Zack de la Rocha, This Is the Moment You Were Made For

Prior to Tom Morello‘s Defend Minnesota concert on Jan. 30 in Minneapolis, rumors swirled about possible surprise guest performers. And for about 90 seconds, when the guitarist walked onstage and kicked into Rage Against the Machine‘s “Killing in the Name,” letting the intro echo through the hall as the fans erupted, there was genuine hope that a miracle might take place. But then Morello held his hand to his ear and instructed the audience to sing in place of someone who, yet again, was in parts unknown.

We’re talking, of course, about Zack de la Rocha. Back in the 1990s, as the frontman of Rage Against the Machine, de la Rocha helped create the soundtrack for this very dark and perilous political moment we’re living through. Songs like “War Within a Breath” and “Know Your Enemy” sounded extreme to some in the relatively peaceful Nineties, but they all ring true today. There was barely a single person in the audience at Defend Minnesota, regardless of their age, who didn’t scream, “Some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses!” at the top of their lungs during “Killing in the Name.”

Later in the set, Morello and his band tore through a medley of the Rage classics “Bombtrack,” “Know Your Enemy,” “Bulls on Parade,” “Guerrilla Radio,” “Sleep Now in the Fire, and “Bullet in Your Head.” But they too were instrumentals.

So, imagine a universe where an unannounced Rage Against the Machine took the stage at Defend Minnesota. It would have generated worldwide headlines and been one of the greatest moments in the band’s long history. To be clear, it’s not like President Trump or federal immigration officials would have cared. Their assault on the city’s immigrant population would have carried on without interruption. But it would have been a galvanizing moment for the city’s resistance, and a sign that this moment is bigger than any rock band’s internal beef.

There’s almost no doubt that drummer Brad Wilk and bassist Tim Commerford would have answered the Rage Bat-Signal and dropped everything to be there. Yet de la Rocha seems to always be the holdout.

To rewind the clock, Rage Against the Machine announced an extensive reunion tour in 2020 following nearly a decade hiatus. (There hasn’t been an album of original songs since 1999’s The Battle of Los Angeles.) The pandemic forced the group to delay the tour by two very long years, and it finally kicked off July 9, 2022, at Alpine Valley Music Theater. I made the long trek to East Troy, Wisconsin, and managed to secure a spot on the front row. It was one of the most explosive tour launches I’ve ever witnessed. For a second, it felt like a band reborn.

At the very next show, de la Rocha tore his Achilles tendon while thrashing about the stage to “Bullet in the Head.” He somehow finished the night in a chair, clearly in agony, and got through the next 17 concerts by positioning himself on a road case. Fans briefly worried that an immobilized Zack would somehow diminish the power of the performances, but instead it made them even better, as he was able to concentrate all his energy on his vocals. (The concert I saw at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse ranks high on the list of the best shows I’ve ever seen.)

They were supposed to head to Europe after the North American leg, but they called it off due to Zack’s injury. Not long afterwards, they pulled the rest of the tour. “I have a severe tear in my left Achilles tendon and only 8% of my tendon was left intact,” de la Rocha wrote in a rare message to fans. “It’s not simply a question of being able to perform again but extends to basic functionality going forward.”

This was a huge bummer, but easy to understand. As any athlete will tell you, a torn Achilles is no joke. It requires many difficult months of healing and physical therapy before mobility is regained. But it does eventually get better. Zack proved that on Oct. 12, 2023 — over a year after canceling the Rage tour — when he made a surprise appearance at a Run the Jewels concert at the Hollywood Palladium. He was back on his feet and looked very much like the Zack of old.

This raised some very obvious questions about the future of Rage, and when I spoke with Morello that year, I did my best to get them answered. “If there is to be any more shows, we will announce it as a band,” he said. “I don’t know. I know as much as you do, honestly. Right now we’re in a time of healing…Rage Against the Machine is like the ring in Lord of the Rings. It drives men mad. It drives journalists mad. It drives record-industry people mad. They want it. They want the thing, and they’re driven mad. If there are Rage shows, if there are not Rage shows, you’ll hear from the band. I do not know. When there is news, it will come from a collective statement from the band.”

Less than a year later, the exact opposite happened when Wilk took it upon himself to declare that the band was once again kaput. “I know a lot of people are waiting for us to announce new dates for all the cancelled RATM shows,” he wrote on Instagram. “I don’t want to string people or myself along any further. So while there has been some communication that this may be happening in the future…I want to let you know that RATM (Tim, Zack, Tom and I) will not be touring or playing live again. I’m sorry for those of you who have been waiting for this to happen. I really wish it was…”

Weeks later, I found myself on a Zoom with Commerford to discuss his new solo project, and I tried to figure out what the hell was going on. “I don’t know,” he told me. “I don’t get involved in that. I’m the bass player. I just wait for someone to tell me what to do. Brad said what he said, but he’s one step above me. He’s in the number three spot. I am the low man on the totem pole. That’s all I can tell you. The bass players aways are the last people to find out about shit like that.”

Later that year, Rage were finally inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — Morello was the only member to show up. “Like most bands, we have differing perspectives on a lot of things, including being inducted into the Rock Hall,” he said. “My perspective is that tonight is a great opportunity to celebrate the music and the mission of the band.”

Zack de la Rocha hasn’t granted an interview in many, many years. We have no idea why he’s made so little music over the past quarter century, and why he has such ambivalent feelings toward one of the most important groups of the modern era. One can presume that he feels at least slightly conflicted over playing Rage songs at places like Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, KeyBank Center, and Capital One Arena (all stops on their 2022 run) and cashing checks from Live Nation. And we can certainly understand why he didn’t want to come to the Hall of Fame and sing “Bulls on Parade” in a tux. He’s part of a long and proud line of Hall of Fame no-shows. We wouldn’t have expected otherwise.

But this particular moment in America — a fractured, violent, and increasingly totalitarian place — is different. If there were ever a time to put aside all the bullshit and bring back Rage Against the Machine, even if just for a few songs at a single show, it’s right now. As a wise man once said, “It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime/What better place than here, what better time than now?”