And, per usual, we at The Shit have done it again by bringing you the inside scoop on Billie Joe Armstrong's f-bomb-laden "meltdown" at the I Heart Radio Festival this past weekend and the ensuing announcement that Armstrong has entered rehab. What follows isn't just another opinion, it is the stone-cold truth.
When Green Day took the stage at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Friday night as part of the IHeartRadio Festival, they followed Usher, whose scheduled 45-minute set ran almost a half-hour longer than planned. As a result, Green Day took the stage a half hour later than scheduled under the impression that they would perform their own 45-minute set in its entirety.
Right off the bat, Armstrong noticed much of the audience stage right was lethargic and began trying to engage them with a string of f-bombs and requests to stand up. Seeing as how a 90-minute set by Usher had left most of them bored shitless, Armstrong and the band had their work cut out for them. Of course, this wasn't exactly a Green Day audience. As the lone rock band on Friday's bill, they were sandwiched in between Usher and Rihanna.
About twenty minutes into their set, a teleprompter informed the band that they had nine minutes left. Armstrong, already a bit perturbed by the lethargic audience, began a slow burn over having their set cut short by concert organizers.
When the teleprompter gave the band a "1 Minute" warning, Armstrong had finally had enough.
The video above shows what happened next.
Once news of Armstrong's "meltdown" hit the news wires, the internet was abuzz with opinions and conjecture. The general consensus was that Armstrong had shown some much-needed punk attitude at a festival that was about as edgy as a sippy cup. This was the same guy who'd written a song ("Good Riddance") that was the most popular prom theme of 1998 and had allowed the band's "American Idiot" album to be turned into a Broadway musical. In doing so, he'd obviously chosen commerce over punk street cred, but here he was thumbing his nose at the establishment - or, in this case, Clear Channel Entertainment, who was sponsoring the festival.
Which brings us to our next point. The IHeartRadio Festival wasn't so much a music festival the way, say, Lollapalooza is a music festival. At Lollapalooza, bands actually get paid to perform. At the IHeartRadio Festival, all acts play for free, hoping to curry favor from Clear Channel and get their tunes added to the company's radio playlists. Why Green Day chose to play kiss-ass with Clear Channel, as well as appear on "America's Got Talent" and "The Voice", says more about the sad state of avenues available to edgier rock acts than it does about Armstrong's street cred.
So when the band's management announced that Armstrong had chosen to enter into rehab for substance abuse treatment, it was a blatant attempt to limit the potential damage that Armstrong's tirade had done. While the twitter feed for IHeartRadio had celebrated Armstrong's tirade by declaring ""WOW!!!! ...and the guitar is officially broken," Warner Bros. Records, who will be releasing not one, but THREE new Green Day albums over the next six months, put immense pressure on band manager Pat Magnarella to "fix this".
The announcement that Billie Joe Armstrong has entered rehab is a complete smokescreen to keep Clear Channel from dropping other Warner Bros. acts from their playlists. That's how desperate labels are to stay in Clear Channel's good graces and how much power the mammoth radio conglomerate wields in this day and age.
And, much like getting stuck between Usher and Rihanna at a radio-sponsored music festival hosted by Ryan Seacrest, Green Day now find themselves sandwiched between Warner Bros. and Clear Channel.