Troubled Times

Album: Revolution Radio (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song was inspired by the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks. Billie Joe Armstrong is friends with guitarist Eden Galindo, guitarist for Eagles Of Death Metal, who played at Paris club Bataclan where 95 of their fans were shot dead by terrorists. The Green Day frontman told Q magazine:

    "I don't think anything like terrorism hit home right in our backyard the way it did that night. At first, I wrote it and thought 'I don't know if I want this on the album.' It's really heavy to write about and I didn't want it to be trite or maudlin.

    But then Orlando happened, I thought 'Well, it makes perfect sense to put it on the record.'"
  • The song's music video shows Billie Joe Armstrong with headphones, spliced with news footage of the clashes between white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017. Political leaders like Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and former President George Bush also feature in the montage.

    Prior to the video's release, Armstrong spoke out about the incident in Charlottesville.

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