Did Green Day’s Onstage Rant About Las Vegas Just Backfire?

The emotions are currently raw, but Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong‘s recent rant that included a diss of Las Vegas had a pair of Vegas radio stations saying “good riddance” in eliminating the band from their playlists.

Local Vegas stations KOMP 92.3 FM and KXTE 107.5 decided to remove the popular band from their rotation after Armstrong told a San Francisco crowd, ““I (expletive) hate Las Vegas. It’s the worst (expletive) hole in America,” during a Sept. 20 performance at Oracle Park.

Why Billie Joe Armstrong Was Ranting About Las Vegas

As previously stated, emotions are a little raw in the Oakland area right now as the Oakland A’s just played their last game at Oakland Coliseum on Thursday (Sept. 26). The baseball team has resided in Oakland since 1968 and it was announced in 2023 that Major League Baseball team owners had approved owner John Fisher’s relocation of the team to a new stadium being built in Las Vegas that’s expected to open in 2028.

This came after multiple new stadium proposals in the Oakland area fell through. The team’s lease on the stadium runs out at the end of this year and Fisher has announced plans to move the team to a minor league park in Sacramento for the next three seasons until their Las Vegas stadium is complete.

Fan reaction to the A’s move has been swift in Oakland as attendance dwindled mightily after the move was announced, protests were organized trying to get Fisher to sell the team and eventually the resignation of the team leaving town set in with fans getting one last chance to experience A’s baseball in Oakland before the team left town and sharing stories of their history with the team.

The new stadium is being built on the site of the Tropicana casino in Las Vegas which is set to be imploded on Oct. 9.

Armstrong, a Bay Area native, didn’t hold back on his feelings on the move during last week’s concert appearance in San Francisco.

“We don’t take no (expletive) from people like John (expletive) Fisher, who sold out the Oakland A’s to Las (expletive) Vegas,” exclaimed Armstrong during the song “Letterbomb.” “I (expletive) hate Las Vegas. It’s the worst (expletive) hole in America.”

“We are East Bay — East Bay for life,” the Green Day frontman who was born in Oakland exclaimed. “Forever — Green Day, East Bay — forever. Can you feel me?” Armstrong also dedicated the song “Welcome to Paradise” to his home city of Oakland.

Green Day’s current tour also features another Bay Area band, Rancid, and guitarist Lars Frederiksen told the San Jose Mercury News, “Oh, I am going to say some (expletive) tonight — (expletive) John Fisher. His whole family makes money off the backs of Bay Area people and then he wants to (expletive) off to Vegas. (Expletive) him. Thank God we’ve still got the Giants.”

On Thursday, Armstrong posted a photo of himself as a child wearing an Oakland A’s hat and offered a moving tribute to his team on Instagram.

READ MORE: Green Day’s 37-Song Setlist + Video From 2024 North American Tour Opener

The loss of the A’s to Las Vegas stings even more given that Oakland also lost their football team, the Raiders, to Las Vegas in 2020 as well.

How Las Vegas Radio Reacted to Billie Joe’s Rant

Armstrong’s rant was not met kindly by the two Las Vegas radio stations who pulled the plug on the band. Both KOMP and KXTE are predominantly rock stations that have operated in the Las Vegas area for decades.

KOMP morning DJ Brandon “Gooch” Hahn offered a counterpoint to Armstrong’s rant, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal, In it, he recounted some of his most prominent memories including the celebration of the Las Vegas Golden Knights Stanley Cup championship.

He explained that if the team were to ever leave, he would curse the owners but “I would never call the city they were moving to a (blank) hole.” He went on to discuss Las Vegas’ support for Green Day over the years, but the was critical of the band’s recent works.

Meanwhile, KXTE host Carlota Gonzalez announced on Wednesday that the station was “cleansing and scrubbing” any Green Day material from their records. “Maybe he should take a look at the city and the people involved in that transaction than talking SMACK about the city of Las Vegas,” Gonzalez added during her announcement.

The DJ continued, “And hey, I hate to say it and as much as the Raiders suck but when they were in Oakland, they were worth a billion or two. Now they’re worth six. It was a good business decision and the A’s want some of that and I don’t blame that.”

The Las Vegas A’s New Ballpark

The new stadium being built on the site of the Tropicana in Las Vegas is being billed as a “state-of-the-art ballpark and a world-class entertainment resort destination.” Per MLB.com, “The 33,000-person capacity ballpark provides an outdoor feel with views of the city’s skyline. The tiered design will split upper and lower seating bowls to bring fans closer to the action than traditional ballparks and provide clear sight lines from every seat.”

“The roof’s five overlapping layers, whose design is inspired by traditional baseball pennants, open to the north to allow for natural light and views up the Strip, while also limiting direct sunlight and heat from the south. The outfield features the world’s largest cable-net glass window, facing the corner of Tropicana and Las Vegas Boulevards. The ballpark is currently designed to include an 18,000-square-foot videoboard, which would make it the largest screen in MLB.”