Green Day recently dropped a new track titled ‘One Eyed B**tard,’ shortly after sparking criticism with their performance at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Following the release, Billie Joe Armstrong revealed Black Sabbath’s influence on its creation:
“‘One Eyed B**tard’ started off as just a riff that I had — a shuffle, almost like a Black Sabbath kind of riff. Lyrically, I was just reflecting on bad times in life. That’s the thing about nostalgia — sometimes you think, ‘That was an awful time.’ Everybody’s got that ugly place in their life where they have to deal with ugly thoughts — it could be like revenge or whatever. Thankfully, I have an outlet in songwriting.”
Green Day’s Political Views Cause Controversy
Before the track came out, Green Day played a New Year’s show, where they played popular tracks from their albums ‘Dookie’ and ‘American Idiot.’ They received backlash from the Conservatives for changing the lyrics in ‘American Idiot,’ replacing ‘redneck agenda’ with ‘MAGA agenda.’
The band previously did a similar thing during Donald Trump’s presidency at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in 2019. They also openly shared their stance against the former President while performing ‘Bang Bang’ at the 2016 American Music Awards.
The Band Goes Back To Touching Politics In Their Music
Despite remaining more reserved in recent years, Green Day returned to making politically-themed music with the release of ‘The American Dream Is Killing Me.’ Written during the ‘Father Of All Motherf**kers’ era, the track came as the lead single from ‘Saviors.’
About why it wasn’t included in the 2020 album, Armstrong told Canada’s 102.1 The Edge:
“[The song was] low-hanging fruit for — because we have just terrible politics and terrible division in [the] United States. But this time, we brought it out, and it felt like it was the perfect time for it. We got away from the politics for a while, to where we just didn’t want to be like, you know, another pundit on CNN, like finger pointing.”
Green Day’s full album ‘Saviors’ will be out on January 19, 2024. Following the record, the band plans to start a world tour on May 30, with a show in Spain.
