Watch Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong join forces with Frank Carter and the Sex Pistols to perform Anarchy In The UK

Billie Joe Armstrong and Sex Pistols — (Image credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Coachella | Rune Hellestad - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong made a surprise guest appearance onstage with the Sex Pistols and Frank Carter yesterday, June 26, at the Tons Of Rock festival in Oslo, Norway.

The three generations of punk icons joined forces to perform Sex Pistols classic Anarchy In The UK for a delighted audience at the climax of the band's 14-song set.

Green Day were one of the headline attractions at the four-day event, alongside Muse, Avenged Sevenfold and local heroes Kaizers Orchestra. In addition to the Sex Pistols, the festival also saw performances from Weezer, Turbonegro, Dream Theater, Powerwolf and more.

Watch Billie Joe Armstrong live out his teenage Johnny Rotten dreams below.

Sex Pistols (With Billie Joe Armstrong) - Anarchy in the U.K | Tons of Rock 2025 - YouTube

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Former Pistols frontman John Lydon has made it very clear that he doesn't approve of his former bandmates returning to the road with former Gallows frontman Carter at the helm.

"It’s weird," he told Classic Rock recently. "A dumbing down of all the integrity, intensity, genuine honesty and heartfelt emotions I put into that band. Of course, it’s karaoke, but it’s like… Come on, Mr Carter, you’re not Johnny Rotten, I am. Right? Stop it. Though I actually think he took it on in the right spirit."

Earlier this year Lydon told The I, “When I first heard that the Sex Pistols were touring this year without me it pissed me off. It annoyed me. I just thought, ‘they’re absolutely going to kill all that was good with the Pistols by eliminating the point and the purpose of it all.’ I didn’t write those words lightly.”

“They’re trying to trivialise the whole show to get away with karaoke but in the long term I think you’ll see who has the value and who doesn’t. I’ve never sold my soul to make a dollar.”

The new-look Pistols will tour the US later this year, visiting:

Sep 16: Dallas Longhorn Ballroom, TX
Sep 19: Chicago Riot Fest, IL
Sep 23: Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
Sep 25: Boston The Stage at Suffolk Downs, MA
Sep 26: Philadelphia Fillmore, PA
Sep 27: Brooklyn CBGB Festival, NY
Sep 30: Montreal Mtelus, QC
Oct 01: Toronto History, ON
Oct 03: Cleveland Agora Theatre, OH
Oct 04: Detroit Fillmore, MI
Oct 07: Minneapolis Fillmore, MN
Oct 10: Denver Mission Ballroom, CA
Oct 13: Seattle Showbox SoDo, WA
Oct 15: San Francisco Warfield, CA
Oct 16: Los Angeles Hollywood Palladium, CA
Oct. 17: Las Vegas The Pearl, NV

Artists

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

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