Just hours after the United States Supreme Court announced that it would be overturning the Roe v Wade decision, Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong turned to a crowd of fans in London to renounce his United States citizenship. The Supreme Court decision reached Armstrong in the middle of the concert, so he turned to the London audience and told the crowd that he would be renouncing his United States citizenship because he was outraged that the country would not protect women’s reproductive rights.
During his rant to the London audience, Armstrong called the entire world a “stupid” place and the United States a “miserable’ place in particular. He also explained that he did not want to return back to the United States after his European tour. Green Day has already returned to the United States to perform scheduled dates in Chicago, Illinois, and San Francisco, California. The group will then travel to South America for September tour dates in Brazil and Argentina.
While Armstrong expressed his distaste for the United States of America, the London fans reacted with applause. The lead singer gave the Green Day fans plenty of time to get their reaction out into the ether before he reassured the London audience that he was “not kidding” about how he wanted to renounce his citizenship in the United States.
During the performance, Armstrong expressed his interest in moving from the United States to the United Kingdom. He told the London audience, “You’re going to get a lot of me in the coming days.”
The following day, on Saturday, Armstrong returned to the London stage. This time, he made it very clear that he did not support the Supreme Court’s decision to block women’s reproductive rights. He said, “F*** the Supreme Court and America” during the second performance – and then Green Day launched into their rendition of “American Idiot,” their extremely popular hit song from several years ago.
Armstrong is hardly the only music star reacting to the Supreme Court’s conservative decision to stop protecting women’s reproductive rights in the country. Instead of protecting a women’s right to choose to get an abortion on the federal level, the Supreme Court passed over the protection to the states. Meanwhile, Red States are working to block women’s ability to get abortions, which will lead to many women being unable to get the health care services they require.
Singer Billie Eilish recently expressed her outrage at the Supreme Court decision during a performance in July 2022.
“Today is a really, really dark day for women in the U.S. I’m just going to say that as I cannot bear to think about it any longer at this moment,” Billie Eilish said. She then dedicated her next song, “Your Power,” to the conservative Supreme Court justices who overturned the Roe v Wade decision in the 1970s. “The song we’re about to do is, I think, one of the favorites that we’ve written, and it’s about the concept of power and how we need to always remember how not to abuse it.”
What do you think about the Green Day singer’s decision to renounce his American citizenship?