What Green Day Lyrics Did the NFL Censor During Their Super Bowl Performance?

A record-breaking 127.7 million tuned into Super Bowl LX, with 137.7 million viewers during the second quarter. Ahead of the big game, Green Day amped up the crowd in Santa Clara, California, with a performance of hits. The music performances of the evening outshone the big game. Green Day kicked things off in pop-punk spirit, and Bad Bunny delivered an unforgettable halftime show.

Green Day Performed in Front of a Hometown Crowd

Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt formed Green Day in 1987, originally named Sweet Children. Drummer Tré Cool joined the band in 1990, helping to establish the trio we still know today as Green Day. The pop-punk group, hailing from the Bay Area’s Rodeo, California, amped up their hometown crowd before the big game with “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” before diving into a medley of songs from the 2004 American Idiot album. To no one’s surprise, a few lyrics on the track “American Idiot” were censored on national television, given that the album itself was released with explicit language labels and parental advisories.

“Don’t wanna be an American Idiot / Don’t want a nation under the new mania / And can you hear the sound of hysteria? / The subliminal mindf**k America.”

It’s a bold choice of words, but what else do we expect from Green Day? Initially, “American Idiot” was released in 2004 in response to the US invasion of Iraq. We’ve seen many phases of the pop-punk band, and millennial nostalgia embraced Green Day revisiting 2004’s “American Idiot” for the pre-game show.

Fans Praise Green Day’s Performance

Many took to social media in response to the pop-punk band’s performance. Fans praised the Bay Area band, and the energy of the performance helped fuel anticipation ahead of Super Bowl LX.

Green Day, looking young as ever, continues to drive punk music forward. The group released their fourteenth studio album in 2024, Saviors. A 30th anniversary edition of 1994’s Dookie was released in 2023. The album has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.

American Idiot reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in 2004 and spawned four hit singles for the band. A medley of the album’s hits “Holiday,” “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” and “American Idiot” was the best way to kick off Super Bowl LX.