Disturbed’s David Draiman offers Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong view of “Israeli/Jewish side of this horrific war” after Coachella Palestine lyric change

15 April, 2025

Green Day

Disturbed‘s David Draiman has commented on Green Day‘s Palestine lyric change during their recent headline show at Coachella.

Green Day made headlines on Saturday (April 12) when frontman Billie Joe Armstrong changed one of the lyrics in their pop-punk epic ‘Jesus of Suburbia’.

Instead of singing original lyric, “Runnin’ away from pain when you’ve been victimised,” Armstrong sang: “Runnin’ away from pain like the kids from Palestine”.

Now, David Draiman has reacted to the moment on X/Twitter. Draiman, who is Jewish, made an “open offer” to Armstrong, beginning: “You know I respect you brother.

“I’d love to have the opportunity for you to hear the Israeli/Jewish side of this horrific war,” he continued. “I’m available to discuss whenever you are. No judgement, nothing preconceived. Let me know.”

Draiman has been an outspoken supporter of Israel; last year, he called Roger Waters a “monster” and an “anti-Semitic to his rotten core”, and professed in 2022 that he “doesn’t give a shit” if he alienated people with his pro-Israel stance.

He also spoke out against Elon Musk’s threat to sue the Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights group that campaigns against anti-Semitism, that Musk claimed were “falsely accusing it and me of being antisemitic”.

In response, Draiman wrote that “I think this whole thing was reactionary, and understandably so, given the damage done to the platform you bought. Let’s talk. One on one to discuss the issues and clear the air. You choose the medium.”

He added: “Let’s give you the opportunity to express your legitimate issues while dispelling the wave of #Antisemitism that’s been unfortunately unleashed.”

Meanwhile, Green Day have made several lyric changes to address various political events throughout their career. Most recently, they mocked US Vice President JD Vance during a Melbourne gig in March. While performing ‘Jesus of Suburbia’, Armstrong switched the lyrics from “Am I retarded or am I just overjoyed?” to “Am I retarded or am I just JD Vance?”.

They also made headlines on a New Year’s Day performance in 2023 for altering the lyrics to the iconic 2004 track ‘American Idiot’, replacing the original line “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” with “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda”.

Armstrong also told NME his reaction to Trumps’s first win in 2016, calling for “something drastic to remove him from office”.

“I fucking hate Donald Trump,” he added. “He’s not my President, he doesn’t represent a large half of the country, he doesn’t even represent the people that voted for him. There’s a working class people that wanted change and they were maybe somehow desensitised by all the racist rhetoric. I don’t think a lot of them actually are racist people, but the fact is that we voted him into office.

“Hopefully, something drastic will happen in the future where he’s not in office any more.”

In other news, a rogue firework has exploded in the crowd during Green Day’s Coachella 2025 set.

The post Disturbed’s David Draiman offers Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong view of “Israeli/Jewish side of this horrific war” after Coachella Palestine lyric change appeared first on NME.