Green Day put the censors to work Saturday at the 2020 NHL All-Star Game as Billie Joe Armstrong dropped a series of f-bombs during the televised performance.
The band, which agreed to a multi-year partnership with the NHL and debuted their track “Fire, Ready, Aim” as an NHL promo earlier in the season, played a medley of “Basket Case” and “American Idiot” during intermission at the hockey showcase, hosted this year by the St. Louis Blues.
While neither track is expletive-filled, Armstrong ad-libbed three “fucks” into his banter with the crowd. “Let’s go fucking crazy!,” he exclaimed midway through “American Idiot.” Armstrong’s f-bombs were muted from broadcast by U.S. censors, they were reportedly heard on Canadian television.
Soon after Green Day’s performance, the band was trending on Twitter for their f-bombing of a “family friendly” event. “Fuckin cool fuckin night in St. Fuckin Louis!!,” Tre Cool later quipped, while the band’s Twitter also had some fun with the situation:
Anyone know why we’re trending? We’ve been busy having a blast w the @NHL in St. Louis all night.
— Green Day (@GreenDay) January 26, 2020
— Green Day (@GreenDay) January 26, 2020
Fuckin cool fuckin night in St. Fuckin Louis!!
“Green Day didn’t get the NHL’s ‘don’t swear on live TV’ memo” https://t.co/GavGdRG1Lk— Tre Cool (@trecool) January 26, 2020
The NHL has not commented on Green Day’s performance at press time.
