Tom Morello talks Rage Against The Machine’s future, ticket pricing & more in new interview
Eight months after Rage Against The Machine closed out the North American leg of their tour (their first in 11 years) and cancelled the UK/EU leg, guitarist Tom Morello has given an interview with Rolling Stone to discuss RATM's nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, their truncated tour, and the band's future, among other things.
About that tour, Tom told Rolling Stone, "The crowds were feral. The band had never played better. We’d never sounded better. It was a reaffirmation of the power of Rage Against the Machine, and the transcendence of Rage Against the Machine as a live act." He continued to share his thoughts on frontman Zack de la Rocha's performances with a ruptured Achilles tendon, which kept him sitting on a road case for all the remaining shows. "He was more compelling as a frontman sitting on a box in the middle of the stage than 99 percent of the frontmen in the history of all time," he told Rolling Stone. "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."
Tom also discussed RATM's politics and ticket pricing with Rolling Stone:
One, there’s a lot of ridiculous people who disapprove of Rage’s political outlook, who were not at the shows, who…just to be clear, no fans at any show in the history of Rage Against the Machine have ever had a vaccination requirement to be in the room. Ever. People say that and it’s just foolish.
Second, in regards to ticket prices…I think by this point, I think everybody is familiar with the awful idea of dynamic ticket pricing. There was that big uproar with Springsteen and this one and that one. Just to reiterate, every ticket for the show was $125 with the exception of about five to ten percent of tickets, which we did the dynamic ticket prices with, and gave away every cent.
Every penny over $125 went to charities in those cities. In New York City, we raised over a million dollars for activist organization charities. There was a total of about six or seven million raised on that tour in what was basically a Robin Hood tactic. I wanted to say those things out loud since there was a lot of misinformation in the world about those two things.
Finally, when asked about the band's current status, whether they're on hiatus, and whether there will be more shows in the future, Tom laughed and told Rolling Stone, "if there are Rage Against the Machine shows, I will be the guitar player... If Rage Against the Machine was going on a hiatus, Rage Against the Machine would say, 'We’re going on a hiatus.' That has not happened." He emphasied that "there is not news" on repeated questions... so looks like we'll have to wait and see.
Read the full interview at Rolling Stone.
Tom is currently working on solo music with his Freedom Fighters Orchestra project, and he'll be going on tour in the coming months.