Rage Against The Machine have always been a band that have struggled to get their message across to traditional broadcasting outlets. The band were once famously censored on American comedy institution Saturday Night Live and they also once stood naked onstage after being denied their right to self expression at a US festival.
The band are currently at the centre of a huge campaign to get their rap-metal anthem ‘Killing In The Name’ to Christmas number one. Today they gave a rare interview to BBC Radio Five Live and were asked to perform a “radio friendly” version of the song at the centre of the campaign.
Upon reaching the point where lead singer Zack De La Rocha normally belts into foul mouthed chant, the band abided to requests to keep the track clean, when suddenly flipping and moving into the full uncensored chant of “Fuck you I wont do what you tell me”. The station had no other choice but to pull the plug and apologise to listeners.
Before the cut-off Rage were asked their opinion on the campaign that is being led by fans. Front man Zack De La Rocha attacked Simon Cowell saying. “Simon is an interesting character. He seems to have profited greatly off humiliating people on live television and has a unique position of capturing the attention of people on television, but also the airwaves. We see this as a necessary break of that control.”
Guitarist Tom Morello added. “People are tired of being spoon fed one schmaltzy ballad after another. They want to take back their own charts. We’re honoured they’ve chosen our song to be the rebel anthem to topple The X Factor monopoly. People aren’t buying ‘Killing In The Name’ to protest a record coming out on a major company. We wrote ‘Killing In The Name’ in a small industry slum in Los Angeles. The X Factor song is written by a cabal of overpaid songwriters to shove the schmaltzy business down your throats. So there are two very different choices. The thing listeners need to know is, it’s a really close race and its real liberating musical revolution and we’re honoured to be a part of it.”
Rage Against The Machine are just 36,000 copies ahead of X Factor winner Joe McElderry in the race for the Christmas countdown. However with the momentum of physical sales pushing the singer ever nearer to the top spot the race is currently too tight to call.
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