Billie Joe Armstrong left the stage in a rage at the iHeartRadio concert in Las Vegas and landed in rehab for unknown substance abuse. Green Day will postpone some of its upcoming appearances as a result.
Armstrong, 40, went ballistic after the band’s 45-minute set was cut to 30 minutes to make more room for a performance by Rihanna.
iHeartRadio host, Clear Channel Communications, was also reportedly trying to makeup time for Usher’s set, which ran 25 minutes over.
Armstrong stopped playing about half way through “Basket Case” to play another song, but looked up at the monitor and saw the band only had one minute left in the set. The news apparently caught Armstrong by surprise.
“You’ve gotta be fu*king kidding me! You’re fu*king kidding me. What the fu*k I’m not fu*king Justin Bieber, you mother-fu*kers!” he screamed.
Before it was over, he slammed his guitar onto the stage several times, broke it and threw the neck into the audience. The crowd roared in approval.
His rep said today that Armstrong had entered rehab to seek treatment for substance abuse. Later Brian Bumbery, who reps for the group apologized on behalf of the band for the outburst.
“Green Day would like everyone to know that their set was not cut short by Clear Channel and to apologize to those they offended at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas,” he said. “The band regretfully must postpone some of their upcoming promotional appearances.”
It’s hard to tell where the truth lies. The band is about to release Uno the first album in their trilogy on Tues. (Sept 25). So it’s not a good idea to offend Clear Channel which owns 850 radio stations, and could choose not to play the band’s new songs.
Check out Billie Joe’s rant below; warning it contains strong language. And Click here to follow TheImproper on Twitter for more music updates.
