Rock music and cars are a combination as classic as peanut butter and jelly. Some rock bands have even adopted odd, out-of-style automobiles as their go-to mode of transportation in this new-fangled thing called “music videos.” Cars like classic Buicks, Plymouths, and yes, even Mercurys.
Autoholics came across some close-up pictures on CarDomain of punk-rock legend Green Day’s 1968 Mercury Monterey convertible. Only around 1,000 of these funky old Merc’s were ever made, and Green Day’s might just be the most recognizable.
Green Day’s ride stands out for just how un-glamorous it is. It is covered in rust, dents, bumps, dings, and painted in a pukish green. Yet it is the ugliness of this once-classy car that really draw us to it. The car first appeared in Green Day’s “American Idiot” video, the hit-single that coincided with their new album of the same name. “Green Day” is emblazoned in silver letters across the front of the hood, and the standard Mercury hood ornament has been replaced by a hand holding a heart-shaped hand grenade (also from the “American Idiot” album.)
There is also a super-tall shifter topped by a skull with glowing red-eyes, a chain-link steering wheel, and other funky additions you might expect from punk band’s rock car. The Mercury would go on to appear in the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” video, and Green Day would even ride a modified version of the car with dog-dish hubcaps to MTV’s 2006 Video Music Awards. We may not like all of Green Day’s music or messages, but we’ve got to admire their taste in automobiles.