Green Day responds to claims that they’re “anti-American”

Green Day have responded to claims that they are “anti-American” saying: “If we didn’t care about this country, we wouldn’t say anything.”

• READ MORE: Green Day – ‘Saviors’ review: their best work since ‘American Idiot’

On New Year’s Eve, the band – comprised of frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool – played a set as part of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve – hosted by Ryan Seacrest.

The gig then hit headlines when Armstrong, altered the ‘American Idiot’ lyric “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” to hit out at Donald Trump, singing: “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda”. Many including Elon Musk then criticised the gesture, with the X/Twitter boss saying: “Green Day goes from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it.”

Since the band’s controversial performance, many have claimed that they are “anti-American”. In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Armstrong said: “I’m really reluctant to get in bed with any politician. Not that we’ve ever been asked. I think there’s a side of us that people might look at as being anti-American, so they hold us at arm’s length. But if we didn’t care about this country, we wouldn’t say anything.”

Their lyric change during their New Year’s performance was not the first time the band have hit out at the former president of the United States.

At the American Music Awards (AMA) in 2016, the legendary punk trio led a chant of “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA” in protest against the then-President electoral candidate.

In August last year, the band announced a limited-time sale of a t-shirt featuring Donald Trump‘s mugshot for charity. The t-shirt, titled Ultimate Nimrod, used Trump’s viral mugshot to recreate their iconic ‘Nimrod’ cover, with the album’s title covering Trump’s face.

Speaking to the outlet, Armstrong went on to say that he can “absolutely” envision Trump winning the presidential election this November. “I think he’s crazy, and I think he’ll say anything to get elected,” he said.

The frontman also shared that the criticism of President Biden’s age is unfair and pointed out that sadly there is an overabundance of “old men” in government.

“There’s not a single Gen X person in higher office right now that has any real influence,” he told the publication. “It’s boomers that don’t want to give up their power. I see millennials like AOC, or Lauren f— Boebert. But Gen X, we’ve gotten skipped over.”

He attributed this as to why the American idea of “giving something over to your kids that they can build on — that’s just dead.”

The band’s 14th LP is set for release on January 19. Reviewing ‘Saviors’, NME said: “There’s some serendipity in the band hitting the road to celebrate 30 years of ‘Dookie’ and 20 years of ‘American Idiot’ later this summer. Not only does ‘Saviors’ spiritually bridge the gap between the two, but it uses the palette of the best of the band to tell us something else.

“Look to the artwork: ‘Dookie’ was a cheeky carpet-bombing of shit, ‘American Idiot’ was a hand grenade, ‘Saviors’ is an act of defiance met with a shrug; a band saying, “We’re still here and we’re still fucked”.

In other news, Green Day recently confirmed that they’ll be playing ‘Dookie’ and ‘American Idiot’ in full on their 2024 ‘Saviors’ world tour. It will be in celebration of the LP’s 30th and 20th anniversaries.

Armstrong also recently shared that his past drinking problems were related to issues with stage fright.

The singer entered rehab in 2012 after an onstage meltdown during a performance at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas. He then returned to the stage with Green Day the following year, and has spoken openly about his recovery since.