“No fan of any show in Rage Against the Machine history has ever had a vaccination requirement to be in the room.”
March 28, 2023 | 9:59 p.m. ET
Tom Morello has heard these Rage for the Machine jokes and isn’t laughing. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the Rage Against the Machine guitarist made it a point to clarify vaccination guidelines for the band’s recent reunion tour and also touched on ticket prices.
“There are a lot of ridiculous people who disapprove of Rage’s political stance who haven’t been on the shows that…just to be clear, never on any show in Rage Against the Machine history have fans had a vaccination requirement that.” Room. Always. People say that, and it’s just foolish,” Morello said.
Rage Against the Machine were originally scheduled to tour in 2020 but have pushed back their dates by two years due to the pandemic. The band never explained their own specific vaccination policy, but when they originally pushed back dates in 2022, several states still had vaccination mandates. However, by the time they took to the streets, every state had lifted its vaccination requirements.
Morello also resisted criticism of ticket prices for the band’s tour. “I think by this point everyone is familiar with the terrible idea of dynamic ticket pricing. There was this big riot with Springsteen and this and that. To reiterate, each ticket for the show was $125, except for about five to ten percent of the tickets where we dynamically ticketed and gave away every penny,” Morello explained.
“Every cent over $125 went to charities in these cities. In New York City, we raised over $1 million for activist charities. That tour raised about six or seven million total, which was basically a Robin Hood tactic. I wanted to say those things out loud because there was a lot of misinformation in the world about those two things.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Morello spoke about the uncertain future of Rage Against the Machine.
Photo Gallery – Rage Against the Machine at the United Center in Chicago (click to enlarge and scroll):