Did Billie Joe Armstrong Leak Homemade Music Video to Fan Community?
Green Day’s front man Billie Joe Armstrong has been keeping us on our toes lately! From playing baseball half naked in Oakland to splitting with long-term manager Pat Magnarella, the guy has made headlines almost every day – an exciting time for Green Day fans (= half the GENRE IS DEAD staff). But this one exceeds it all:
Yesterday, an unknown person with the username “BillnTed” posted a download link to a music video of Green Day’s song “Troubled Times” on a fan community’s message board. The video shows Billie Joe Armstrong as he’s lying in bed with headphones and walking through a cemetery while singing the song, mixed with disturbing news footage including images of the very recent nazi protests in Charlottesville. The video must’ve been put together quite spontaneously and quickly. You can watch it below.
A few hours later, the person also shared the video on vimeo uploaded via the account “rev rad” – short for “Revolution Radio”, the title of Green Day’s current album. Other than that, there’s been no mention of a source for the homemade video.
After quite some speculations, the Green Day fan community has come to the conclusion that the video must have been created and leaked by Billie Joe Armstrong himself!
Here are some interesting quotes of the discussion on the message board:
“I could see Billie just doing it for fun because the song is pretty relevant. He clearly shot it himself, and the editing looks like it was done with some basic video editing software. He could’ve put it together for fun and leaked it on the internet unofficially in order to avoid having to get clearances for all those clips he used.” – gaslight13
“I don’t think Green Day did this as a band, it looks like Billie did it by himself and not to push Troubled Times as a single. For me it looks more like his response to the recent turmoil in the US/the world. If that’s really the case, I think it’s brilliant! It means the guy is actively using social media to leak stuff he practically did real quick as a response to current events, which is soooo cool.” – melissi_unicorn
“The in bed bits to me convey the worry perfectly, sleepless nights over the state of the nation. It’s a great creative choice and so in the DIY spirit for Billie to make his own music video without making a big splash about it. It’s like when they screenprinted their own t-shirts to sell at their shows. I love that they haven’t lost that.” – pacejunkie punk
“The BillnTed username could be in reference to the film Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, which I have heard Billie Joe reference before in an old interview…not saying it’s him. Haha. But what if…?” – reneetaleena
We are quite intrigued by this mystery! Hopefully Green Day will shed some light on this, soon! What do you think happened here?
Related Images:
