Rolling Stone magazine sat down with Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong, dicussing the band's upcoming 3-disc LP, rockers at the RNC and Armstrong joining Team Christina on NBC's "The Voice."
In the article of the Sept. 27 issue, Armstrong seemed to be in high spirits, joking often. When asked if Green Day's song "Kill the DJ" contained influences by the Clash, Billie Joe wittily responded, "If you're a punk-rock band, you can't escape the Clash [laughs]! It's like trying to escape the Beatles when you write melody. It's just going to happen."
Armstrong also went on to tell Rolling Stone's David Browne, "At this point, we can do whatever we want." He proved this statement during the 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas on Sept. 21.
When a sign indicated that Green Day had one minute remaining in their set, Bille Joe cut off the band while performing "Basket Case" and proceeded to go off on a 2-minute tangent comprised of 20 f-bombs and at one point yelling, "I'm not f***ing Justin Bieber, you motherf***ers!"
Before finally leaving the stage, Armstrong smashed his guitar and threw the microphone over his head in protest of his lack of time.
Two days after his tantrum, the band announced on their Facebook page that Billie Joe Armstrong will seek treatment for substance abuse:
"Billie Joe is seeking treatment for substance abuse. We would like everyone to know that our set was not cut short by Clear Channel and to apologize to those we offended at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas. We regretfully must postpone some of our upcoming promotional appearances."Billie Joe Armstrong's antics on stage have convincingly proven that punk-rock is surely not dead.
Read Rolling Stone's post of the Billie Joe incident here.
