Members of rock band Green Day revealed to Rolling Stone in an extensive interview Monday that they shout “F*ck you, Donald Trump” at every stop on their nationwide tour while performing the title track from their 2004 album “American Idiot.”
“I feel we’re a voice to join the resistance. I don’t know what shape or form that’s going to come in. I mean, you can see a little bit of that now with people showing up at town halls,” guitarist and lead vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong told Rolling Stone. “But it’s hard. To think we’re only in the second month of this presidency. It’s like every day you’re fed a different form of bullsh*t. I think that’s what people are: They’re victims of constant bullsh*t.”
Asked if he views George W. Bush’s presidency differently now that he’s living in the era of Trump, Armstrong said: “No. Bush, as far as I’m concerned, is a war criminal. With Trump, we have no idea. Right now it’s just a freak show.”
“I feel like the government is trying to create a culture war between us in a lot of ways. They’re trying to get between your average citizens based on red and blue,” Armstrong added. “I want people to feel unity when they come to a show. At the same time, I’m not going to puss out on saying what I feel about him and his administration.”
Armstrong and Green Day have made a habit of bashing President Trump.
In an interview with Kerrang! magazine last August, Armstrong compared Trump to Adolf Hitler. In a November interview with NME, the rocker blamed the rise of Trump on “uneducated white working-class people.”
Later that month during a performance at the American Music Awards, the rock trio chanted “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!” from the stage.
In his new interview with Rolling Stone, Armstrong said he doesn’t fear for his children’s future under Trump and appeared to compare the president to the Harry Potter villain Voldemort.
“I look at my kids as the Harry Potter Generation,” Armstrong said. “There’s a sense of justice about that, in beating Voldemort. It’s a classic tale of good versus evil. To have a role model like Harry Potter that says you can defeat evil, but still be a complicated human being. That gives me a lot of hope.”
Read Green Day’s full interview with Rolling Stone here.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson
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