‘I hate Las Vegas’: Punk rocker blasts city in rant about A’s owner

Billie Joe Armstrong used the San Francisco Giants’ stadium to take a big swing at A’s ownership, and peripherally Las Vegas, on Friday night.

The front man for Bay Area punk icons Green Day called out the A’s ownership at a sold-out concert at Oracle Park.

“We don’t take no (expletive) from people like John (expletive) Fisher, who sold out the Oakland A’s to Las (expletive) Vegas,” Armstrong shouted at the crowd of 43,000, as reported by the San Jose Mercury News. “I (expletive) hate Las Vegas. It’s the worst (expletive) hole in America.”

Armstrong was born in Oakland. He’s historically a staunch defender and advocate of the East Bay.

An e-mail to an A’s rep for comment has not been returned.

Green Day has a three-decade history of playing Las Vegas, dating to two shows at Huntridge Theater in September 1993 and again in February 1994. The band played a 2-hour, pop-up show at Fremont Country Club and its connected Backstage Bar & Grill in October of last year.

That wild performance, packed with Green Day fans (most from Las Vegas), was just ahead of that weekend’s When We Were Young Festival at Las Vegas Festival Grounds.

The band played for 2½ hours on Friday, revisiting “Dookie” on its 30th anniversary and “American Idiot” on its 20th. “Dookie” was also revived at the Fremont Country Club performance.

The Oracle Park concert took place as the A’s entered a weekend homestand at the Oakland Coliseum against the Yankees. The A’s wrap up their 57-year run in the East Bay this week with a three-game series against the Texas Rangers.

Rancid’s Lars Frederiksen, who is also from the East Bay, joined the Fisher fry.

“Oh, I am going to say some (expletive) tonight — (expletive) John Fisher,” Frederiksen said from the stage. “His whole family makes money off the backs of Bay Area people and then he wants to (expletive) off to Vegas. (Expletive) him.

“Thank God we’ve still got the Giants.”

For Armstrong, this is not the first instance of the punk star venting in a Las Vegas-related manner.

In September 2012, Armstrong went off during the iHeartRadio Music Festival at MGM Grand Garden. He wasn’t taking issue with Vegas, specifically, but was acutely irate about the crowd’s lethargy after Usher destroyed the place with his 15 backing dancers.

Armstrong was also angered by Green Day’s set being cut from 45 to 30 minutes.

“We have nine (expletive) minutes left?! What the (expletive)?!” he shouted while glaring at a giant monitor in the middle of the arena floor, which read, “9 MINUTES.”

“I’ve been around for 25 (expletive) years! I should get more than one minute per song!” Armstrong then smashed his guitar in half, as bassist Mike Dirnt slammed his instrument into the amps stacked behind him.

The band then stormed off, emotions smoldering. Rihanna followed, and honesty I remember nothing of her set.

And, visitors and locals alike can learn more or revisit Green Day’s history at the Punk Rock Museum, a thoughtful and exhaustively conceived tribute to punk culture, right here in Las Vegas.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.