You know where they’d be found: Bay Area natives Green Day took the stage at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 8) to help celebrate the Big Game’s 60th anniversary with a hit-filled set during the opening ceremony, ahead of the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots taking the field to duke it out for the Lombardi Trophy.
The six-minute, four-song set started subtly, with several violinists playing the gorgeous strains of “Good Riddance” as Super Bowl MVPs of decades past made their way onto the field to celebrate the Big Game’s six-decade milestone. As greats such as the Manning brothers, Tom Brady, Joe Montana and Jerry Rice finished walking out to the field, the cameras panned to the stage, and Green Day took over the rest of the song, then kicked into the rest of the medley.
As fans on the field waved red foam heart-grenades (the image on the cover of the band’s 2004 album American Idiot) instead of foam fingers, the band transitioned into Billboard Hot 100 hits “Holiday” (No. 19), then “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (No. 2) before closing with a rollicking “American Idiot” (No. 61), not once mentioning the state of American politics, as the band is wont to do.
As the final song wrapped, the cameras panned out to show the football greats lined up along both sides of the stairs leading up to the stage. With the set ending, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong yelled excitedly to kick off the rest of the festivities: “Welcome to the Baaaaay! It’s Super Bowl 60!”
The Grammy-winning rockers were first announced as performers on Jan. 18. “We are super hyped to open Super Bowl 60 right in our backyard!” Armstrong said in a statement at the time. “We are honored to welcome the MVPs who’ve shaped the game and open the night for fans all over the world.”
Though Green Day avoided making any political statements during its set at the pre-show ceremony, the band did not hold back leading up to the Big Game, making headlines not only for the announcement of its performance before the game’s start, but also for speaking out against the Trump administration, which the rockers have not been shy about doing over the years. During the band’s performance at Spotify’s The FanDuel Party held at San Francisco’s Pier 69 on Friday (Feb. 6), Armstrong had a strong message for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“Quit your s—ty ass job. Quit that s—ty job you have,” the frontman said bluntly, according to videos captured by attendees. “Because when this is over, and it will be over at some point of time, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Donald Trump — they’re gonna drop you like a bad f—king habit. Come on to this side of the line.”
And as he has done at many previous shows, Armstrong tweaked the lyrics of hit song “American Idiot.” Instead of the usual “I’m not part of a redneck agenda” lyric, the rocker declared, “I’m not part of the MAGA agenda.” He also made a pointed reference to the recent headlines surrounding the release of a batch of the Epstein files during “Holiday,” singing “the representative from Epstein Island has the floor” rather than “the representative from California.”
The president also made his distaste for Green Day and Super Bowl Halftime Show headliner Bad Bunny apparent before the game. “I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice,” Trump told the New York Post of the performers in January. “All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”
The 2026 Super Bowl kicks off at 6:30 p.m. on NBC and Peacock.
Watch clips from Green Day’s Super Bowl performance below:
Leave a comment