Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong Meltdown; Singer Talks Drugs and Rehab [Video]
Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong talked about his recent drug treatment to Rolling Stone in an article posted online Tuesday.
The incident that pushed his manager to get Armstrong, 41, into rehab was his appearance at the iHeartRadio Festival in September of 2012. While singing onstage with Green Day he was told that the band had only one minute of playing time left. This sparked a drug-fueled rant from Armstrong who screamed at the people in charge.
"I've been around since 19-f-ing-88! I'm not f-ing Justin Bieber, you motherf-ers. This is a f-ing joke! And now you're gonna give me one minute? Now I got nothing left. I got nothing left. I'm gonna show you what one f-ing minute looks like," Armstrong yelled on stage, revealed in a video taken from a concertgoer that quickly went viral on YouTube.
Green Day released an apology statement to the fans after the event but Armstrong admitted that he had barely any memory of the event. In the magazine interview the singer said it was then that he realized he had a problem with drugs.
"I couldn't predict where I was going to end up at the end of the night," Armstrong said. "I'd wake up in a strange house on a couch. I wouldn't remember how. It was a complete blackout."
Armstrong discussed the concert incident with his manager who afterward put the singer in a rehab center. The singer also talked to the magazine about how the band's tour schedule had to be adjusted to allow his treatment time and thanked his fans for their continued support.
The full interview with Armstrong will be featured in the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone, set to be released on March 1.
