Green Day's Billie Joe wants fans to put away their phones

A picture of fans at a Green Day gig in London
Fans at a Green Day gig in London (Image credit: Getty)

Green Day frontman Billy Joe Armstrong is the latest rock star to call out fans who use their mobile phones at gigs.

After Slipknot’s Corey Taylor and Disturbed’s David Draiman took action to stop fans using their phones at shows, the Green Day singer has issued a plea for there to be more “human interaction” between the band and their audience.

According to The Star, Armstrong told those gathered at a Q&A session in London: “At our shows I see lot of people holding up cell phones. You can look at a screen at home, you can look at your computer or your phone anywhere.

“You can take your picture but let’s have eye contact, let’s have a human experience right now that you can’t capture on a cell phone.”

Holding his phone in the air, Armstrong continues: “Why would you want to listen to your favourite song going like this when you can just hear it right in front of you? I feel like a little more human contact is good.”

Armstrong was also asked for his thoughts on Donald Trump’s victory in the US Presidential election – and he pulled no punches in giving his response.

“I fucking hate Donald Trump,” he says. “Hopefully something drastic will happen in the future where he’s not in office anymore.”

Green Day released their latest album Revolution Radio earlier this year.

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.