Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong Discusses Return To Political Songwriting

Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong has revealed the reason why the American pop-punk icons have returned to political songwriting with their upcoming album.

The band, comprised of Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool, recently announced their 14th studio album, Saviours, due out January 19, 2024. It’s the band’s first LP since 2020’s Father of All Motherf****s.

The lead single from Saviors, “The American Dream Is Killing Me”, topped Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart last week.

The band has described the upcoming album as one that “bridges the gap” between Dookie and American Idiot.

Speaking with 102.1 the Edge, Armstrong explained that “The American Dream Is Killing Me” is actually the oldest song on Saviors, as it was written several years ago when the band was working on Father of All Motherf***s.

“For Father of All, we didn’t want to go political because it was so obvious, and it was such low-hanging fruit, because we had such terrible politics and terrible division in the United States,” Armstrong said. “We got away from the politics for a while. we just didn’t want to be, you know, another pundit on CNN finger-pointing.”

“But this time, we brought it out and it felt like it was the perfect time for it,” he added.

(Photo: Pamela Littky)