Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong explains pro-LGBTQ+ message on new song ‘Bobby Sox’
As Green Day gear up to release their highly-anticipated new album Saviors, Billie Joe Armstrong has explained the story behind one of its songs while discussing the current global anti-trans panic, accusing its forerunners of being narrow in their outlook.
Discussing ‘Bobby Sox’ from the new album, which arrives on January 19th, Armstrong delved into some of the lyrics and the song’s narrative, which centres around his wife Adrienne and their nights spent watching re-runs on the television.
On the subject of gender fluidity, Armstrong referred to the lyrics: “Doesn’t matter when we are in love / You’re not just any type of girl / My one true love and you’re my world / Do you wanna be my girlfriend? / Do you wanna be my boyfriend?”
The post-punk maestro clarified that initially, the gender reversal was implemented as he sang from a woman’s viewpoint. However, he later discovered that singing “Do you wanna be my boyfriend?” felt surprisingly liberating.
He added to the Los Angeles Times: “Nowadays it’s more common for kids to be LGBTQ, and there’s more support. But for us, back in the day, that was like the beginning of when people were able to openly say things like that.”
When asked what he thought of the current moral panic over transgender people, Armstrong responded: “I just think they’re fucking close-minded. It’s like people are afraid of their children. Why would you be afraid? Why don’t you let your kid just be the kid that they are?”
Green Day have consistently aligned themselves with the progressive, freedom-seeking youth rather than politicians and conservative pundits. Nevertheless, their recent political expressions have managed to catch right-wing figures by surprise.
For instance, in response to changing the lyrics to the popular hit ‘American Idiot’, Elon Musk reacted by stating that the band has transformed “from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it.”
Nonetheless, the politically-charged Saviors is slated to complete the “trifecta” of Green Day albums along with Dookie and American Idiot, as explained by Armstrong in Vulture: “We had a large batch of songs that we recorded in London and when we saw it come together, I remembered thinking, Oh, this is the connection.”
He continued: “Saviors does feel like a trifecta with Dookie and American Idiot where it feels like a life’s work. I went from not knowing what the hell I was doing to going, “Oh gosh, we managed to bridge the gap between those two huge albums.”
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