Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello tells metalheads “to GET THEIR SH*T TOGETHER”, stand up, and change the world.
Over the weekend at Hellfest in France, Morello spoke about why he’s spent so much of his career not just making music, but being an activist and trying to make an impact on the world. And, in the process, he encouraged his fans and audience to go out and try to make a difference of their own:
“Across 21 records, there’s really one message that is a thread through all of my music, and that is that the world is not going to change itself. That is up to you. And by you, I literally mean you — the people watching on your thing and your thing; that’s how the world changes.
“And sometimes it seems like this sort of monolithic problem that we’ll never be able to get past and the world cannot be changed or the worst people are the ones in charge, and they often are. But you are not witnesses to history; you are agents of history. History is not something that happened; it’s something you make.
“Whenever there has been a progressive radical, even revolutionary positive change for the better, it’s come from people who are no different than anyone in this room or any of the audiences that you’re writing for or that your videos are for. Once you have that realization that you do have your hands on the wheel of history and of this planet, and if you wanna make it a more peaceful, a more just, a more equitable, a more anti-racist, a more environmentally sound place, there’s no one to blame if it doesn’t happen but you for not standing up.
“At any given historical moment, you stand in the place where you live and you stand in the place where you were. That’s it. So some people are, like, ‘You guys made Rage records 30 years ago, and now look at the horrible state of the world.’ Imagine what it would be like if we didn’t make Rage records 30 years ago. At every moment, you do what you can, when you can, where you can. That’s the way that I look at it. And the arc of history is a long one, and there are very, very challenging times now certainly in my country, and I know here as well. And in part, literally the fate of the planet is at stake over the course of the next few decades. So it’s time for metalheads to get their sh*t together.”
