Green Day Explains Anti-Trump Chant During AMA Performance

Image Group LA/ABCGreen Day made a big splash at Sunday's American Music Awards, and now the band is filling in the details.

During an AMA performance of their single "Bang Bang," the punk-pop trio burst into a chant of, "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA," adding to the controversy surrounding President-elect Donald Trump. In an appearance Tuesday night on CBS' The Late Late Show, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said the chant originated with a member of their punk brethren. "It was actually done by a band called M.D.C. that are from Texas but moved to San Francisco years ago," he explained.

In M.D.C.'s 1982 song "Born to Die," singer Dave Dictor chants, "No war, no KKK, no fascist USA," which Armstrong tweaked for the AMA gig. In an earlier interview, Dictor told Rolling Stone he was inspired to write the song about his band's clash with Nazis during their time in Austin, Texas. As for the appropriation by Green Day, who've been friendly with Dictor since the late 1980s, the singer explained, "It's something that needs to be said, and they obviously have the platform to get that thought out there far and wide. Good on them."

As for Trump's election, Armstrong told the TV audience, "We're just as much in shock as everybody else is," adding, "But I think with the AMAs, it was a good start to challenge [Trump] on all of his ignorant policies and his racism."

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