Green Day Draws Conservative Fury (Again) For ‘Not Part of an Elon Agenda’ Lyrics

Green Day has (once again) drawn fury from the MAGA crowd after changing lyrics to “American Idiot” at a live show over the weekend, taking a jab at businessman and political figure Elon Musk.

During a show in Johannesburg, South Africa on Sunday, Green Day’s frontman Billie Joe Armstrong called-out Musk while performing their hit track “American Idiot.” Armstrong altered the lyrics from “I’m not part of the redneck agenda” to “I’m not part of an Elon agenda.”

Billie Joe changes the lyrics to American Idiot in South Africa to: I’m not a part of an Elon agenda #greenday pic.twitter.com/1RC5LgxAa3

— Green Day Inc. (@GreenDayInc) January 21, 2025

Green Day called-out Musk in his home country; Musk was born in Pratoria, South Africa and became a U.S. citizen in 2002. He has since become the world’s richest man.

Armstrong made headlines last year when he changed lyrics during a show in Washington, D.C. to “I’m not part of the MAGA agenda.” Additionally, during the show, a fan tossed frontman Billie Joe Armstrong a mask of Donald Trump with the word “idiot” written across the forehead. Armstrong held it up to the crowd and roared.

| READ: Green Day Draws Conservative Rage for Anti-‘MAGA Agenda’ Lyric |

Musk reacted to Green Day’s performance last year and used a made-up word, writing on X, “Green Day goes from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it.” As of Tuesday morning, Musk has not commented on Green Day’s latest lyric change.

Conservatives, however, were not happy with the change, calling the band “irrelevant.”

Green day is still trying to relive their good days, they’ve been irrelevant for decades.

— Zach (@Pantheon46) January 21, 2025

What does the unrelevant drunk have to say about this? That he’s no longer punk and he’s pro-government!

— Meghan (@Meghan_Mii) January 21, 2025

LMFAO. Green Day sucks. Establishment millionaires. Combined weight 265 lbs. Combined bench press. 140 lbs.

— Foul Pole (@GrammerCops5150) January 21, 2025

Green Day can take a long walk off a short pier and take their trash “music” with them.

Painful watching talentless “musicians” struggle for relevance.

At least they were self-aware enough to appropriately name their album Dookie.

— SAWB (@GenioBoyd) January 21, 2025

I wish artists would stick to what they do best, politics is obviously not what they do best.

— Frank dos Santos (@Frank16Santos) January 21, 2025

We all see how influential they are. Remind us again who won? Yeah. 👍

— John Marion (@logano22fortheW) January 21, 2025

While the right-wing reaction was negative, many supported the band and pointed out the band’s views throughout their career. Green Day as a long history of rallying against right-wing politics. In fact, the original lyrics and themes of the American Idiot song, album, and subsequent musical were a reaction to American politics in the early 2000s during presidency of George W. Bush.

This isn’t the only time Musk garnered attention this week; he stirred-up controversy on Monday during a parade following the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States. Musk delivered a speech and made three highly controversial arm gestures, closely resembling the salute Nazi party members would use to greet each other. The Nazi salute, also known as the “Roman salute,” is associated with fascism. Musk has previously been known to support far-right German politics.

He has since responded to the controversy, tweeting, “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”