American rock band Green Day delivered a hard-hitting insult to South Africa-born Elon Musk while performing IN the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s home country this week.
In what was their first ever concert in the country, while singing their 2004 hit “American Idiot” at Calabash South Africa in Johannesburg on Sunday, 19 January, the band’s frontman Billie Joe Armstrong swapped the lyric “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” with “I’m not a part of the Elon agenda.”
As at the time of publishing, Pretoria-born Musk has not yet publicly addressed Green Day’s lyric substitution.
As reported by The South African website, Musk, one of Donald Trump’s top allies during his presidential bid, was tapped by the latter in November to lead a proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy during his second term.
However, in something of a shock announcement this week, Ramaswamy was removed from the project on Monday.
Previously slammed the tech mogul
Meanwhile, Green Day’s shade cast at Musk comes after the band previously slammed the tech mogul with another lyric swap during its “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” performance in 2023.
Armstrong, who publicly endorsed then-vice-president Kamala Harris ahead of November’s US presidential election, changed the same “American Idiot” line to “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda,” referencing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
At the time, Musk fired back at the band following their performance, writing in a tweet at the time, “Green Day goes from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it.”
Bassist Mike Dirnt later addressed Musk’s tweet in a January 2024 interview with Rolling Stone.
“Elon Musk actually is the machine. I can’t take anything else from that. He’s not shy about saying stupid shit on the internet,” Dirnt told the magazine.
“Whatever. The song’s twenty years old, and we’re Green Day. What did you expect?”
At Green Day’s second performance in Mzansi at the Cape Town Stadium on Thursday evening, Armstrong repeated the lyric ‘swap’.
Meanwhile, as reported by The South African website, Musk made headlines again this week after he made a hand gesture during Trump’s Inauguration Day that many have likened to a Nazi salute.
RELATED | Elon Musk, Wikipedia founder in row over how to describe ‘Nazi salute’
Who are Green Day?
Green Day are an American rock band formed in Rodeo, California, in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, with drummer Tré Cool joining in 1990.
In 1994, their major-label debut Dookie, released through Reprise Records, became a breakout success and eventually shipped over 20 million copies in the United States.
Alongside fellow California punk bands Bad Religion, the Offspring, Rancid, NOFX, Pennywise and Social Distortion, Green Day is credited with re-popularising mainstream interest in punk rock in the United States.
Did you attend one of the Green Day concerts in South Africa this week?
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