Ellie Kemp
Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong has ruffled some feathers after taking swipes at the Trump administration and head of DOGE Elon Musk while live on stage.
The Australian leg of the rock band's Saviors tour kicked off over the weekend, a day after Donald Trump and JD Vance's heated meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy - which ultimately resulted in the US pausing all military aid to the war-torn country.
Armstrong has never been one to hold back on his political views, taking swipes at Trump and the Tesla and SpaceX CEO in the past.
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But some reckon he's taken it too far by calling Vice President Vance a slur.
While performing 'Jesus in Suburbia,' Armstrong swapped out the lyrics: "Am I r******d, or am I just overjoyed," with: "Or am I JD Vance?"
The crowd didn't appear to respond to the jibe - at least not immediately, from the videos shared on social media.
The Vance line wasn't the only lyric Armstrong changed. Later on in the track, he also sang: “We are the kids of war and peace/From Ukraine to the Middle East,” instead of: “We are kids of war and peace/From Anaheim to the Middle East.”
But earlier in the night, Armstrong managed to rack up rapturous applause when he called out President Trump and tech billionaire Musk, however.
During the title track of their Grammy-winning 2004 album, American Idiot, Armstrong asked the crowd: “Don’t you want politicians to shut the f*** up? Don’t you want Elon Musk to shut the f*** up? Don’t you want Donald Trump to shut the f*** up?”
Reaction to the moment has been divided, with many Americans slamming the band via X. One user wrote: "Who is Green Day? I didn’t know they were still around!" as a second weighed in: "There’s nothing Billie Joe can do at this point to make himself cool again."
Others pulled up Armstrong for still using the r****d slur, as one person responded: "So it's okay to call people r******d now? Like, as an insult? They've been criticizing the free speech crowd for this for years."
Another weighed in: "Kudos for the anti-fascism, but not so much for the ableism."
Others swooped in to defend the musician though, as one person wrote: "Green Day is a great band…..who gives a s**t what they think about our POLITICS?"
Green Day last took aim at Musk back in January, when they played a show in South Africa - the tech mogul's birthplace.
Armstrong changed a lyric in American Idiot once again, this time to say: “I’m not part of the Elon agenda," instead of: "I'm not a part of a redneck agenda."
Musk hit back, posting the following day to X: “Green Day goes from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it.”
It's not the first time they've targeted Trump, either; Armstrong sang 'I’m not part of a MAGA agenda,' when the band played New Year’s Rockin’ Eve in 2023.