Rage Against the Machine Share Statement on Rock Hall 2023 Induction

This morning, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its class of 2023, which includes Rage Against the Machine. Now, the band has shared a statement thanking the Rock Hall for the induction, and recounting the long, radical journey that led up to the honor. “It is a surprising trajectory for us to be welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” Rage Against the Machine wrote. “In 1991 four people in Los Angeles formed a musical group to stand where sound and and solidarity intersect. We called ourselves Rage Against the Machine.”

The group continued: “A band who is as well known for our albums as we are for our fierce opposition to the US war machine, white supremacy and exploitation. A band whose songs drove alternative radio to new heights while right wing media companies tried to purge every song we ever wrote from the airwaves.” Find Rage Against the Machine’s full statement below.

Rage Against the Machine were nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame a total of five times. They have been inducted alongside Kate Bush, Missy Elliott, Sheryl Crow, George Michael, Willie Nelson, and the Spinners. The 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on Friday, November 3, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Last July, Rage Against the Machine set out on their first tour in over a decade, which was scheduled to run well into 2023. Unfortunately, vocalist Zack de la Rocha sustained a leg injury during their second concert in Chicago. By August, the band had canceled the European stint of the reunion tour, followed by the October cancellation of their 2023 trek across North America. The band revealed that the decision was due to de la Rocha’s leg injury—a tear in his left Achilles tendon.

Rage Against the Machine:

It is a surprising trajectory for us to be welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1991 four people in Los Angeles formed a musical group to stand where sound and and solidarity intersect. We called ourselves Rage Against the Machine.

A band who is as well known for our albums as we are for our fierce opposition to the US war machine, white supremacy and exploitation

A band whose songs drove alternative radio to new heights while right wing media companies tried to purge every song we ever wrote from the airwaves

A band who shut down the NY Stock Exchange for the first time in its history

A band who was targeted by police organizations who attempted to ban us from sold out arenas for raising our voices to free Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier and other political prisoners

A band who sued the US State Department for their fascist practice of using our music to torture innocent men in Guantanamo Bay

A band who wrote rebel songs in an abandoned, industrial warehouse in the valley that would later dethrone Simon Cowell’s X Factor pop monopoly to occupy the number 1 spot on the UK charts and have the most downloaded song in UK history

A band who funded and organized delegations to stand with Mexican rebel Zapatista communities to expose the Mexican government’s war on indigenous people

A band whose experimentation in fusing punk, rock and hip hop became a genre of its own

Many thanks to the Hall of Fame for recognizing the music and the mission of Rage Against the Machine. We are grateful to all of the passionate fans, the many talented co-conspirators we’ve worked with and all the activists, organizers, rebels and revolutionaries past, present and future who have inspired our art.

-Brad, Tim, Tom, & Zack