Rage Against The Machine Reveal Why Band ‘Suffered On A Daily Basis’

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Former Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello discussed how RATM ‘suffered’ on BBC’s The First Time With. Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.

“I mean, how much time do you have? I can only speak to my role in it. I think that we, a band that went from- we had offers from labels after our second show. We didn’t get any kind of formative time as friends and mates and comrades you know, in the trenches. We went from like the trenches for two days into you know, doing interviews with the NME and Rolling Stone and figuring out how you can be a revolutionary band on a global scale with a major label. Like all this stuff- like some of these really big issues while we were in the water slide of activity.

There was nonstop shows. There was nonstop press. There was nonstop sort of attention and we didn’t- myself included- didn’t have the emotional maturity to process that in a way where we you know, kind of could have done better by each other. Also, all you gotta do is watch- any band- every band, every single band every six months should watch the movie Spinal Tap and make a checklist and go, ‘Oh, I’m sorry dude. You’re doing that right now. So you can’t do that anymore.’ We were certainly guilty of some of those.”

“The mechanisms for coping were just, emotional distress and you know, I will say, Rage Against The Machine played, the shows never suffered and the albums never suffered but it was suffering on a daily basis. Like I would say in the ten years of Rage Against The Machine, there were probably three happy days. Like, literally. Less than a handful of days. During the reunion era though, I will say, it was a different story. It was very lovely. Everyone had matured. IT was fun. We greatly appreciated playing together and the Finsbury Park show where we had than number one was the highlight of musical career. Like that night was the best night of our, certainly Rage Against The Machine’s musical lives.”