Zack de la Rocha performing injured “more compelling” than 99 per cent of frontmen, says Tom Morello

Tom Morello has said that Zack de la Rocha performing injured is still “more compelling” than practically all frontmen in the history of music.

• READ MORE: Tom Morello – “In the past, I’ve wanted to use music as a battering ram for social justice”

The Rage Against The Machine guitarist was being interviewed about the band cancelling dozens of reunion tour shows in the wake of de la Rocha injuring his leg onstage last July.

During the chat with Rolling Stone, Morello was asked how he felt when he realised that de la Rocha was injured “pretty badly” on the second night of the band’s Public Service Announcement tour at Chicago’s United Center.

“Well, the irony is that I had just recovered from a ruptured achilles,” Morello said. “I was in rehearsals on crutches. I recognised the gait. But Zack toughed it out that night. And for the next 17 shows, he was more compelling as a frontman sitting on a box in the middle of the stage than 99 per cent of the frontmen in the history of all time.”

Se lesionó Zach de la Rocha, vocalista de Rage Against the Machine, durante un concierto en la ciudad de Chicago, en Estados Unidos. La gran parte de esa presentación la hizo sentado. #AhoraMás con @UrielEstradaTV pic.twitter.com/X73xkBjyoD

— Ahora Más (@ahoramasoficial) July 12, 2022

He continued, praising de la Rocha’s impressive ability to soldier on and be “a powerful transmitter of truth”.

“It was completely unexpected, but the fact that he soldiered on…and he didn’t just soldier on, but he was able to be that electric, compelling, powerful transmitter of truth that he is, while remaining fairly immobile, was fairly impressive. I didn’t hear from one fan that felt the show was diminished in power by one per cent,” he said.

Rage Against The Machine played their first live shows in more than a decade last summer.

The band, who first announced their second reunion in 2019, were set to kick the tour off in March 2020. Ongoing complications surrounding the COVID pandemic, however, forced the tour to be rescheduled several times over. The most recent pushback came in January and February 2022, where half of the US leg was postponed from April to July and the other half was pushed into 2023.

However, after playing 18 shows with an injured de la Rocha last year, the band have since cancelled any remaining dates.

When pressed about rescheduling those dates, Morello told Rolling Stone: “I don’t have news for you on that.” He added that he “would love” there to be more in the future. Read his full comments here.

Elsewhere in the interview, Morello spoke about the band’s bid to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Rage Against The Machine have received their fifth nomination, and voting for inductees closes in April.

Morello added that he thinks Rage Against The Machine deserves to be inducted: “I’m a big proponent of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” he said.

“I like the idea there’s somewhere on the planet that celebrates music. This is Rage Against the Machine’s fifth nomination for the Hall of Fame. The thing I share, with many fans of many bands, is that if the Rock Hall is going to be inducting artists of so many diverse genres, there are a lot of artists from multiple genres that deserve to get in.

“It would be a great place to be. I certainly think Rage Against the Machine, among a lot of other bands, deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He added: “To bring it back to the Hall of Fame conversation, if there never is another show, I think that this tour made the case. It’s not about how much you tour. It’s about what it’s like during those moments when you do. Rage Against the Machine has played 19 shows in the past 12 years. And the resonance of those 19 shows feel, in talking to fans, like those were historical events that furthers the idea of what that band is like live onstage.

“An argument for Rage Against the Machine to get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is that there has never been a band with politics that radical on the top of the charts. It’s not close. It’s not close. That is rarified air. The engine in me doesn’t turn off when Rage isn’t onstage.”

Meanwhile, in other news, last December Rage Against The Machine bassist Tim Commerford revealed that he has prostate cancer.

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