May 21, 2009 15:04

Green Day refuse to censor album for Wal-Mart

'21st Century Breakdown' will not be sold at massive chain

Photo Gallery: Green Day

Green Day have explained their decision not to censor their album at the request of US chain store Wal-Mart, which resulted in the store refusing to stock the record.

"They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there," singer Bille Joe Armstrong said. "We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."

Although the band managed to hit Number One in the US this week even without Wal-Mart, Armstrong concedes that smaller bands may not have the luxury of refusing to sell at what has become the largest music retailer in the US:

"If you think about bands that are struggling or smaller than Green Day ... to think that to get record your out in places like that, but they won't carry it because of the content and you have to censor yourself," he told the Associated Press. "I mean, what does that say to a young kid whose trying to speak his mind making a record for the first time? It's like a game that you have to play. You have to refuse to play it."

--By our New York staff.
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