Rage Against The Machine send cease and desist letter to Nigel Farage
Over his Farage Against The Machine podcast
Rage Against The Machine have sent a strongly worded cease and desist letter to Nigel Farage over his podcast Farage Against The Machine.
The politically-charged rockers are deeply unhappy with the former UKIP leader for mimicking their name for his LBC show.
According to papers obtained by The Blast, Rage Against The Machine’s main attorney Howard King sent a letter to Farage’s team, which says the LBC show “brazenly and unlawfully exploits our client’s name and logo.”
Not pulling any punches, the letter to Farage reads: “RATM has publicly denounced the type of right-wing ideology you espouse for decades; in fact, that has been an integral part of the band’s identity and purpose.
“Your anti-immigrant rhetoric, lack of social compassion and barely disguised racism and xenophobia are the antithesis of what RATM stands for. Stop using RATM’s name and logo, change the name of your podcast and find some other target to troll. We suggest President Trump.”
The band and their representatives are demanding that Farage changes the name of his podcast and stops using all marketing, promotion and advertising with everything that “falsely associates you, your colleagues at LBC and Fox, and your far-right political views with RATM.”
Back in March, the team behind a Rage Against The Machine fan account on Twitter lambasted Farage when the podcast name was unveiled.
They wrote: “Failed right-wing British politician Nigel Farage has called his podcast ‘Farage Against The Machine’.
“This pissweasel IS the machine - peddling the sort of inane, blame-heavy bulls--- that the guys in @RATM have been raging against since day one...”
Rage Against The Machine themselves are long-standing Farage detractors. Back in September 2012, guitarist Tom Morello lambasted him after ‘Killing In The Name’ was played at a UKIP conference.
He wrote at the time: “Hey UKIP & Nigel Farage: Stop using "KILLING IN THE NAME" for ur racist/rightwing rallies. We are against everything u stand for. STOP. IT.”
Rage Against The Machine have been on hiatus for the past seven years. Their last show together took place at the L.A. Rising festival in July 2011.
Three-quarters of the band - Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk alongside Public Enemy’s DJ Lord and Chuck D, and B-Real of Cypress Hill - formed Prophets of Rage in 2016.
The rap-rockers released their self-titled debut album last September and have a new album in the pipeline.