Metallica Pays Tribute To Green Day Singer Billie Joe Armstrong

Metallica paid their respects to Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong during their performance this weekend at the Voodoo Music Festival.

The iconic metal band were asked to replace Green Day as headliners of the New Orleans festival so that Armstrong could focus on finishing his treatment in rehab, and as sort of a tribute to the punk band’s main man, they broke into “American Idiot” before working in their old gem of a song “Creeping Death”.

In the clip, which you can see below, you can hear Metallica singer James Hetfield say, “You’re still here? Why? You’re hoping Green Day is going to show up, right? So am I. They’re getting help, alright? They’re getting it sorted out. We’re here stepping up for him hopefully; hopefully he’s getting it together because the world needs him, alright? I think so.”

During a different part of their set, Hetfield joshed, “We are Green Day…except a little taller”, and at one point dedicated their song “Battery” to him saying, “This one’s for Billie.”

In the meantime, Green Day has reportedly cancelled their remaining concert tour dates for the rest of this year and the beginning of 2013. Bassist Mike Dirnt announced in a press release: “Obviously the timing for this isn’t ideal, but Billie Joe’s well-being is our main concern. We are happy to say that Billie Joe is doing well, and we want to thank you all for the outpouring of support and well wishes that we have received, and we can’t wait to see you all again soon.”

The band also announced that they would be moving up the release date of their next album to December 11, 2012. It was originally going to be released on January 15, 2013.

Drummer Tré Cool added, “We feel bad we have to delay our tour, so to make up for it we want to give our fans the music earlier than we had planned. If we couldn’t be there to play it for you live, the least we could do was give you the next best thing.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6lum4Vjgkxk#!