Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong sings at the American Music Awards; Photo: YouTube
ICYMI, Green Day wedged an opportunity into their performance of “Bang Bang” last week — an already glaringly political song, written from the perspective of a mass shooter — during the American Music Awards on Monday to chastise the President Elect, chanting about halfway through, “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA.”
We all know Billie Joe Armstrong and the band’s ascent from songs about masturbation to socio-political broadway rock operas, American Idiot a reaction to the Bush Administration, but here the band took that gumption a step further with a buck at national television. And apparently, if we are to trust TMZ in a post-Trump Elect state, ABC execs had no clue the chant was planned.
The band has been vocal about their objection to Trump, ranting and changing lyrics on tour, titling their latest record Revolution Radio, and now adding to their interview opinion blasts, the trio took to The Late Late Show with James Corden to explain what we all, and any respectable punk fan should already know, that the chant comes from an old MDC (Millions of Dead Cops) standard, “Born to Die,” what a prospective title for a musical about the Trump administration might be called, a reemphasis on the chant not being rehearsed and, of course, their reasoning for the chant, Armstrong saying, “It was a good start to challenge [Trump] on all of his ignorant polices and racism.
Who’s taking bets on that new musical actually happening?