Pinole residents will have a reason to be particularly proud when one band takes the stage at Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara this Sunday. Punk rock band Green Day is kicking off the opening ceremony.
More than 90,000 people are expected in the Bay Area between now and game day, and an estimated 130 million are expected to watch.
One key figure who will not be in attendance is President Donald Trump. Last month, he told the New York Post that he “can’t stand the performers selected for the halftime show.”
“I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible,” he said.
Puerto Rican global superstar Bad Bunny was selected to perform at this year’s halftime show, while Green Day was chosen to headline the opener.
The East Bay trio, made up of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool, is expected to perform some of their biggest hits as they celebrate 60 years of the NFL’s MVP award.
“We are super hyped to open Super Bowl 60 right in our backyard!” Armstrong said in an NFL press release. “We are honored to welcome the MVPs who’ve shaped the game and open the night for fans all over the world. Let’s have fun! Let’s get loud!”
The band formed under the name Sweet Children in the mid-1980s, when Armstrong and Dirnt were classmates at Carquinez Middle School in Crockett. While at Pinole Valley High School, the two met Tré Cool, and not long after he joined the band, they became Green Day. Pinole continues to consider the band its own, giving them a key to the city in 2024.
The band released its first album, “39/Smooth,” in 1990 but didn’t gain a mass audience until the release of “Dookie” in 1994.
Green Day came up at the legendary Berkeley punk venue 924 Gilman. In the mid-1980s, a scuffle broke out at the venue between punks and neo-Nazis, an event that was reimagined in the film “Freaky Tales,” written and directed by Berkeley-born, Oakland-raised Ryan Fleck with Anna Boden.
Green Day has never shied away from politics.
In 2004, the band released “American Idiot,” a politically charged album that helped young people process what it meant to be an American in a Bush-era post-9/11 world.
In 2022, while at a show in London, Armstrong told the crowd he was “renouncing” his U.S. citizenship after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
And throughout last year, the band has called out Trump at performances at home and abroad.
Last March, while performing “American Idiot” at a show at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, Armstrong told the crowd: “Don’t you want politicians to shut the f— up? Don’t you want Elon Musk to shut the f— up?”
In April, while closing out the second night of Coachella, the band changed a lyric in “American Idiot” to “I’m not part of a MAGA agenda.” The band also slipped in a reference to the war in Gaza during “Jesus of Suburbia” changing a line to “Running away from pain like the kids from Palestine.”
Their raging against the Trump administration continued in July in Belgium, where Armstrong led the crowd in a chant of “F— Donald Trump.”
Most recently, a day before the NFL announced that they’d open the Super Bowl LX, the band spoke out against ICE.
While playing the 2026 iHeartRadio ALTer EGO at Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA., the band wrapped up their set with the 1997 hit “Good Riddance,” with an Armstrong ad-lib — “chinga la migra” (Spanish for “f— ICE”) with a speedy and melodic guitar riff.
The Oaklandside reached out to Green Day’s camp to inquire what fans can expect; their management team had no comment.
Green Day’s performance will take place as part of the pregame entertainment. After they appear, Charlie Puth will perform the national anthem, Brandi Carlile will sing “America the Beautiful,” and Coco Jones will deliver “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
The opening ceremony will air live at 3 p.m. Pacific on NBC, Telemundo, Peacock, and Universo, followed by the game kickoff at 3:30 p.m.
