Green Day's video for its new song “Oh Yeah!,” which arrived on Thursday (January 16th), finds the band trapped in a world where everybody is looking at their screens — and one of them even ends up hitting Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong with his car.
The clip opens with drummer Tré Cool introducing a low-budget YouTube tutorial on how to play “Oh Yeah!” which, it turns out, is being watched by a man in his car who accidentally hits Armstrong while pulling into a grocery store parking lot.
Rather than check on Armstrong, the fan immediately starts recording a video — a theme that continues throughout the rest of the clip as everybody is watching their screens, texting or chatting.
Armstrong told us a while back that it's important for rock artists to stay connected to what's happening in the world when they write: “I think that rock stars, or whatever they like to call themselves nowadays, when they tend to get pretty big, a lot of people go way deep inside themselves and sort of shut out the world and kinda become disconnected with what is going on. I think it's really important, especially in music, that you have to have some sort of connection and you have to be some sort of member of society to comment on it. Or else people are just sorta like, 'Well, you're just this whiny rock star, you know. What are you talking about?'”
“Oh Yeah” is the third single from Green Day's upcoming 13th album, album, Father Of All Motherf**kers, following the title track and “Fire, Ready, Aim.” The disc arrives on February 7th. After the album drops, Green Day will hit the road on the “Hella Mega Tour” alongside Weezer and Fall Out Boy.