Rage Against the Machine drummer says band 'will not be touring or playing live again'
FILE - Rage Against The Machine: Zack De La Rocha, Brad Wilk, Tim Commerford, and Tom Morello, in Brussels, Belgium, on June 2, 1993. (Photo by Gie Knaeps/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES - Rage Against the Machine has called it quits again, according to the rock band’s drummer Brad Wilk.
Wilk, who co-founded the band with guitarist Tom Morello, vocalist Zack de la Rocha, and bassist/backing vocalist Tim Commerford in 1991, addressed a series of canceled 2022 tour dates this week.
"I know a lot of people are waiting for us to announce new tour dates for all the canceled RATM shows," Wilk, 55, wrote in an Instagram post. "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," Wilk continued in the post.
He concluded: "I’m sorry for those of you who have been waiting for this to happen. I really wish it was…"
Rage Against the Machine is known for its distinctive rock sound mixing heavy metal with hip-hop, punk and funk sounds and incendiary lyrics touching on issues of politics, class, and race.
The band has disbanded before. In 2000, De la Rocha released a statement that he was leaving because "our decision-making process has completely failed" and "no longer meeting the aspirations of all four of us collectively as a band."
The remaining three Rage members, Morello, Wilk, and Commerford, later formed Audioslave with Soundgarden lead singer Chris Cornell.
Audioslave disbanded in 2007, and Rage reunited that same year to headline Coachella and toured on-and-off until 2011. The band later announced a series of 2020 reunion dates, called the Public Service Announcement tour, which was ultimately postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The postponed tour later launched in the summer of 2022, but De la Rocha injured his Achilles tendon, and many of the remaining dates on the tour were canceled indefinitely.
Just last year, Rage Against the Machine was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with Morello the only member present to accept the honor.
Morello noted that the band has "differing opinions on a lot of things, including being inducted," according to Variety.
This story was reported from Cincinnati.