Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong joins covers band onstage in London pub
When you walk into a pub and the cover band starts playing your song...
Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong surprised a covers band to perform his 1994 hit ‘Basket Case’ in London on Saturday night (May 13).
Borderline Toxic were performing the classic Green Day track at Slim Jim’s Liquor Store in Islington when the frontman stepped on stage to perform with the band.
In videos circulating online, the band’s lead singer Kerry Glass can be seen screaming in disbelief before she puts her arm around Armstrong and sings along.
You can watch footage of the surprise interaction below, which Green Day uploaded to their on social media channel with the caption: “When you walk into a pub and the cover band starts playing your song.”
“Eleven-year-old me panicked,” Glass told BBC Newsbeat, after the weekend’s performance.
“I think I did three circles just running around the stage until he was like, ‘Come on, sing with me’.”
“It took a minute to settle,” she added. “And then I was like, ‘You know, I’m going to enjoy every single second of this’.”
Borderline Toxic posted a clip from the gig to their Instagram, writing: “The moment your band gets joined on stage by your childhood idol to sing their own song with you… in your favourite dive bar!! Billie Joe Armstrong… @greenday !! THANK YOU, YOU LEGEND! This was the first band to get me into rock when I was 11 years old and I’m honestly just so made up. brb crying/screaming/spewing.”
It’s still not known why Armstrong was in London or at the Islington bar.
Glass also told the BBC that Green Day were one of the first bands to get her into rock music at 11-years-old.
“I used to sit in my bedroom and listen to all their albums. So I’ve got zero chill over this. This is amazing,” she said.
She added that she “had to just put my phone behind the bar” she she could ” enjoy this moment”. But she also said she’s been on her “phone ever since” Green Day posted a clip of the performance on their social media.
Borderline Toxic aren’t the first band to put their spin on ‘Basket Case’ this year, after Maisie Peters covered the song for Triple J’s Like A Version, describing Green Day as “real pillars of my adolescence”.