On Friday, before Green Day’s show at the Mad Cool Festival in Spain, an acrobat named Pedro Aunión Monroy fell while performing a stunt between sets and later died from his injuries. After a delay, Green Day took the stage as planned, and now frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has explained that he and the rest of the band had no idea that a man had just died until after they were done playing.
This comes from Consequence Of Sound, which reports that Green Day has released an official statement on its website explaining what happened and expressing its condolences for Monroy. Armstrong says that festivals like Mad Cool are “huge,” and they didn’t even know there were acrobat performances at all because they were warming up in a “backstage compound” that was “a half mile away” from the main stage. Before they were supposed to leave this backstage area, someone informed them of a “security issue” that would require them to wait a bit, and when they were told that the issue had been resolved, they went on stage and played their show.
Armstrong says they found out what had really happened after their set, and they were “in disbelief.” He adds that they “most likely would not have played at all” if they had known about the accident, adding, “we are not heartless people.”
You can read Armstrong’s full statement below.
Last night at the Mad Cool festival in Spain there was a horrific accident. An acrobat by the name of Pedro was killed during his performance before Green Day played our show. We are so sad for Pedro and his family and we pray for them in this time of grief. I can’t imagine how much suffering the friends and family are going through. Many of you are wondering why we continued to play our show after the accident. Green Day did not hear about the accident until after our show was over. We didn’t even know there was an acrobat performance at all. these festivals are huge. There are so many things happening at the same time it’s impossible to keep up with every performer/artist.. We were in a back stage compound about a half mile away from the main festival stage. We were warming up ready to go at 11:25 pm. 15 minutes prior our tour management was told by local authorities to wait to go on stage because there was some sort of security issue. Security issues are a normal occurrence and procedure at any show. We were NOT told why which is also normal. We waited as we were instructed. Still, We had no clue there was any such accident. We were given the ok. The band jumped into vans and drove to the main festival stage. This was to be the last show of our European tour and we were all so excited to play our hearts out one last time. We were on stage at around midnight and played around two and a half hours. Everything seemed normal. the crowd and fans had a good time. We got off stage and drove back to our artist compound. It was there when we were told the shocking news about Pedro. All of us were in disbelief. I don’t know why the authorities chose not to tell us about the accident before our concert. All we know is what was said after our concert. This has never happened in the 30 years Green Day have been performing live. If we had known prior to our performance we most likely would not have played at all. We are not heartless people. The safety and well being at any of our concerts absolutely comes first. What happened to Pedro is unthinkable. Once again we are heartbroken for his friends and family.
We are also shocked and heartbroken for anyone that had to witness this tragedy.
sincerely
Billie Joe Armstrong