Rage Against the Machine to Reunite in 2020, Headlining Coachella

Rage Against The Machine is reuniting for their first concerts in nine years. The group is [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Rage Against The Machine is reuniting for their first concerts in nine years. The group is planning a small three-date tour in the Southwest before headlining Coachella in April 2020. The specific venues for the pre-Coachella warm-up shows have not been announced yet.

A source close to Rage Against The Machine confirmed the brief reunion tour to Rolling Stone. The source also verified an Instagram page created in the band's name Sunday. The only post on the page so far is a photo of the protests in Chile, along with the list of dates.

The group's first show since July 2011 will take place on March 26, 2020 in El Paso, Texas. Two days later, they will play Las Cruces, New Mexico. They will also perform in Phoenix on March 30 before their headline shows in Coachella on April 10 and 17, 2020.

Coachella organizers Goldenvoice have not commented on the news. The group has a long history with the festival, as they headlined the first one in 1999 and reunited in 2007.

Guitarist Tom Morello shared the same photo from the Chilean protests on Oct. 27. "Chile is not messing around. USA NEXT?" Morello wrote.

Rage Against The Machine first broke in 2000, following the release of Renegades. They reunited for several one-off gigs throughout the 2000s, and last played at LA Rising in July 2011. Since then, Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk worked with Chuck D and Cypress Hill's B-Real to form the group Prophets of Rage. Morello also recorded with Bruce Springsteen, appearing on his Wrecking Ball and High Hopes albums. Commerford, Wilk and Morello also joined the late Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell to form the group Audioslave in 2001.

RATM frontman Zack de la Rocha has made rare appearances on other artists' songs. In 2008, he recorded the EP One Day as a Lion with The Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore. He also appeared on tracks by the hop hop duo Run The Jewels in 2014 and 2016.

RATM was nominated for the 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class. The group released their first album in 1992 and three more followed before their break up.

"It would be funny to me if we got in there," Commerford told Rolling Stone in 2015 when asked about a possible Rock Hall induction. "I don't know that I would go because I look at that as, if you take part in that, you're admitting that you're no longer relevant. You're saying, 'OK, I'm done. Look, I made it.'"

Commerford later added, "If Rage gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it'll be interesting to see who shows up. I think it's pretty obvious. I think there's somebody who's going to show up and somebody who's not going to show up and maybe somebody who's going to show up with an enema filled with food coloring and s– all over the red carpet."

Photo credit: Gie Knaeps/Getty Images

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