Green Day singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong has always been outspoken offstage and on, and that’s one of the reasons so many of his fans appreciate him. Of course, the punk trio did release American Idiot as a middle finger to post-9/11 conservatism, and while other rock stars have tried to walk more of a political middle ground in modern times, Armstrong has generally just spoken his mind. At other times, he simply shouts about whatever topic is at hand. Here are four memorable onstage rants from Green Day’s mouthpiece, for better or worse.
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1. “No Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!”
While in the middle of performing “Bang Bang” on the American Music Awards on November 20, 2016, Armstrong not only cursed at least twice (censor time!) but also started a chant of “No Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!” in response to the then-president-elect. Afterwards, the singer just went back into the song. But he had no problem telling us how he really felt—and what he knew was coming. The line was inspired by a lyric from the M.D.C. song “Born to Die” released in 1982. In August 2017, while performing “American Idiot,” Armstrong yelled out, “Kill Donald Trump!” No love lost there.
2. F— Your One-Minute Warning
While performing “Basket Case” at the iHeart Radio Musical Festival in September 2012, Armstrong stopped the song and loudly expressed his displeasure that the band’s set had been cut short. (Post-script: It had been whittled down from 45 to 25 minutes to make room for a longer set by Usher. So…understandable ire.) When the trio was given a one-minute warning by a teleprompter (hilariously misspelled as “1 Minutes”), the singer really got pissed off.
“You’re gonna give me f—ing one minute,” he railed to the arena audience. “Look at that f—ing sign right there. One minute. Let me tell you something, I’ve been around since f—ing 1988, and you’re gonna give me one f—ing minute? You’ve got to be f—ing kidding me! I’m not Justin Bieber, you motherf—ers.”
[AS OF THIS WRITING: Green Day Is Touring Internationally! Get Tix Right Here]
He then preceded to show what one minute meant to him by smashing his guitar onstage, followed by Mike Dirnt with his bass, then flipped the bird before telling everyone, “God f—ing love you all. We’ll be back.”
Armstrong, who was reportedly drunk when raging onstage, later apologized. But we don’t think he needed to. And, he was reportedly soon checked into rehab for an addiction to alcohol and pills, so that’s a good thing.
3. Renouncing His Citizenship?
This rant is actually short but certainly speaks loudly. After learning that the superconservative majority on the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in late June 2022, the Green Day frontman got in front of a stadium audience in London to announce that was renouncing his U.S. citizenship and “coming here” (presumably to the UK). He declared, “There is just too much f—ing stupid in the world to go back to that miserable f—ing excuse for a country.” There was quite a roar of approval from the crowd after that. No word on whether he’s acquired new citizenship yet. Maybe Canada?
[RELATED: 5 Songs You Didn’t Know Billie Joe Armstrong Wrote for Other Artists]
4. Chastising Security
In this undated clip, possibly shot during the American Idiot tour, Armstrong stopped the show to tell security to back off and not be so rough on the kids. We always appreciate it when frontmen call that stuff out.
Photo by Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images
