Green Day singer goes to rehab

 

It is sad that Billie Joe Armstrong, and the band for that matter, caved to pressure and did the ultimate unpunk thing - apologized for their “bad behavior” at the iHeartRadio Music Festival. Honestly, a punk band swearing, never heard of such a thing!
What was referred to as “a meltdown” by most media outlets due to the singer dropping f-bombs after realizing their set needed to wrap up is now the impetus for Armstrong heading to rehab seeking treatment for substance abuse.

 

Interesting turn of events for the 40-year-old.
Green Day, originally scheduled to take the stage at 11:05 p.m. Friday night, went on at 11:30 p.m. Due to the event’s backed up itinerary the band were already behind schedule when they hit the stage. Their performance was in fact cut short. Whether or not the band knew ahead of time, well the reaction speaks for itself.

Green Day     

 

Audience members at iHeartRadio Festival looked like they were enjoying Green Day's performance. Even with a so called meltdown. Armstrong jumped into the audience and all but pulled his pants down and gave blood during the performance. Fans will tell you when they don’t enjoy a gig.
E! News reports after the set Armstrong was “backstage laughing and the fans loved it. A very rock 'n' roll moment."
Three weeks ago the band was forced to cancel a date in Bologna, Italy after the singer was hospitalized. The illness was kept hush hush, but bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool told fans via video, “Doctors don’t think it’s a good idea for him to play today. This sucks, we really really were looking forward to playing in Bologna as the highlight of our tour.”
Armstrong discharged himself from the hospital and reports swirled he was suffering from exhaustion, loss of voice, or maybe gastric problems, but whatever the mystery illness he would be well enough to perform at the iHeartRadio Music Festival.
Days later the band performed at the Video Music Awards where Dirnt offered up this explanation to MTV:
"Billie came down with heavy, heavy dehydration; it was like severe dehydration, influenza, and it was just a really, really bad situation. "He woke up in the morning and it was bad. Let's put it this way, if you're in your hotel room and you're vomiting profusely, it's not fun. So what are you gonna do? It's hard to sing while you're puking."
Twenty-four hours following the iHeartRadio Music Fest, Green Day stated on its website "Our set was not cut short by Clear Channel," the host of the two-day festival and futhermore "apologized to those we offended at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas." Who was offended? The band didn't mention fans in that public spanking/apology.
Green Day regretfully postponed some of its upcoming promotional appearances including an autograph signing Sept. 26 at Tilly's in Burbank. The North American tour is scheduled to kick off late November at Seattle's Paramount Theater. Let's get back to the offended.
Could the message, boys and girls, be that you don’t want to mess with Clear Channel, the largest radio station group owner in the United States? With Green Day about to drop a new album, "¡Uno!," they probably want to have Clear Channel in their corner.
Regarding that lame apology. Apologize for something real. Apologize for canceling shows because you're wasted. Apologize for wasting a fan's time because they have to rearrange their schedules. Apologize for putting on a bad show because you’re drunk or high or whatever the case may be and have no respect for your audience. Don’t apologize for pissing off the brass and then call yourself a punk rock band. Good luck in rehab. I am a fan of the music but not so much Billie any more. He is a bit full of himself and strung out. There is a big difference between partying and being strung out.