Stephen Pearcy (founder and former singer for the band Ratt) recently took to Twitter/X to express his opinion on artists intertwining their political beliefs into their music and live performances.

Commenting in response to a tweet about a recent Green Day performance during which frontman Billie Joe Armstrong criticized the Trump administration, Pearcy wrote: “Why, no politics in music please. Never makes sense.”

Over the weekend while performing in Australia, Armstrong changed the lyrics to Green Day’s song “Jesus of Suburbia” to mock Vice President JD Vance. Instead of singing the original lyric, “Am I r*tarded or am I just overjoyed?”, Armstrong changed the line to “Am I r*tarded or am I just JD Vance?”

At another point during the show, he also asked the crowd: “Don’t you want Elon Musk to shut the f*ck up? Don’t you want Donald Trump to shut the f*ck up?”

While this is far from the first time Armstrong has been vocal about his dislike for Trump and his administration, the incident sparked debate online over whether or not bands should keep their political opinions out of their music.

The debate over this issue, however, is anything but new. Music has been used as a form of political expression by countless bands and artists for nearly as long as the artform has been around. The 1960s are a perfect example of this, with artists of the era often using their platforms for social and political commentary.

Some of Green Day’s biggest hits, in fact, are songs with strong political messages – including popular tracks “American Idiot” and “Holiday.”

Despite this, the debate rages on, with bands and artists left to determine how to balance the relationship between their politics and their art.