Green Day singer vows to leave U.S. over Roe ruling
Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong told a British audience that he plans to renounce his U.S. citizenship over the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“F— America, I’m f—ing renouncing my citizenship,” the East Bay punk trio’s 50-year-old frontman told the crowd in London during a tour stop on Friday, June 24. “I’m f—ing coming here.”
Armstrong added, “There’s just too much f—ing stupid in the world to go back to that miserable f—ing excuse for a country. Oh, I’m not kidding. You’re going to get a lot of me in the coming days.”
Armstrong picked up his rant the following night at a gig in Huddersfield, England, where he said “f— the Supreme Court of America” as he introduced the song “American Idiot,” calling the justices “pricks,” according to multiple media reports.
On Green Day’s current Hella Mega tour of the U.K. and Europe, with Fall Out Boy and Weezer, the platinum-selling East Bay punk band has been performing nightly in front of a banner declaring, “F— Ted Cruz.” Countless posts picturing the band have gone viral on social media, following the junior Texas senator and his fellow Republicans’
obstruction of gun legislation following the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, when a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.
The members of Green Day — Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool — have never been shy about expressing their political outrage, as evidenced on some of the band’s best-selling albums, 2004’s “American Idiot” and 2009’s “21st Century Breakdown.” Both of those were largely directed at the policies of thenPresident George W. Bush.
In 2019, Armstrong updated the lyrics of the title track from
“American Idiot” to lash out at a more recent president, Donald Trump, switching up the line “I’m not a part of the redneck agenda” with “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda,” in reference to Trump’s “Make American Great Again” slogan.
The latest gestures come after the band this year canceled its concert in Moscow in the wake of Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine.
Green Day was not the only music act to react to the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to repeal the constitutional right to abortion it had declared 49 years ago. A diverse range of artists including Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Phoebe Bridgers, Harry Styles, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Billie Eilish, Brandi Carlile, Lizzo, Pearl Jam and Bette Midler also took to the stage and social media to voice their outrage.
Swift posted a tweet from former first lady Michelle Obama, adding: “I’m absolutely terrified that this is where we are — that after so many decades of people fighting for women’s rights to their own bodies, today’s decision has stripped us of that.”
Styles said, “I’m absolutely devastated for the people of America today. Check on your friends. Look after each other. We’re all in this together, and the fight is just beginning. A truly dark day for America.”
Lizzo, a headliner at Outside Lands last year, took it a step further and pledged a donation of $500,000 to Planned Parenthood, with concert promoter Live Nation agreeing to match it.
Green Day, alongside rapper Post Malone and Grammy-winning singer SZA, is among the headliners for the 14th annual Outside Lands festival, set to return to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in its usual summer slot on Aug. 5-7.