Rage Against The Machine Calls Time on ‘Playing Live Again’
Rage Against The Machine fans will need to find another outlet to release their anger, because the ‘90s rock legends won’t be playing live again.
That’s according to comments posted by drummer Brad Wilk, and shared widely by RATM’s official X (formerly Twitter) page late Wednesday (Jan. 3).
RATM pushes out a news story published by Blabbermouth and based on comments made by Wilk, who insists the band “will not be touring or playing live again.”
Earlier, Wilk shared his thoughts on Instagram. “I know a lot of people are waiting for us to announce new tour dates for all the canceled RATM shows. I don’t want to string people or myself along any further,” he writes.
“So while there has been some communication that this may be happening in the future… I want to let you know that RATM (Tim, Zack, Tom and I) will not be touring or playing live again.
“I’m sorry for those of you who have been waiting for this to happen. I really wish it was…”
RATM’s post is a curious one which, at the time of writing, wasn’t shared to the rockers’ Facebook or Instagram pages and fails to mention whether recording projects are still in the cards. Bandmates Zack de la Rocha (vocals), bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford (bass) and Tom Morello (guitar) have not commented.
The L.A. group was finally tapped for the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2023, after five tries. Internal band issues were obvious then; Morello was the only member to attend the induction ceremony at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
RATM released just four albums during their initial 1991-2000 run before reforming for live dates from 2007-2011 and again in 2019 for a string of shows that were first interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and then by de la Rocha’s leg injury.
LPs Evil Empire (from 1996) and The Battle Of Los Angeles (1999) both peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
RATM has made eight total appearances on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay, with three songs in the top 10 (all in 2000), including “Guerrilla Radio,” which peaked at No. 69 on the Hot 100.
Few songs, however, have the power and fury of RATM’s signature song from 1992, “Killing In The Name,” a record that connected with youths everywhere and sprayed enough energy to enable them run through walls.
When their name was called out for induction into the Rock Hall class of ’23, the band recounted, by way of a statement, how they put their rage into action.
They were, the statement reads, “A band who shut down the NY Stock Exchange for the first time in its history.
“A band who was targeted by police organizations who attempted to ban us from sold out arenas for raising our voices to free Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier and other political prisoners
“A band who sued the US State Department for their fascist practice of using our music to torture innocent men in Guantanamo Bay.”
And, “a band who wrote rebel songs in an abandoned, industrial warehouse in the valley that would later dethrone Simon Cowell ’s X Factor pop monopoly to occupy the number 1 spot on the UK charts and have the most downloaded song in U.K. history.”
It’s now an amusing piece of U.K. chart history that, following a public campaign, “Killing In The Name” became 2009’s coveted Christmas U.K. No. 1 – and in doing so killing the established tradition that the winner of X Factor would claim the prize.
Lars Brandle
Billboard
