Green Day Cancels Festival Show; Opens Up About Billie Joe

Green Day rarely cancels shows, so when they do, it makes the news. They were scheduled to perform October 27th in New Orleans at the Voodoo Music and Arts Festival, but announced yesterday (October 8) that they would were sorry to have to cancel that appearance.

In a statement, drummer Tre Cool said, "Canceling shows is something we rarely do. We never want to let our fans down, and we are grateful for all of you being understanding during this time."

Meanwhile, bassist Mike Dirnt spoke to BBC Radio One about Armstrong, who sought treatment for substance abuse last month following his profanity-filled meltdown at a radio festival in Las Vegas on September 21st. Dirnt confirmed that the band had canceled all promotional appearances for its new album Uno! because "we had to put the life of our friend in front of everything."

Dirnt said he was confident that Armstrong would recover and added that the band was "getting ready for the next phase," which involved the arrival of a second new album, Dos!, on November 13th.

Uno! was released on September 25th and debuted a week later at Number Two on the Billboard album chart, selling 139,000 copies in its first week.

So far there are no indications that Green Day plans to cancel its upcoming North American tour, which will begin on November 26th in Seattle.