Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt has responded to Elon Musk‘s taunt over the band’s performance on ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest .
As previously reported, Billie Joe Armstrong changed the lyrics during Green Day’s rendition of “American Idiot” to “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda,” a reference to former President Donald Trump and his supporters. That prompted Musk to take to what used to be called Twitter — before he purchased it and changed it to X — to proclaim, “Green Day goes from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it.”
When asked about Musk’s comments in an interview with Rolling Stone, Dirnt replies, “Elon Musk actually is the machine.”
“I can’t take anything else from that,” Dirnt adds. “He’s not shy about saying stupid s*** on the internet. Whatever.”
Along with Musk’s post, Green Day’s NYRE performance caused a right wing firestorm, which, given that the band has long been vocal and open about their politics, surprised Dirnt. Not only that, but “American Idiot” was originally written about the administration of another Republican president, George W. Bush.
“The song’s 20 years old, and we’re Green Day,” Dirnt says. “What did you expect? Come on. I think the best part about it is that it provoked conversation. It got people talking.”
“First it was rhetorical, and then it got into conversation,” he continues. “Anytime you can get people talking, you’re always going to have the loudest voices [heard first], and then everyone else in the room is going to figure out what it really means.”
Green Day will release a new album, Saviors, on January 19.