Rage Against The Machine kicked their long-awaited reunion tour off last July, only for vocalist Zack De La Rocha to tear his ACL on stage. The band sadly canceled their European tour as a precautionary measure while De La Rocha headed to physical therapy. The injury turned out worse than expected, causing Rage Against The Machine to cancel their future North American dates as well.
So what's the future of Rage Against The Machine now that the momentum from their reunion tour has been completely halted? In an interview with Rolling Stone, Tom Morello said he's not sure. Morello added that whatever the band decides, they'll issue as a collective statement, but as of right now no decision has been made.
"We'll see. If there is to be any more shows, we will announce it as a band," said Morello. "I don't know. I know as much as you do, honestly. Right now we're in time of healing. I'm in a time of making music and doing a bunch of stuff.
To bring it back to the Hall of Fame conversation [the band is currently nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame], 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."
Morello later added that there have not been any internal discussions about whether or not Rage Against The Machine will continue, and that there's no big news to reveal. When pressed for an answer, Morello simply stated that he gets the frustration and that Rage Against The Machine will keep fans posted.
"…I think I said it very clearly. 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. I will say that I understand and respect the frustration. There is a sort of frustration to not knowing when you're in the band! But that's led to a lot of great music."
Frankly, it's amazing Morello also didn't get injured during the band's July 23 stop in Toronto when he get taken out by a security guard. We wish De La Rocha all the best in his recovery and hope that someday, somewhere, Rage Against The Machine will ride again. Those shows sounded great.
Morello also touched on vaccinations at shows, ticket prices, and donating money to charity from each show, as he felt those points were never completely clarified for fans.
"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."
