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Green Day release anti-Trump video, stars revealed for American Idiot musical

Much of the world's entertainers have already received and rejected their invitation to Donald Trump's presidential inauguration this weekend – but it's safe to say Green Day won't even make that initial list.

The pop-punkers have released a new animated video for their single Troubled Times that doubles down on their already strident critique of the US president-elect.

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Green Day slam Trump in new video

Green Day have released a Trump themed music video Troubled Times on Martin Luther King Jr Day.

The clip, released on what is Martin Luther King's national holiday in the US, contrasts Trump's ugly rhetoric with pictures of protest from suffragettes, civil rights leaders and today's dissenters holding signs saying 'Make America Hate Again'.

In another striking image, Ku Klux Klan hoods transform into Trump's bared teeth, while his hands grasp at nuclear warheads.

"What good is love and peace on earth, when it's exclusive?" the band's frontman Billie Joe Armstrong sings, before the chorus repeats the call to arms, "We live in troubled times".

It's not the first time Green Day have been outspoken in their dislike of the incoming president.

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Just days after Trump's election win last November, the band were front and centre at the American Music Awards leading viewers in an impromptu chant: "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA."

The single is the latest track from the band's album Revolution Radio, a return to the protest punk that earned them Grammy nods galore during George W. Bush's administration.

American Idiot, their 2004 concept album aimed at Bush, was adapted into a Broadway stage musical in 2009, and will see its debut run in Australia this February, just ahead of the band's tour in May.

The Tony Award-winning musical follows three childhood friends in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and features the band's music and a book written by Armstrong and veteran stage director Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening).

In a Facebook post yesterday, the show's producers revealed that the all-Australian cast will be led by The Living End guitarist Chris Cheney and Grinspoon frontman Phil Jamieson.

The duo will share the role of St Jimmy, a character played by Armstrong, Melissa Etheridge and AFI's Davey Havok in previous productions.

"We had over 600 people from across the nation audition for parts and believe we have on board a collection of the most authentic and talented performers. Who better to portray this electric story than actual rock stars themselves?" the show's producer Nick Skubj said in a statement.

 

American Idiot! Chris & I are sharing the role of St Jimmy over Feb/March... @chrischeney23 @greenday @americanidiotlive

A photo posted by philjamieson (@philjamieson) on

The musical debuts at Brisbane's Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) on February 23.

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