Green Day singer kicked off plane

Topics: Music ,; News

Singer Billie Joe Armstrong of the band "Green Day" performs during the first concert of their Latin America tour in Caracas, Venezuela, on Oct. 8, 2010.

(Credit: MIGUEL GUTIERREZ/AFP/Getty Images)

OAKLAND, California - Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong says his sagging pants cost him a seat on a Southwest Airlines flight.

The singer-guitarist for the San Francisco Bay area-based band sent a message to his Twitter followers on Thursday expressing his indignation at being tossed from an Oakland-to-Burbank flight for wearing his trousers too low.

An ABC7 news producer who was on the same flight told the station that a flight attendant approached Armstrong before take-off and asked him to hike his pants higher.

The producer, Cindy Qiu, says when Armstrong insisted he was just trying to get to his seat, he and a traveling companion were taken off the plane.

Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins says in a statement that Armstrong was allowed to board the next flight.

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by ZadocPaet1 September 5, 2011 4:53 AM EDT: What the heck? Obviously "saggy pants" interfere with the plane's internal radar systems. It's a safty issue, folks! LOL What do you think?
POLL: Is kicking people off a plane for fashion going to far?
Vote: http://www.wepolls.com/p/2202349; Reply to this comment

by pak31 September 4, 2011 11:54 AM EDT

Why can't people just obey the rules. No one in America seems to think that the rules apply to them. He was asked to do something so do it. I am a very different person. I don't ever want to upset anyone and if someone in a business, or a school or anything makes a request of me, I follow with what they say. I don't tell them off or think I am better than they are. Just do what they say and be quiet. Just because you are famous doesn't make you better than the rest.

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by barbaram99 September 4, 2011 3:27 PM EDT: are ye in america dear..i have heard it all Americans are rude..I fall in that lot don't i as a blind person. The sighted are the problem. what are we doing wrong/


by ReckonedTruth September 4, 2011 9:43 AM EDT: Why would any REAL MAN expose his butt crack or under-garment intentionally to the public? Its nasty and unsanitary..and publically if I'm at event where these pants sagging characters have to greet the public? Don't expect me to shake your hands(laughing)..

One thing you don't want to do is get in conflict with a airline attendant who has the final say at the moment as opposed to the airline passenger on any airline, safety comes first before celebrity status. I wouldn't want to follow behind this passenger in case of a flight emergency, he may stumble and fall as result from sagging pants.. and that moment may be the split seconds whether I or other passengers- live or die.; Reply to this comment

by Tatersoop September 4, 2011 6:17 AM EDT

The "origin" of the loose baggy pants is from juvenile prisons where those in charge felt that loose pants would hinder prisoners from running because their pants would fall off.

First off, I wouldn't want to see the pimply crack of this guy's butt anyway.

Second off, if this guy was in my way as I tried to get off the plane in an emergency and tripped and fell in accordance with his hoodlum wanna be pants design, he is endangering my safety.

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by MalloryDavis September 4, 2011 9:01 AM EDT: Oh! what a whiner you be. If the pants were skin-tight on a gorgeous young shapely woman who was sporting natural 38s you'd trip all over yourself and others trying to get a closer look. Tell me about your endangered safety again.

And so what where the baggies originated. It's all in the fashion now. Just remember to keep your big belly covered so WE don't have to look at that soft flabby load with gobs of hair in your belly button.


by MalloryDavis September 4, 2011 9:27 AM EDT: PS: I think butt-cheeks are cute..it separates which causes two cheeks instead of one. Many of you only have one BIG cheek because you are so tight-azzed that you can't even SH&*. Hence, you're full of it.


by venusvegasvada September 4, 2011 2:33 AM EDT: Do you want to be the one stuck behind him, while everyone is trying to get off the plane in a hurry, but can't because his pants are so low he can't move fast?; Reply to this comment


by josephp5 September 4, 2011 2:24 AM EDT: It's easy for people to say that the guy should have just pulled his pants up. But I'm not sure that is all there is to it.

Southwest Airlines has a corporate culture that emphasizes to its employees that, contrary to the saying, the customer is NOT always right. This helps maintain employee loyalty in the face of low salaries. And in the airline industry, an employee must sometimes require an unreasonable customer to cooperate or not fly. Southwest employees know that they can disagree with a customer and the company will support them.

But the downside of this culture is that Southwest employees can sometimes be tyrannical and capricious. I have seen the A&E program "Airline" that features real Southwest employees and their customers, and I have seen several employee-customer disputes where I thought the customer was treated unfairly by Southwest---this on a show that is certainly edited to present Southwest in a good light. And I also have seen at least two other cases where women were denied flights because of inappropriate dress, but the pictures the women show of what they were wearing don't look much different from what you might see in any office place.

In short, perhaps the airline was justified in giving the Green Day guy a hard time about his pants, but knowing the Southwest culture I have my suspicions.; Reply to this comment

by Overruled1 September 3, 2011 8:42 PM EDT

I don't like the "pants you almost wear" style either...

I happen to know where this style started...In prison.
In prisons, inmates don't wear belts or shoelaces...they are banned because they are weapons.
This however looks rather funny when viewed from the yard with inmates losing weight and dropping pants are common.
How and why it became a style went with rap music and gangster rap....which is an underground culture today.

In any case,
Today it should only be an issue if actual skin is penetrating the surface for anyone to see. The look today is an intimidating form of political enhancement.

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by Overruled1 September 3, 2011 8:46 PM EDT: in other words, the look is a form of civil disobedience.


by LizInPA September 3, 2011 7:51 PM EDT: Publicity stunt by an aging celebrity.

Southwest Air and their dress code have been in the news a lot this year.; Reply to this comment


by Irby32 September 3, 2011 7:11 PM EDT: SWA needs to lay off..this is silly. Let the man fly; Reply to this comment


by DocD--2008 September 3, 2011 6:30 PM EDT: It is a stupid look, but theses airlines need to be reined in. I say sue the hell out of the people who took you off the plane, personally. Maybe if one of them ends up homeless and without the rest will stop acting like bullies. Glad I don't fly anymore or one of these ass-hats would end up putting me in jail after I put them in the hospital.

Keep in mind airline personnel doing this, eventually you're going to **** off the wrong person and its going to cost you your life or everything you own. People will only put up with so much, then they are going to start "going postal".; Reply to this comment