Green Day skipped a politically charged lyric change during their Super Bowl LX opening performance, surprising some viewers who expected the band to lean into its recent anti-MAGA message.
The Bay Area punk rock band opened the Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, closing their set with their 2004 hit “American Idiot.” In recent performances, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong had altered the song’s lyric from “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” to “I’m not a part of a MAGA agenda.”
However, during Sunday’s nationally televised broadcast, Armstrong avoided the lyric altogether by skipping the entire second verse of the song.
The decision caught some fans off guard, with viewers taking to social media to express disappointment. The Daily Beast has reached out to Green Day’s representatives for comment.
By omitting the verse, the band also bypassed the controversial line, “Well, maybe I’m the f—-t, America.” Armstrong did still sing the lyric “The subliminal mindf— America,” though it was censored during NBC’s broadcast.
Armstrong originally wrote “American Idiot” as a protest song in 2003, criticizing the U.S. invasion of Iraq under President George W. Bush and the media’s portrayal of the war.
Two days earlier, Armstrong delivered a much more pointed political message during a performance at Spotify’s Super Bowl party. There, he directly criticized former President Donald Trump and members of his administration, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, and Vice President JD Vance.
During the Friday night performance, Armstrong told ICE agents to “quit your sh–ty a– job,” adding, “They’re gonna drop you like a bad f—ing habit. Come on this side of the line.”
He also dedicated the band’s song “Holiday” to the city of Minneapolis, where protests have erupted over the Trump administration’s ICE enforcement surge and the killing of two American citizens by federal agents.
In that performance, Armstrong altered lyrics in “Holiday” to reference Jeffrey Epstein and his political connections, changing “the representative from California has the floor” to “the representative from Epstein Island has the floor.”
Although Green Day performed “Holiday” during the Super Bowl, the band transitioned into “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” before reaching the altered lyric.
Green Day has long been outspoken in its opposition to Trump and frequently modifies lyrics during live performances to make political statements. During a concert in Melbourne last year, Armstrong changed lyrics in “Jesus of Suburbia” to take aim at Vice President Vance, continuing the band’s pattern of provocative onstage commentary.