Tom Morello has addressed Rage Against The Machine‘s cancelled tour dates and commented on any chance of a future return from the band.
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In 2022, the band began their ‘Public Service Announcement Tour’, which was set to run through 2023, but was disrupted after frontman Zach de la Rocha injured his Achilles tendon during its second date on July 11 in Chicago.
De la Rocha continued to play 17 more shows while seated onstage, before the band eventually cancelled their UK and European dates for the rest of the year in October 2022.
Now, Morello has commented on the decision to cancel the shows. Speaking in a new interview with Chicago radio station Q101 (WKQX), the guitarist said: “The irony was, leading up to that tour, I ruptured my Achilles. So I was in rehearsal on crutches. I was, like, I would have open-heart surgery on stage and not cancel a show. The show must go on.
“So then Zack — he was in such good shape,” Morello continued. “Everybody was doing their best to make this thing happen. And sometimes it just happens. And he popped the Achilles, and he had sort of seen my journey with it. And we finished the U.S. tour and then sadly cancelled all the other stuff after that.”
Since then, the future of the band has been unclear, with Morello attending the annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony alone to accept Rage Against The Machine’s induction.
Then, in 2024, drummer Brad Wilk announced that the band “will not be touring or playing live again”.
Morello also addressed the possible future of the band in this interview, saying: “Rage Against The Machine was always sort of a volatile situation. The fact that we got four great records, the fact that we played shows in 2022 and a new generation got to… Even when [Zack] was sitting down at those shows, those were some of the best Rage Against The Machine shows that we ever did and really connect to people.
“We finished with five sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden. So if there’s never another show, then that’s quite a way to go out,” he continued. “But in the meantime, I cross my heart and hope to die, I am carrying the torch for every one of those riffs and all of the meaning in those songs as well as the other things that I’ve been in. That music matters so much to me, and what it’s about matters so much.”
In other Tom Morello news, the guitarist will be co-directing an upcoming documentary about Judas Priest.
He also recently served as “musical director” for Black Sabbath’s final gig, where he also performed alongside Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood, Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt, Quiet Riot’s Rudy Sarzo and Blink-182’s Travis Barker for a rendition of the ‘50s blues song ‘Train Kept A Rollin’.
Elsewhere, he has criticised the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, calling on them to “STOP KILLING CHILDREN”.
Morello has previously praised Kneecap for “speaking truth to power” and criticising the Israeli government, saying the Irish trio are “clearly the Rage Against The Machine of now”. Those comments prompted an angry response from Disturbed’s David Draiman, who called him a “straight up c**t”.