Zack de la Rocha came up with the name "Rage Against the Machine" before the band ever formed, while he was in a California hardcore band called "Inside Out". Inside Out had a song titled "Rage Against the Machine", that was also going to be the name of the band's second record. Instead, the band broke up and never released a second record. So when Zack met up with Tom Morello and formed a band, "Rage Against the Machine" seemed to be the most appropriate band name for the music and the ideas that were being put across. Tom Morello describes exactly what "machine" they are raging against: "The machine can be anything from the police in the streets in Los Angeles who can tear motorists from their car and beat them to a pulp and get away from it, to the overall international state capitalist machinery that tries to make you just a mindless cog, and not to think critically and never confront the system , and to just sortof "behave" and look forward to the next weekend and next six pack of beer." The music, known as the most popular crossover between "rock and rap", sprouted from Zack's interest in early hiphop outfits like Public Enemy, and KRS-One, as well as his hardcore roots. Tom Morello's appreciation for hard rock and punk like Black Sabbath and the Sex Pistols accounts for the band's hard-edged sound, while Tim Commerford's interest in jazz and Brad Wilk's unique hip-hop to punk oriented drum beats round out the band's sound.

(from http://www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/biographical.htm)

Zack De La Rocha-vocals (3rd on left)

Tom Morello-Guitar (1st on left)

Brad Wilk-Drums (2nd on left)

Tim Commerford-Bass (last on left)

Here's an intro to Bullet in the Head:

"This next song goes out to those who still believe that there is an american dream. And still believe that within that dream there is something called freedom. It is time to fucking wake up, and begin to truely think for ourselves, and find new sources of information... otherwise - things like what's happening in the persian gulf with continue. They will be able to make decisions for you, unless you fucking wake up, and take that vail of complacence from your eyes, and fucking begin to remove the bullet from your head."

Zapatista speech in Bullet in the Head at Tibetan Freedom Concert:

"Just for your personal attention, we would announce, and make very clear, that the U.S. government is starting another Vietnam in southern Mexico. We would like to make this very clear to you, because we believe, we strongly believe that the media in the U.S. is blocking it from your attention. What they're attempting to do, is prevent you, from getting involved here, to prevent the death of millions of indigenous people who took up arms, against the 65 year old dictatorship: the P.R.I. And at this moment in time, millions of indigenous people are being chased into the hillsides, by armies...fueled, and funded by the U.S. government. By the Clinton administration, by William Perry, and all them fuckin' pigs up in Washington. And we fell that it's important that we all know that and understand that, and that our action can stop it. So are you standin' in line? You believin' the lies? You bowin' down to this flag? You gotta bullet in your head?...."

Another view of Christmas, at the KROQ Acoustic X-mas show:

"When I say no more lies...I'm telling you that we're not hear to celebrate this lie that is Christmas. With images of Santa, this prosperous white man, bringing presents and good hope to the communities of our countries is a fat lie. And is one installed only to legitimize the falsehood which is white supremecy. So no more lies...no more lies..."

Zack's speaks out on Leonard Peltier before Bombtrack

"I'm talking about the American Indian Movement...when in 1977, afer a series of long struggles against the BIA - get the spotlight out of my fuckin' eye man...I'm I'm talking to people, and I can't even see 'em...in 1977, after a long series of struggles, the Oglala Sioux reservation was under attack by the FBI people who were involved in the movement there, involved in defending their culture, defending their freedom, were being taken away, were being kidnapped, were being murdered. And of one man, who happened to be one of the leaders of AIM, was thrown in jail. He has sat there for 17 years for crimes he did not commit. His name is Leonard Peltier. And this brotha's been in jail and served his people and has served true freedom and constitutional rights and is being denied his own. And I think it's a hypocrisy all of us need to expose in this country, so that if we wanna raise our voice, or our selves, here in America, and so that the same doesn't happen. We've got some pamphlets in the back, where we're selling some shirts. Please pick one up, and please send your name and your address so you can send it to - what's his name - that fuckin' dixie-crat Clinton - whoever that fuckin' punk is...let's fill this punk's room full a fuckin' mail. I know it's not the fuckin' most powerful form of fuckin' change. Let's get this fuckin' ball rollin'. This song is called boooooombtrack."

This one's from 02/02/93 in Stockholm at the Melody, before "Bullet In the Head":

"For hundreds of years America has sent people into the fuckin Middle East in the name of freedom, in the name of democracy and have murdered innocent women and children to rape, conquer and divide them of there resources. Today the situation still stands and people are still being murdered in the name of freedom. Wake up to your powers as an individual and speak out and act against fucking imperialistic actions like this."

This one's from a show in Philadelphia, PA at J.C. Dobbs, say's this during the "through counter intelligence" part in "Wake Up":

"I've got to expose hypocrisy in my own self. The conciousness of my own self, before I ever stand up and speak for other individuals who are trying to be the same.

"And there were men in this country who gave us the power to think critically again. There were men in this country who rose up and lifted there minds out of the choices and lifted there minds up and showed all of us that we are individuals who can use our mind and our spirit to fight a hypocritical and brutal system. ------------ used in spirit to speak to all of us regardless of color, regardless of up bringing, and regardless of class and showed us all that this is a country that for 500 years has murdered, and enslaved, and stolen our land, and kept us from seeing ourselves as who we truly are.

"When I began to read "X", I realized that I don't have to be ashamed of my brown skin. And when he became a threat to this system, they fuckin shot him. In the 70's where people like Dennis Banks, where people like Russell Means, where people like Leo Peltier stood up for there people in self defense of there people, in self defense of human rights, there lives were threatened. And Leo Peltier still rots in a jail cell to this very day for speaking out against those rights. Why do we sit so complacent? Why don't we fuckin act? Wake up."

Before "Without a Face" from Live and Rare:

It seems as soon as the wall of Germany fell, the US government was busy building one between the border between the US and Mexico. Since 1986 as result of a lot of the hate talk and hysteria that the the government of the United States has been speaking, 1500 bodies have been found on the border. We wrote this song in response to it. Its called Without a Face."

Philadelphia, PA at the Electric Factory, Mumia Benefit

"Check it out, check it out. Apparently just before this concert, there was some friends of ours in an organization called "The Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal". And somebody that came out here to pass out some information were sweated for wearing this very t-shirt right here (Zack points to his shirt and it has a picture of Mumia in cuffs and it say's "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal" underneath it). Now apparently it wasn't one of the promoters, and it wasn't some security guard, and I'm not going to make any assumptions but we're not nieve enough to think that there aren't members of the intelligence community right here in this fucking crowd who wanna prevent you from understanding why Mumia Abu-Jamal should be free. So let this be a message to you mister whoever the fuck you are and whoever they think they are. You're not going to intimidate us, and your not going to intimidate anyone in here from becoming a part of the movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal. Yes. So in the back over here there's a table setup, and any of you can go over there and pick up as much information as you want. You should really check that shit out. Please do."

The famous speech on 02/02/93 Stokholm at the Melody.

"We've got to regain knowledge again, and we've got to regain an understanding again, of who we are. Not just those chosen to fuel systems, but individuals who have the power to criticize and analyze, and attack injustice when it becomes prevalent and apparent in front of our faces like it is in ours right now. We've been all put to sleep. Put to sleep to a system. A system that continues to perpetrate ignorance amongst our spirit and amongst our minds. One that wants you not to act. A system that would rather see all of you at that bar drinking beer filling your minds being put to sleep with beer or with drugs rather than acting against it and fighting a system which has been perpetrating imperialist lies and other fucking bullshit for five hundred years. So fuckin drink up or fuckin wake up. Your part of the solution or your part of the fuckin problem. I am sick and tired of my own complacence in my life and I know I'm fuckin sick of yours. So wake up and stop fuckin sleeping. Wake Up."

Quotes

• "I've always been on a personal mission to save the guitar."
  
  - Tom Morello
• "We figured that since they weren't busy serving and protecting the community, which our tax dollars pay for, then they should at least be well fed.  So we sent them 300 Krispy Kreme donuts."
  
  - Tom Morello, on the 300 off-duty police officers that protested their show in Worcester, MA on November 30, 1999.
• "In my own way, I was a rebellious kid."
  
  - Tom Morello
• "I'm always excited about making music with Rage Against the Machine.  Honestly, I think we've just scratched the surface of what we can do creatively."
  
  - Tom Morello
• "I think we're way better than we've ever been, and there's no reason why the next record can't top even 'The Battle of Los Angeles'."
  
  - Tom Morello
• "That's part of the job!  There's a long, rich and savage history of dissidents in the United States being persecuted by law enforcement, so it's something we take for granted.  But the second that you find the police department and government agencies patting you on the back and telling you to 'keep up the good work', that's when you break up the band."
  
  - Tom Morello, on fearing for his safety because of his political  beliefs.
• "The music wouldn't exist without the politics.  When we're playing a show, if something clicks for any one kid in the audience - starting that change, that process of thinking for themselves - that's the most potent time Rage Against the Machine can have as a band."
  
  - Brad Wilk
• "As Zack would point out on stage, it's obvious that the Order weren't afraid of our band or our music.  They were afraid of our audience, that people might be listening.  That's why they tried to boycott Rage Against the Machine.  And their boycott was an abject failure."
  
  - Tom Morello, on the Fraternal Order of Police.
• "For the millennium [New Year's Eve], you really have a choice to make. You either have to be naked with your head on fire and a shotgun in Bali or else you have to spend time with friends or family around the fireplace. And I'm choosing option B"
  - Tom Morello
• "I am enormously proud to be an American. I would say that the things that our corporate-controlled government has done at best are shameful and at worst genocidal-but there's an incredible and a permanent culture of resistance in this country that I'm very proud to be a part of. It's not the tradition of slave-owningfounding fathers, it's the tradition of the Frederick Douglasses, the Underground Railroads, the Chief Josephs, the Joe Hills, and the Huey P. Newtons. There's so much to be proud of when you're American that's hidden from you. The incredible courage and bravery of the union organizers in the late 1800's and early 1900's-that's amazing. People of get tricked into going overseas and fighting Uncle Sam's Wall Street wars, but these are people who knew what they were fighting for here at home. I think that that's so much more courageous and brave."
  
  - Tom Morello
• "The only bad "f-word" is FCC."
  
  - Tom Morello on censorship
• "This is a very unlikely tour package to be playing in venues this size. You've got Wu-Tang Clan, like the least commercial, least radio friendly, most raw hip-hop group on the planet, who also, coincidentally, has the number one album, and then Rage Against The Machine, whose politics make Ralph Nader look like Ghengis Khan."
  
  - Tom Morello, on the Rage/Wu-Tang tour on MTV's Week in Rock
• "I just finished reading Noam Chomsky's (who visited Israel a couple of weeks ago) biography, and among books I've taken I got one specially for Israel. A book that will give me some Info and understanding of some of the places we'll visit. It's called the "Bible" (the old testament)."
  
  Tom responding to a question about books he reads on tour
• "They use force, to make you do, what the deciders, have decided you must do."
  
  Zack uses this quote from Black Panther member Eldridge Cleaver usually at the beginning of Killing in the Name. He'll repeat it like 5 times, and then the song starts.
• "It's been 20 years....they have no proof....and he's still in jail"
  
  Zack says this 4 or 5 times before Freedom every once and awhile. Freedom has sortof become the song for Leonard Peltier, that's why Zack says that before it...I've only heard it once though.
• "Things like rebellion and resistance to authority are absolutely as much a part of the human experience as love and cars are, and it's a part that doesn't get covered very much in pop music."
  
  Tom Morello in Alternative Press
• "A good song should make you wanna tap your foot and get with your girl. A great song should destroy cops and set fire to the suburbs. I'm only interested in writing great songs."
  
  Tom morello in Alternative Press
• "He has the nerve to call us violent when last year there were 80,000 cases of police brutality filed against departments all over the country this sheriff pig is poppin' off, poppin'off about how we're violent. Well, shit, he belongs to the most violent gang in US history."
  
  Zack referring to a Sheriff who tried to get the Rage concert banned.
• "The classroom's the last room to get the truth."
  
  Zack says this before Take the Power Back sometimes
• "This will be our final conduction of the afternoon..."
  
  Tom said this at their first show before playing the last song... I thought it was funny
• "Everybody have fun on inauguration day? It was fun. I like the fireworks my self. Nice."
  
  Zack talking about inauguration day...
• "Make some noise for Rage. That is the sickest thing I think I have ever seen here at MTV."
  
  Carson Daly, after a performance of "Guerrilla Radio" on Rage TV.
• "It’s nice to see kids going off to songs they haven’t heard yet."
  
  Brad Wilk on fan reaction to the new material.
• "It’s not at all the case where our audiences are empty glasses that we pour knowledge in. I think that Rage Against the Machine fans are for the most part pretty intelligent, and a lot of them are pretty pissed off and have got their own ideas."
  
  Tom Morello, explaining Rage’s relationship with the fans.
• "It’s a guitar!"
  
  Carson Daly, after Tom shows how he does the "Bulls On Parade" solo.
• "Of course, music is an art form, and it's not all that competitive. But we don't ever intend to be the second-best band on a stage at any show."
  
  Tom Morello

(FROM THE WEB SITE:http://www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/central.html)