Rage Against the Machine: Why the band got banned from SNL

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In 1996 Rage Against the Machine would join the ranks of The Replaements, Elvis Costello, FEAR and Sinhead O’Connor as musicians who would be banned from Saturday Night Live. It should have been no surprise given who was hosting saturday night live that night. IT was a powder keg waiting to explode. Let’s explore what happened in today’s video.

In 1996 Rage Against the Machine released their highly anticipated follow up to their debut record, titled Evil Empire. The band’s debut record, released in 1992 went triple platinum. Their 1996 follow up would be Named after a term former President Ronald Reagan used to describe the soviet union during the cold war, the album was a massive success going triple platinum in America and topping the billboard album charts. As part of the promotion for the album, the band was set to be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live On April 13 of 1996. Hosting the show that night was billionaire publisher and former Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes. Forbes to a lot of people represented the establishment, an elite whose billions gave him sway over political leaders. Meanwhile Rage built a career on their radical political views that challenged authority and the stalbishement. , it seemed like a booking that was purposely done to incite some sort of controversy and create a clash of cultures and that’s exactly what happened.

Tom Morello talked about the band’s thinking that night telling the LA Times We knew that he was going to be making a statement--it was going to be all about how charming to have a billionaire telling these jokes and promoting his flat tax,” says Rage guitarist Tom Morello. “And we wanted to stand in sharp juxtaposition to that by making our own statement

The band was sset to play two songs that night, the first was bulls on parade and the second was bullet to the head. During the band’s song they ung two american flags on their amps flipped upside down. 20 seconds before the show was to broadcast their live performance stage hands ripped down the flags. After their first song the band waited in the green room waiting to go on stage to perform Bullet In the Head. The producers of SNL confronted the band about their protest and stopped them from taking the stage for a second time that night and kicked them out of the building.

Angered, Rage’s bassist Tim Commeford tore up a US flag and barged into Forbes dressing room and threw shards of the flag at the host that night and his entourage.

Morello would put out a statement that the LA times published where he said
“ ‘Saturday Night Live’ censored Rage, period,” “and they could not have sucked up to the billionaire more. The thing that’s ironic is, ‘Saturday Night Live’ is supposedly this cutting-edge show, but they proved that they’re bootlickers to their corporate masters when it comes down to it. They’re cowards.”
A “Saturday Night Live” official called the band’s actions a publicity stunt, but Producer Lorne Michaels tried to put on a braver face saying in a statement
“We really enjoyed having Rage Against the Machine on our show.”
Morello later claimed that the SNL cast and team and i quote “expressed solidarity with our actions, and a sense of shame that their show had censored the performance.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Rage has been banned as three years prior in 1993 during Lolapooloza the LA radio station KROQ banned the group’s music.It all stemmed from Rage frontman Zack de la Rocha lslamming the station for censoring the outro of Killing in the Name from their debut album The frontman supposedly got tthe crowd to join in on a chant that went “F--- KROQ.”

KROQ program director Kevin Weatherly (yes, pig vomit from Howard Stern’s private parts movie) put out a statement to the LA times that read the station will “take the same air time (we would have given to Rage) and use it to help an artist that’s a little more appreciative. There are plenty of other bands out there that love the radio station and appreciate what it has done for new music.”

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