A few days ago Green Day was performing at the I Heart Radio Festival in Las Vegas. Everything was going swimmingly until their 45 minute set was cut in half to give Usher and Rihanna more time to perform, the band’s frontman, Billie Joe Armstrong, was not impressed.

Approximately 25 minutes into their 45 minute set, Green Day was told, via a teleprompter, that they only had one minute left. Billie Joe, 40, abruptly stopped performing in the middle of a song, and launched into an angry, expletive laced rant.

I’ve been around since fucking nineteen-eighty-fucking-eight, and you’re going to give me one fucking minute?! You got to be fucking kidding me!

I’m not Justin Bieber, you mother-fuckers!

Not satisfied that his point had been made, he then set out to show ‘them’, presumably the organisers, what “one fucking minute fucking means” and smashed his guitar on stage. Bassist Mike Dirnt soon joined and began smashing his bass guitar on the stage while drummer, Tre Cool, left his seat behind his drum set to get a better view of the action, but chose not to participate.

On Sunday, Armstrong’s representative issued the following statement to E Online, implying that the band’s frontman was under the influence of unknown substances.

Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong is seeking treatment for substance abuse. Green Day would like everyone to know that their set was not cut short by Clear Channel and to apologise to those they offended at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas. The band regretfully must postpone some of their upcoming promotional appearances.

The band’s new album, ¡Uno!, launched today. It is their first new collection of music since 2009 and the album is the first of a planned trilogy.

[Source: YouTube, E Online, Chicago Tribune]