1991–1992: Early years In 1991, following the break-up of guitarist Tom Morello's former band
Lock Up, former Lock Up drummer
Jon Knox encouraged Tim Commerford and Zack de la Rocha to jam with Morello as he was looking to start a new group. This lineup named themselves Rage Against the Machine, after a song De la Rocha had written for his former underground
hardcore punk band
Inside Out (also to be the title of the unrecorded
Inside Out full-length album). While sales were initially slow, the album became a critical and commercial success, driven by heavy radio airplay of the song "
Killing in the Name", a heavy, driving track featuring only eight lines of lyrics. The "Fuck You" version, which contains 17 instances of the word
fuck, was once accidentally played on the
BBC Radio 1 Top 40 singles show on February 21, 1993. The band's profile soared following a performance at the
Lollapalooza festival in mid-1993 tour; sales of
Rage Against the Machine in the United States increased from 75,000 before Lollapalooza, to 400,000 by the end of the year. By April 1996, the album had sold over 1 million copies in the United States and 3 million copies worldwide. It appears in every edition of
Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, with the most recent being in 2020 at its highest position, 221.
1995–2000: Mainstream success In late 1994, Rage Against the Machine took a hiatus from touring, sparking rumors that they had broken up. According to an anonymous source reporting to
MTV News, Rage Against the Machine had recorded 23 tracks with producer
Brendan O'Brien in
Atlanta starting in November 1994, and briefly broke up due to violent infighting in the band, before regrouping for the
KROQ Weenie Roast in June 1995. The band eventually recorded their long-awaited follow-up album,
Evil Empire, with O'Brien in November and December 1995. It later rose to triple platinum status.
2000–2001: Renegades and breakup On January 26, 2000, during filming of the video for "
Sleep Now in the Fire", directed by
Michael Moore, an altercation caused the doors of the
New York Stock Exchange to be closed and the band to be escorted from the site by security after band members attempted to gain entry into the exchange. The video shoot had attracted several hundred people, according to a representative for the city's Deputy Commissioner for Public Information. New York City's film office does not allow weekday film shoots on Wall Street. Moore had permission to use the steps of
Federal Hall National Memorial but did not have a permit to shoot on the sidewalk or the street, nor did he have a loud-noise permit or the proper parking permits. "Michael basically gave us one directorial instruction, 'No matter what happens, don't stop playing'",
Tom Morello recalls. When the band left the steps, police officers apprehended Moore and led him away. Moore yelled to the band, "Take the New York Stock Exchange!" In an interview with the
Socialist Worker, Morello said he and scores of others ran into the Stock Exchange. "About two hundred of us got through the first set of doors, but our charge was stopped when the Stock Exchange's titanium riot doors came crashing down." MTV News reported that security personnel denied the band entry and suggested they visit the exchange's visitor center instead. After the Best Rock Video award was given to
Limp Bizkit, Commerford climbed onto the scaffolding of the set. De la Rocha's departure was voted the "shittiest thing" of 2000 in the
Kerrang! readers' poll of that year. The band's next album,
Renegades, was a collection of
covers of artists as diverse as
Devo,
EPMD,
Minor Threat,
Cypress Hill,
the MC5,
Afrika Bambaataa,
the Rolling Stones,
Eric B. & Rakim,
Bruce Springsteen,
the Stooges, and
Bob Dylan. It achieved platinum status a month later. as
Audioslave at the
Montreux Jazz Festival in 2005 In the wake of the
September 11 attacks, the controversial
2001 Clear Channel memorandum contained a long list of what the memo termed "lyrically questionable" songs for the radio, uniquely listing
all of Rage Against the Machine's songs.
2002–2006: Side projects After the breakup, Morello, Wilk, and Commerford decided to stay together and find a new vocalist. Their first single, "
Cochise", was released in November 2002, and their
self-titled debut album followed to mainly positive reviews. In contrast to Rage Against the Machine, most of Audioslave's music was apolitical, although some songs touched on political issues. Their second album,
Out of Exile debuted at the number one position on the Billboard charts in 2005. During an interview with the Chilean newspaper
La Tercera in October 2010, De la Rocha allegedly confirmed that a new album was in the works, with a possibility of a 2011 release. De la Rocha is reported as saying, "We are all bigger and more mature and we do not fall into the problems we faced 10 or 15 years ago. This is different and we project a lot: we are working on a new album due out next year, perhaps summer for the northern hemisphere". In an October 2012 interview with
TMZ, bassist
Tim Commerford was asked if Rage Against the Machine was working on a new album. He simply responded, "maybe". Asked by TMZ again in November 2012 whether a new album was being worked on, Commerford replied "definitely maybe ... anything's possible". Later that month, however, Morello denied that they were working on new material, and stated that Rage Against the Machine had "no plans beyond" the reissue of their self-titled debut album. Morello said he would be open to recording new Rage Against the Machine material, but added that it was "not on the table right now". The band announced on October 9 via their Facebook page that they would be releasing a special
20th anniversary box set to commemorate the group's debut album. The full box set contains never-before-released concert material, including the band's 2010 Finsbury Park show and footage from early in their career, as well as a digitally-remastered version of the album, B-sides and the original demo tape (on disc for the first time). The band released 3-disc and single-disc versions. The collection was released on November 27. In February 2015, Tim Commerford said that uncertainty over when they might play again was typical of the band's functioning, speculating: "It could be tomorrow; it could be 10 years from now". On October 16, the band's 2010 performance in Finsbury Park was released on DVD and Blu-ray as
Live at Finsbury Park.
2016–2019: Prophets of Rage In May 2016, It was announced that Morello, Wilk and Commerford had formed a supergroup,
Prophets of Rage, with the rappers
Chuck D of
Public Enemy and
B-Real of
Cypress Hill. The band toured through 2016 and played songs by Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy and Cypress Hill. Commerford said that year that Rage Against the Machine had not split up. Morello said: "We have nothing but the greatest love and honor and respect for Zack de la Rocha [...] who is working on his own music, which I'm sure will be fantastic—he's a great artist in his own right. But where you're going to hear Rage Against the Machine is in Prophets of Rage." In May 2018, Wilk said a Rage Against the Machine reunion would make him happy, and that "it's just really a matter of getting us all on the same page". In November 2019,
Chuck D and
B-Real confirmed that Prophets of Rage had disbanded.
2019–2024: Second reunion, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, and third disbandment On November 1, 2019, it was reported that Rage Against the Machine were reuniting for their first shows in nine years in spring 2020, including two appearances at that year's
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. On November 25, 2019, an alleged leaked tour poster made its way online indicating the band would be going on a world tour throughout 2020. This was later debunked by Australian publication
Wall of Sound, which broke the news that a concert poster troll photoshopped and released it online as a prank. On February 10, 2020, Rage Against the Machine announced more worldwide dates for the 2020 reunion tour, now named the
Public Service Announcement Tour. It was scheduled to run from March 26 through September 12, making it the band's first full-length world tour in 20 years, after they completed the promotional cycle for their third album
The Battle of Los Angeles. this tour was eventually postponed to summer 2021. On May 1, 2020, the band announced that they had rescheduled the remaining dates of the reunion tour to 2021. They were also due to headline the
Reading and Leeds Festivals, which would have been Rage Against the Machine's first UK appearance in 10 years, but it was announced on May 12, 2020, that the festival was canceled. Despite having rescheduled all of their tour dates, Rage Against the Machine was initially still scheduled to play
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which had been postponed from April to October 2020 before it was officially canceled that June. On April 8, 2021, it was announced that the Public Service Announcement Tour had once again been rescheduled to the spring and summer of 2022. By June 11, 2020, every Rage Against the Machine album had entered the top 30 of Apple Music's Rock Albums chart, and their debut album had entered the
Billboard Top 200 at number 174. The resurgence of interest in the band's music and politics was widely attributed to renewed worldwide
Black Lives Matter protests following
the murder of
George Floyd in Minneapolis by law enforcement. after their unsuccessful 2018 nomination for induction On July 9, 2022, Rage Against the Machine played their first concert in 11 years at
Alpine Valley Music Theatre in
East Troy, Wisconsin. After De la Rocha
ruptured his Achilles tendon during a show in Chicago in July, Rage Against the Machine canceled their European tour and their remaining North American tour dates. Rage Against the Machine was nominated for induction into the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility in 2017, and again in 2018, 2019, and 2021. They were inducted on November 3, 2023, by
Ice-T, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Only Morello attended the ceremony. On January 3, 2024, Wilk confirmed that Rage Against the Machine had disbanded again. ==Musical style and influences==