WATCH: Prophets of Rage vow “this is just the beginning” for the band
Kerrang! Radio's Johnny Doom chats to them at Download Festival
Last updated 10th Jun 2017
Formed as a direct response to Donald Trump’s election last year, Prophets of Rage have vowed that “this is just the beginning” for the band and they’re as “hungry” as ever.
Before their sensational Main Stage performance at Download Festival last night, Prophets of Rage’s Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, B-Real and Brad Wilk sat down for a chat with Kerrang! Radio’s Johnny Doom.
Explaining how the Rage Against The Machine/Public Enemy/Cypress Hill supergroup came about, Tom Morello said: “At the height of the election craziness in the United States, we felt that it was not enough to just tweet about it so we had to bring out the big guns. It’s a six-fingered metal fist coming atcha.
“(The social climate) and the desire to play this music and have a great time rocking audiences around the world is certainly a component part, but the impetus to make those first phone calls came from the craziness going on in the world and our desire to unf--- the world.”
B-Real added: “I was waiting for the call, y’know, I agreed with everything that they were putting it together for; to play the music - because I feel people need to hear this music - and the possibilities of what might become of us playing it and getting this chemistry that we now have. I was excited and I remain excited.”
Confirming that the band are only just getting started, Tom told Johnny: “The band is almost exactly a year old now; our first show was May the 31st last year and now here we are rocking Donington on a beautiful day.
“Cypress (Hill) and Public Enemy were two of the principal influences on Rage Against The Machine so for Tim and Brad and I to be able to Rage-ify the catalogues of these bands is pretty exciting.
“We've got our own new music too, we’ve just put out a song called ‘Unf--- The World’, Michael Moore did the video for that, we’ll be playing that tonight. We’ve made a record that’s coming out on September 15th (the self-titled ‘Prophets of Rage’) so this is just the beginning of this band and it’s exciting to be back here in Europe, in England where we’ve had some of the greatest shows of our entire lives.”
Tim Commerford adds: “We are rookies, we’re one EP in, a couple of songs; we’ve now released a third song so the way I see it, we’re rookies and we’re out there bringing it as hard as we can. That’s a fact.”
“We’re taking nothing for granted too,” Tom maintains. “You’ll see, this band goes out there hungry.”
Despite their potent political message, in the live sphere at least Tom insists that the music is the main job: “On a day like today our first job is to rock the holy s--- out of everybody out there. The message can sink in in the mosh pit.”
Prophets of Rage’s rapturously received set last night featured a powerful instrumental performance of Audioslave’s ‘Like a Stone’ in tribute to Tom, Tim and Brad’s late bandmate Chris Cornell.
Introducing the song, Tom told the Donington Park faithful: “(Chris) was a sweet person and a good friend and we’re going to play this for him now. If you know the words sing along; if you don’t know the words say a prayer for peace.”
You can read Kerrang! Radio’s full report and watch fan-filmed footage of the performance right here.
The Prophets of Rage setlist at Download Festival was as follows:
Prophets of Rage (Public Enemy cover)
Testify (Rage Against the Machine cover)
Take the Power Back (Rage Against the Machine cover)
Guerrilla Radio (Rage Against the Machine cover)
How I Could Just Kill a Man (Cypress Hill cover)
Bombtrack (Rage Against the Machine cover)
Fight the Power (Public Enemy cover)
Harder Than You Think / Insane in the Brain / Bring the Noise / Jump Around
Sleep Now in the Fire (Rage Against the Machine cover) (with Audioslave 'Cochise' outro)
Like a Stone (Audioslave cover) (instrumental)
Know Your Enemy (Rage Against the Machine cover)
Bullet in the Head (Rage Against the Machine cover)
Unf--- The World
Bulls on Parade (Rage Against the Machine cover)
Killing in the Name (Rage Against the Machine cover)