Green Day Changes Lyrics to Hit Song to Call JD Vance a Slur

Billie Joe Armstrong
Kevin Mazur / Kevin Mazur/ Getty Images for Live Nation

Rock band Green Day chewed out MAGA leaders during their recent Australia concert.

The band was playing at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Saturday when lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong took aim at high-profile Trump figures including the president himself, Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance.

Green Day's songs have always been political.  / Jon Kopaloff / Jon Kopaloff/ WireImage
Green Day's songs have always been political. / Jon Kopaloff / Jon Kopaloff/ WireImage

The famous punk group called Vance a slur in a new rendition of their song “Jesus of Suburbia,” from the band’s 2004 American Idiot album.

Lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong changed the original lyrics, “Am I r------d or just overjoyed?” to the words, “Am I r-------d or am I just JD Vance?”

ADVERTISEMENT

They also transformed the song’s other lines to make a political point. “We are the kids of war and peace, From Ukraine to the Middle East,” Armstrong sang. The original lyrics were: “We are the kids of war and peace/ From Anaheim to the Middle East.”

The new words referenced the heated argument between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump, who had called him a “dictator” only days before. Trump sent the U.S. ally home and posted on social media that Zelensky “is not ready for Peace.”

In another moment, Armstrong asked the crowd, “Don’t you want Elon Musk to shut the f--- up?”

He continued swearing: “Don’t you want Donald Trump to shut the f--- up? Nah, nah, nah, I’m not going to get angry. F--- that s---.”

Green Day’s American Idiot has always been political, with most fans believing that its title track is a protest song criticizing former President George W. Bush. Lyrics are eerily similar to today’s reality: “Now everybody do the propaganda and sing along to the age of paranoia.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The band’s Melbourne concert is not the first time it has made digs at Trump or other conservative leaders. The band performed for Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin' Eve last year and changed the popular “American Idiot” song to trash Trump. They sang, “I’m not part of a MAGA agenda” instead of “I’m not a part of the redneck agenda.” They made the same switch during the Melbourne show.

It prompted Tesla billionaire and Trump “special government employee” Elon Musk to post on X: “Green Day went from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it.”

Billie Joe Armstrong has often changed his song lyrics to be anti-Trump. / Scott Dudelson / Scott Dudelson/ Getty Images for FIREAID
Billie Joe Armstrong has often changed his song lyrics to be anti-Trump. / Scott Dudelson / Scott Dudelson/ Getty Images for FIREAID

In a tour of South Africa in January, they criticized Musk in his homeland, singing: “I’m not a part of an Elon agenda.”

After Roe V. Wade was overturned in 2022, ending the federal right to abortion, Armstrong told a London crowd that he would be moving there.

ADVERTISEMENT

“F--- America, I’m f---ing renouncing my citizenship,” he said.

“There’s just too much f---ing stupid in the world to go back to that miserable f---ing excuse for a country,” he said. “You’re going to get a lot of me in the coming days.”

Armstrong even added to the song “Bang Bang” during his performance at the American Music Awards in 2016 during Trump’s first term. He chanted “No Trump, no KKK, no Fascist USA” instead of “No war, no KKK, no fascist USA” during the song’s breakdown.