Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong told a crowd at the London stop of the band’s current Hella Mega Tour that he is “renouncing” his US citizenship, following the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“Fuck America. I’m fucking renouncing my citizenship. I’m fucking coming here,” Armstrong said while onstage at London Stadium on Friday evening (June 24).
“There’s just too much fucking stupid in the world to go back to that miserable fucking excuse for a country,” Armstrong continued. “Oh, I’m not kidding. You’re going to get a lot of me in the coming days.” Watch that moment below:
#GreenDay #RoeVWade #hellamegatour
billie joe’s statement on roe vs wade at london hella mega tour last night pic.twitter.com/6cJx4oa6I1— oz
|FUCK GCSES!! (@armstr0ngtyler) June 25, 2022
Armstrong is one of many artists who’ve spoken out in recent days following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that protects a person’s right to safely terminate a pregnancy in the United States.
For the first time in nearly five decades, abortion will no longer be protected as a federal right in the US. Each state will be able to decide individually whether to restrict or ban abortion.
“I’m absolutely terrified that this is where we are,” Taylor Swift tweeted in response to the news. “That after so many decades of people fighting for women’s rights to their own bodies, today’s decision has stripped us of that.”
Phoebe Bridgers, Harry Styles, Maggie Rogers, Charli XCX, Zara Larsson and Pearl Jam were among the other artists who took to social media to criticise the decision, while Lizzo announced she was partnering with Live Nation to pledge a total of $1million to organisations offering safe access to abortions.
Many artists who performed at this year’s Glastonbury Festival also used their platform to slam the decision. Olivia Rodrigo brought out Lily Allen to perform ‘Fuck You’, dedicating it to the Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.
“I wanted to dedicate this song to the five members of the supreme court, who showed us that at the end of the day they truly don’t give a shit about freedom,” Rodrigo said before naming them. “We hate you.”
Billie Eilish also addressed the decision prior to performing ‘Your Power’, telling the crowd, “Today is a really really dark day for women in the US. And I’m just going to say that because I can’t bear to think about it anymore in this moment.”
During their set, IDLES frontman Joe Talbot dedicated a performance of the band’s song ‘Mother’ to “every mother and every woman and her right to choose whether she is a mother or not”.
The Hella Mega tour – which, in addition to Green Day, also features Fall Out Boy and Weezer on the bill – continues tonight (June 27) in Dublin, with dates in Glasgow and Paris to follow. Find remaining tickets here.
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