Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong Freaks Out On Stage, Gets Time Out For Being Too Rock And Roll

09/24/2012 12:00 pm by

WARNING: This video of Billie Joe Armstrong having a rock and roll moment is not safe for work.

So okay…Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong is checking into rehab after he yelled the F word during a performance, dissed Justin Beiber, and then smashed his guitar.

Maybe the guy has a substance abuse problem.Yes. Take care of that.

But the rest of it? Fuck YEAH.

I mean, C’MON, isn’t this what rock and roll is? Behaving badly? Calling out other punks for not being rock and roll enough? Smashing your damn guitar to show the freaking iHeartRadio crowd that you’re fed up with the corporate machine whose teat you’re forced to suck? Because, ewwww…metallic tasting.

nick cave Green Days Billie Joe Armstrong Freaks Out On Stage, Gets Time Out For Being Too Rock And Roll

“I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the fuck is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” -Nick Cave

Actually, I don’t know that Green Day was forced to suck anything. For all I know, the band is perfectly happy not to restring their guitars for anything less than six figures and a crowd of ten thousand.  And I’m not saying that the band is relevant as a force of  Hope I Die Before I Get Old, what with Bille Joe Armstrong being 40 years old probably bitching at his own kids to put on their helmets when riding bikes and to use hand sanitizer after pottying.

smashing guitar 590x421 Green Days Billie Joe Armstrong Freaks Out On Stage, Gets Time Out For Being Too Rock And Roll

On smashing guitars: “…there had to be a kind of act of vengeance against the consumer society that was telling people like you and me that we had to have a Fender with those funny little Phillips screws on, otherwise we weren’t real people.” -Pete Townshend, 1990

And frankly, as much as I want to dislike Internet music curators as much as I hate the word “curator”, I have discovered some pretty cool stuff on iHeartRadio and Pandora. Stuff the “real” radio isn’t going to play (unless you live near a liberal college with a radio station that turns a blind eye to student DJs doing whip-its during the 2AM shift.)

Still…sometimes all this neatly packaged and programmed art feels like a walk through the back alley of Main Street Disney. It looks grungy and it smells like urine and beer. But in reality, it was some socially content and psychologically fit technician peeing on the dumpster and emptying a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon on the ground.

I suppose that’s a good goal: social contentment and psychological fitness. No pain, no sadness, no need for outrage. Really, no need for rock and roll.

But we’re not there yet, are we? So in the meantime – while I hope Billie Joe doesn’t completely self-destruct or OD on whatever substance he’s abusing – I’ll cheer on a bit of Eff You and smashing guitars. Rock is dead they say? Long live fucking rock.

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About Josette Plank

Josette is a coal miner's granddaughter and mother of three kids living in the deep suburbs of Central Pennsylvania. A former writer and actor with DQD Comedy Theater, Josette now shares her down home Appalachian kookiness at josetteplank.com.

Filed Under: 80s, Art, Celeb News, Celebrities Say The Darndest Things, Celebrity Smack Talk, Internet, Music, Popular, Radio, Temper Tantrum, Video Tagged With: , , ,


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  • http://highlyirritable.wordpress.com/ Jeni

    My partner once started a conversation with “I love how the Red Hot Chili Peppers combine lyrical melodies with a driving bass rythm,” and then I was forced to torch his car. :(

    • http://www.josetteplank.com/ Josette Plank

      Sometimes ya gotta do what you gotta do.

      • http://twitter.com/MajorBedhead MajorBedhead

        I thought I was the only person who loathed RHCP. I’m so glad I’m not alone.

  • NinaN2

    His rant seemed to be completely appropriate. Maybe too much so??? It really bugs me when “rock stars” start ranting at and dissing their fans. Billy Joe didn’t at all. Bravo.

    • http://www.josetteplank.com/ Josette Plank

      “It really bugs me when ‘rock stars’ start ranting at and dissing their fans.” Agreed.

  • Kim Prince

    The only thing to say to this is F*CK YEAH! But I wouldn’t want to potty mouth all over your post. Nicely done.

    • http://www.josetteplank.com/ Josette Plank

      Thank you. I’ll take a teaspoon of liquid shower gel in penance for my own potty talk. ;-)

  • http://twitter.com/shuggilippo Jessi Sanfilippo

    I just don’t understand how rock and roll irreverence can be anything but rock and roll, y’know?! If I were there, not matter which row, I’d have chucked my motherfucking panties on the stage. m/

    • http://www.thebeautyfromchaos.blogspot.com/ jill (mrschaos)

      This is why I love you, Jess. Panties to the stage!!!
      And I kinda agree with all of ya. THIS is rock n roll. This is what it’s about. Quite honestly? Green Day is one of my very favorite bands because they were the first influence of thinking for myself and not conforming to society/family/religion.
      I say smash a fucking guitar, Billie Joe…and then yes, get whatever help you may need.

    • http://www.josetteplank.com/ Josette Plank

      Right? Evidently, the band apologized for offending folks at the concert. Not sure what that’s about or who held their feet to the fire. But the moment lives on forever. Amen.

      • DianaCLT

        If they apologized, it was pressure from their managers/record company/somebody with their balls in a vice. Judging by the video, I think the audience probably was in agreement with the sentiments of Billie Joe.

  • http://twitter.com/Avath Avath

    The other dude started smashing his guitar too… did he go to rehab as well?

    • http://www.josetteplank.com/ Josette Plank

      I think he had to roadie for Justin Beiber as punishment.

    • DianaCLT

      Agree, times infinity. As I just replied up above. They’re blaming Billie Joe having an addiction on the “meltdown.” God forbid that Usher own up to the fact he’s a douche and took time away from Green Day. Or that I Heart Radio admit that their noses are up Usher’s ass.

  • DianaCLT

    Green Day’s show was cut 20 minutes because Usher wanted more time. I hadn’t heard about the rehab check-in, but I think they were justified in being pissed the hell off. I’m amazed if the audience didn’t join in, because there were undoubtedly people there who came specifically to see Green Day. Usher can suck it; I’ll take Green Day any day

    • http://www.josetteplank.com/ Josette Plank

      I think the rehab thing was for a prior/ongoing problem, and the announcement just happened to coincide with this…? Still, I agree with righteous indignation here.

      • DianaCLT

        I started reading various websites, and it sounds like managers or whomever have their hands in the pot are using the rehab story to make nice with other big-money peeps (I Heart Radio? Usher? JustinFuckingBieber?). “OhNOOOO! Usher’s not to blame…it’s TOTES Billie Joe’s addiction that caused all that ruckus!” Uhhhhh…then why did 2/3 of Green Day beat the hell out of their instruments? Is the other guy also off to rehab? IDon’tThinkSo! He was pissed, too!

  • Hollypainyo

    I’m very much of two minds about this, as I’ve been about everything Green Day for the last few years. I’ve often felt like the Green Day of American Idiot (which I wanted so badly to like more than I did) is so far removed from the Green Day I cut my 13-year-old rocker teeth on, that they aren’t really even close to being the same band.

    On one hand, it’s good to see Billie Joe’s still got that in him. On the other hand, they’re the ones who agreed to play the iHeartRadio festival in the first place. Additionally, there were parts of that rant that smacked of “don’t you know who I am?” which is a sentiment that has never endeared anyone to me.

    Overall, I still approve. Anything that involves smashing guitars and talking shit about Justin Beiber is a win in my book.

    • http://www.josetteplank.com/ Josette Plank

      I was never really a fan of Green Day. They always seemed like manufactured punk on some level. A lot of people are suggesting that the outburst was part of a marketing act. Well…okay. I wouldn’t doubt it. But I also wouldn’t doubt that a lot of the anger/angst possibly came from a real place of frustration at sort of…you know…waking up in a moment and finding himself 40 yo playing Vegas like Fat Elvis and being told very literally that his time is up.

      I think there may have been some real soul attached to that outburst. And I don’t think aiming it at the I Heart Radio folks in that moment was completely inappropriate, you know? He was probably just as angry with himself for letting this happen. And fair enough. At any rate, it did seem real.

      The rest of that Pete Townshend quote is

      ”
      The guitar smashing was basically marketing. I knew it was going to work, but I had to use real guitars and that was because I am primarily a musician and I wanted it to be real. I’m also an artist, and I’m not afraid to claim that what I do is art.

      “But it couldn’t be phoney, there had to be a kind of act of vengeance ….”

      The line between art and reality can be blurred. Maybe, too, the line between art and marketing.

      • http://twitter.com/ladyjess78 Jessi Jump

        I think to some degree they are “manufactured” or “lite,” but I always preferred to think of them as a punk gateway drug. I wonder how many people like me came to the punk scene from a middle America country/western/top 40 world because of Green Day.

        • http://www.josetteplank.com/ Josette Plank

          I’ll absolutely go with “punk gateway drug”. :-) (And I love that, btw.) I know there are some country-lite/pop acts that have encouraged me to delve deeper into the world of mandolins and fiddles and “real” old-timey folk.