Rage Against the Machine’s frontman Tom Morello despises artists who refrain from spraying political commentary from the stage, saying they should be condemned to “an extra hot layer of hell.”
The self-styled socialist and Hollywood Hills resident – who has an estimated net worth of some $40 million thanks to the benevolent capitalist system which he professes to despise – used an interview with Katrin Riedl of Germany’s Metal Hammer magazine to deliver his sneering critique of artists who back away limelight: “When people say that musicians should not be involved in politics, it means they are people that disagree with your politics,” he shared, before continuing:
The second that you write a song that agrees with their politics, all of a sudden they’re all for it. So one, it’s very hypocritical, but two, I also think that, why should you give away your free speech rights in the job that you do? Because it offends someone?
I think that the converse is what is actually true, I think you do yourself and your times a disservice by censoring who you are in your world, not just musicians but in your work as a music journalist or in your work as a tour manager or a bus driver, you should not leave behind who you are and what you believe.
It didn’t end there.
The 62-year-old went on to deliver his hope for anyone who favors their art and entertainment over confronting an audience with politics, saying: “There’s an extra hot layer of hell for people in times of great injustice who censor themselves and remain quiet when they should have spoken out because they’re afraid of some internet troll.”
Morello has a long history of political commentary primarily aimed at anyone of dares to be right-of-center in their beliefs.
Ten years ago the Harvard-educated entertainer made wild suggestions pertaining to political activism.
In June 2016, he and fellow Rage Against the Machine members threatened to “cause a ruckus” at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, although the idea never came to pass.
That same month, Morello released a short video urging people not to support Donald Trump’s’ presidential campaign, comparing him to a “frat house rapist” and an “old-school segregationist.”
In June of 2018 he even suggested liberals should organize groups of children to be used to push in front of ICE agents to impede immigration law enforcement.