Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong spent much of the summer voicing his displeasure at the A’s imminent departure from Oakland. During a show at Oracle Park on Friday night, Armstrong launched into a minute-long rant laced with expletives in which he expressed his displeasure with team owner John Fisher and the franchise’s future home, Las Vegas.
“We don’t take no s— from people like John f—— Fisher, who sold out the Oakland A’s to Las f—— Vegas,” said Armstrong, whose rant came less than a week away from the franchise’s final game in Oakland on Thursday. “I f—— hate Las Vegas. It’s the worst s—hole in America.”
LETS GO @billiejoe!!! pic.twitter.com/LqOQBiTCR6
— Gabriel Hernandez (@gamer_athletics) September 21, 2024
Armstrong previously spray painted over the Oakland Athletics “A’s” logo with the Oakland Ballers “B’s” trademark at Rogers Centre in Toronto and took ownership of the act on Instagram in early August to express his frustrations. But Green Day has been on tour for a month, and its Toronto incident was just one in a series of public displays that made clear the band’s opposition to Fisher and his planned relocation to Las Vegas.
Armstrong was in attendance for last season’s “reverse boycott” game at the Oakland Coliseum and subsequently frequented the venues of the Oakland Ballers, an independent baseball team for which he is an investor, and the Oakland Roots SC, a professional soccer team in the USL Championship league. It seems his impassioned investment in Oakland sports has not since simmered.
“Tonight is a very special night,” Armstrong said. “Tonight we are home. This is my f—— home. Green Day, we are from the Bay Area. We live the Bay Area. We smell the Bay Area. We are the refineries. We are that cold Bay. We are the mud that lives under there. We are. This is us. We are East Bay, East Bay for life.”
Twenty games below .500, the A’s will soon bid farewell to the city that has been its home since 1968.
(Photo of Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day’s Sept. 18 show at Chase Field: Joe Rondone / The Republic / USA Today via Imagn Images)
