane," said Smith, who recalls the experience as surreal-- and incredibly loud.  "For some reason I didn't feel scared or nervous.  I just felt basically nothing but excitement and joy."On this occasion, Billie Joe told the crowd Smith's name was "Jump".  Concert-goers started screaming "Jump! Jump!" and at Armstrong's urging, he stage-dived into the audience.The Second time was Nov. 17, 2004 at the Pacific Coliseum.  He brought along his girlfriend, Stefanie.  She became frightened in the mosh pit, so Smith pushed his way out, holding her hand.   One concert goer-annoyed at his aggressiveness, slugged Stefanie in the face.Smith then struggled back to the front with his usual poster and was chosen.  Afterward, Billie Joe presented him with a black-and-white Fender Squier Stratocaster.  As he waded back into the audience, a weeping girl tried to throttle him."She was all pissed off she didn't get picked, I guess," he said.Smith confesses he had hesitations about trying to play guitar with Green Day for a third time this week.  For one thing he wondered whether Billie Joe would recognize him ("Hey dude, weren't you up here twice before?")  As well, he was worried the crowd might remember him from the Pacific Coliseuem gig and deem him a stage hog. An ulterior motivie spurred him on.  Smith had invited his mom to the GM Place concert with the express hope she would see him jam with one of the world's top rock acts.  His ace-in-the-hole was the flip-side of his sign, which said: "My mom is here watching!"Says his mother, Margaret Smith, who witnessed her son's star turn from a safe perch in the stands:  "I was thrilled, absolutely."Smith, not surprisingly, is a singer-songwriter who hopes to assemble his own rock band.For a few weeks he lived in Burnaby, working in the shipping/receiving warehouse at Sears.  He's now back in Victoria, driving truck for a food delivery outfit.  Smith is pleased with the change, since the new job comes with health benefits.  "I have to get my wisdom teeth taken out pretty soon," he confides.And he's plenty happy his mom finally saw him rock out for an arena jam-packed with howling fans.  "After all, she's put up with Green Day music coming out of my room for the last 11 years."