Green Day guitarist/vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong has checked himself into rehab following his verbal attack on producers of the iHeart Music Festival in Las Vegas over the weekend. Video footage can be seen below.
Green Day took the stage about 30 minutes late and performed a truncated set. In an attempt to create enough time to play a song from the band’s forthcoming album ‘Uno!’ Armstrong cut the band’s classic track ‘Basket Case’ short. Unfortunately, to Arsmstrong’s bereavement, he then noticed that the prompter facing the front of the stage showed that the band had just one minute set time remaining. This was the final straw for Armstrong.
“Give me a … break. One minute left? One minute … left? You’re gonna give me … one minute? Look at that … sign right there. One minute,” he bellowed. “Let me tell you something, I’ve been around since 19-f***ing-88 and you’re gonna give me one f***ing minute? You’ve gotta be f***ing kidding me! You’re f***ing kidding me. What the f**k! I’m not f***ing Justin Bieber, you mother***ers.”
Armstrong then destroyed his guitar, gave the camera the middle finger and told the crowd, “God love you all, you’ll see us again,” before exiting the stage.
It has since been revealed that Armstrong has checked himself into rehab for substance abuse.
Green Day issued the following statement on the matter: “Billie Joe is seeking treatment for substance abuse,” the statement read: “We would like everyone to know that our set was not cut short by Clear Channel and to apologize to those we offended at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas.”
The band added: “We regretfully must postpone some of our upcoming promotional appearances.”
While Green Day did not elaborate on which promotional appearances would be axed, a performance on Monday for Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM (106.7) has been postponed.
Green Day was set to appear on a host of talk shows this week, including ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ and ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show,’ and was also to appear Wednesday at Burbank’s surf-and-skate shop Tilly’s for a fan signing.
‘Uno!,’ the first of three upcoming albums from Green Day, is out tomorrow.