More about: Rage Against The MachineCypress HillPublic Enemy
He explains his role in the band's demise
Speaking of “chaos”, guitarist Tom Morello has given his version of why political metalheads Rage Against The Machine came to an end in 2000. The band split after the selling 16m records worldwide and the release of their fourth album, Renegades.
You might also like...
Speaking to Lars Ulrich on the Metallica drummer’s It’s Electric show on Apple Music’s Beats 1, Morello reflected on the split.
He said: “I’ll put myself first and foremost. It was a lack of emotional maturity in being able to deal with each other as people.
“We had political vision and the shows never suffered, but we just couldn’t agree on stuff and that unearthed feelings that made it hard to make records.
“I think there were competing visions for what it was, should be, and competing feelings about what it was like to be in the band that we didn’t deal with.”
Morello added: “My version of the band was, ‘Let’s make a record every six months. Let’s be the political Led Zeppelin and let’s overthrow the government and make the best records anyone ever did… by Wednesday, go!’
“In that pursuit, I was not always sensitive to the emotional needs of my band members. And everybody has their role in it, but that’s where I contributed to the chaos that eventually ended the band.
“But I will say this, my glass half full version is: For a band that had extremely combustable elements, to be able to have made four records, to be able to have played the shows we did, I think it’s a miracle.”
Rage Against The Machine reunited in 2007 when they headlined the Coachella festival. They went on to the tour across the US, Australia, Japan and Europe and scored an unlikely Christmas No. 1 single in 2009 with ‘Killing in The Name’ following a Facebook campaign to prevent talent show The X-Factor from hogging the Yuletide top slot.
With Rage Against The Machine on indefinite hiatus, Morello and his Rage Against The Machine band mates Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk have joined forces with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Cypress Hill’s B-Real to form Prophets Of Rage. They are currently working on their second album.
Issue Three of the Gigwise Print magazine is preselling now! Order here.
More about: Rage Against The MachineCypress HillPublic Enemy
