Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong has spoken about his fears for the direction American politics is taking, and warns that the prospect of an autocratic government in the US is “at our doorstep”.
Armstrong's band will release their 14th studio album 'SAVIORS' on Friday, June 19, and, in a new interview with Vulture, the 51-year-old vocalist/guitarist talks about how the album's first single, The American Dream Is Killing Me, released back in October last year, deals with the “overwhelming” anxieties that come with being “an over-stressed American”.
“Our politics are so divided and polarized right now,” says Armstrong. “We had an insurrection. We have homeless people in the street. We have so many issues, and they come onto your algorithm feed at such a pace. It just stresses you out, the anxiety of being an American and how it becomes so overwhelming.”
Reflecting on how his band's new record shares some of the DNA of 2004's American Idiot album, Armstrong notes, “I think it was easier to satirize George Bush because we didn’t have social media. It was before all the tech bros came in. Now you have these billionaires who would rather shoot a rocket into space than deal with the infrastructure we have here.”
Looking ahead, Armstrong admits that he is concerned by the current political landscape in America.
