Interview2

NoName: For Rage fans it's been an emotional past few months, and I'm sure for the band members as well. And I'm very very very glad and proud to welcome Tim to the Live 105 studios. What's up bro?

TimCommerford: How you doing?

NN: Let's check that mic, you gotta talk right into it man,

TC: Okay I'll get up on it

NN: I know it looks like a professional radio station, but it's, it's semi budget. You have to forgive us. But welcome to Live 105.

TC: Thanks

NN: I know you had some trouble getting here man.

TC: Yeah, I've been en route for a couple days now. I had to try to go 5 hours. I could have gotten in my car and driven here and back by now.

NN: Well, I can't begin to tell you how glad we are to have you here. It has been an emotional few months for all the Rage fans, me included. Hopefully tonight you can set aside some myths and some rumors, and give us a look at the future as far as what Rage is doing, and what you're doing personally.

TC: Right on.

NN: But uh, first off man, congratulations on the Grammy!

TC: Thanks

NN: Is that something you're excited about?

TC: Yeah, you know, it's cool to go there and pick up the trophy. It was um, We've been there 6 times now, and we've won twice, so we're like batting 333. And I feel like if we had lost both of these, it would have been bad. It would have been like one for six and that wouldn't have been good. So it was cool for me to go there, win, and split you know. I didn't stick around for anything. I couldn't do the hoopla, I just wasn't into it.

NN: I think, uh, you are the only band in history to ever win a Grammy and break it on the same night..

TC: *laughs*

NN: Now was that something intentional, is that like a message, a symbolic message.

TC: umm...That's just, you know. I'm always looking for some way to just like, throw a wrench in, you know. I have one of those at home and sometimes I forget I have it, it's a nice bookend, you know. And I take it apart, it comes apart.

NN: Oh, it comes apart, okay.

TC: So it's like one of those things. I took it apart and then some guy goes "don't strip the threads" you know.

NN: Cause I heard you actually broke it over your head or something man. You were getting crazy backstage.

TC: Yeah that's what happened. I actually smashed it over my head. *laughs*

NN: *laughs* He's all, "see this scar man" *Laughing*

NN: I was actually surprised they let you in there man, I thought there was going to be ban for, uh, Tim for Rage Against The Machine banned from all awards shows after what happened at MTV. They didn't have any, like, handcuffs on the seats or anything for ya?

TC: um, you know what no, but before that show kicked off, I got in contact with the anarchist group the 'Ruckus Society" and I was like, all about giving my Grammy tickets to, me and my girlfriend were gunna give our tickets to the 'Ruckus Society' and let them kinda steal the show.

NN: Raise some hell?

TC: So I got a call back and then I called back three times and didn't make the connection. It's kinda hard to hook up with anarchists, you know? I was ready to just burn that joint down. *Laughing*

NN: Seriously, one of the highlights, I don't watch TV that much, but one of the best things I have ever seen on TV is definitely the VMA, and for so many reasons. Perhaps the best was cause Fred Durst didn't even know who you were. It's like HELLO?! *Laughing*

NN: Now I heard you actually got arrested and spent the night in jail. It was definitely a, uh, I feel like jail is a learning experience for me. I've been to jail in a few different cities and every time I go I always learn something new, and meet some cool people. And I was there in New York, and I met some nice people in jail. And the cops were actually, with the acceptation of a couple cops they were pretty cool.

NN: You were in a room with Big Pete so that had to help, man.

TC: Big Pete had my back. *Laughing*

NN: But they treated you well in lockdown then.

TC: Uh, yeah that actually kept me in the woman's cell. *Laughing*

NN: You don't gotta say that man. He's like "yeah, I spent some time in NYC man, you know I'm hardcore. I did my time, I did it in the woman's side though."

NN: I heard that's how you lost your tooth, dude, is that true?

TC: uh, no. My tooth got knocked out mountain biking, but uh, you know I wish I could say it got knocked out in the melee. But the melee is definitely where I'm at.

NN: Yeah, the melee is definitely where' it's at. And that's why I'm excited that you're here, because anything could happen tonight. Just please don't, no physical violence to the lame DJ *laughing*

NN: He promises...But let's see, it's been about four months since Zack left Rage Against The Machine, and in that time, I would say that the Rage rumor mill and the rumor mill in general -I've never seen more rumors and more things go completely crazy in the last 4 months. Basically the world's waiting to find out if someone's going to step up and grab the mic for Rage Against The Machine. Theses are some of the names that I've heard, and uh, I want you to either say possible, dispel, myth, rumor. Uh, B-Real of Cypress Hill.

TC: I mean, I...he's someone that we've jammed with recently and we've known him for years an he's a great MC. So we jumped at the opportunity to see if there's any chemistry between us and him. And it may be something that we will do at some point in the future. But I don't think that he would be the right singer for Rage Against The Machine.

NN: He wouldn't be the man...okay how about Method Man?

TC: We've never hooked up with Method Man, but I would love to hook up with him, and that would be a great combo right there.

NN: Okay, uh, Eddie Vedder

TC: Um...we'd have to skip that one.

*laughing*

TC: I'm down with Pearl Jam, but they're fine the way they are.

NN: Well I thought that was the weirdest rumor that I've heard because Pearl Jam is still a very active band, so I was like I can't imagine that.

TC: One thing I gotta say about B-Real too, B-Real is a punk rocker, because he's like, in a band right now. I forgot the name of the band.

NN: It's a side project.

TC: Yeah, but it's with a friend of mine, Christian from Fear Factory. And it's just the most insane metal, hardcore metal that you could imagine. And B-Real was like, frontin' it. And it's kinda cool..that takes some nuts, to get out there and scream.

NN: Kind of like body count of the..

TC: Kind of, it's kinda like that.

NN: Of the new millenium!

TC: yeah, get ready for B-Real

NN: And of course Chris Cornell, I know it has been confirmed that you guys have been jamming, writing actually new songs.

TC: yeah

NN: So, what about Chris Cornell

TC: Well, I mean, since we've been a band since 1990, we would write riffs, and a lot of time, most times, we'll name the songs by the riff, you know the riff will remind us of a lot of band's riffs or something like that. So we have a lot of songs that were called 'Sound Garden riff A' or something like that, before we get a name. And they've been a huge influence on us and Chris Cornell especially. And it's like, before Rage, there was the Seattle Grunge movement. And they are arguably the trail blazers of that whole movement. And it's just like, he's the same age, sold the same amount of records, excited to jam, he want's to play the heaviest music ever, and we're all kind of like wanting to make; be Zeppelin, you know?

NN: "Hi, I'm Chris Cornell, I want to play the heaviest music ever. Uh, I need a backup band. Hmmm. *laughing*

TC: It worked out!

NN: Yeah I think you guys would fit the bill.

TC: The stars align

NN: I mean, are you guys writing whole new songs? Is this something that may or may not see the light of day? What is you're feeling on that?

TC: Well, it's like one of those things where chemistry is such a key thing. We got together four days. One day we got to know each other, and then three days we decided to write songs. And we wrote 3 songs, and so..you can't ask for a better track record than that.

NN: What was it like meeting Chris Cornell, have you known him before or were you just like, "dude, you're Chris Cornell."

TC: My ear is still ringing on the right side form the PA system. I mean, it's weird..he's got some lungs on him that's for sure. I don't know it's...I'm a big fan, I've met him a couple times and have always been taken back by him. He's just, he's legendary. I'm psyched man.

NN: yeah, that's exciting. I just wonder if you guys are like "woah, you're Chris Cornell!" and he's like "woah you're Rage Against The Machine!"

TC: It is like that, man. It is, I look over and there he is, and I just start laughing.

NN: Is that something that you could see him singing for Rage or would that be like a new project.

TC: He's definitely not going to be singing for Rage Against The Machine. And..the music that we're making with him is incredible, and it will be something, but it's not going to be Rage Against The Machine. But that's not to say that we're not going to find the perfect person for Rage some day..

NN: I mean, I definitely have some...you know Denis from Refused and the International Lawyer Conspiracy?

TC: No

NN: I'll play it to you when we get off the air. They're anarchists, I mean they're...that's one of things I wanted to ask you. What kind of things are you looking for. Is it important that the political philosophies of the new lead singer kind of, you know...are cohesive with the rest of the band? Is that like a priority, you know? Like if I was going to apply, would I have to say you know, like hey...?

TC: You just have to be ready to make the heaviest music known to man, you know. That's where we're at, and that's where we've always been. We write our music first, and we get moved by the music before there's any music on it, and then we put the lyrics on it the past, and so right now it's like and exciting time to get together, and we've been working with Chris and so it's like we're all in the studio in there with a vocalist and a lot of times Zack wasn't in the studio when we would write music. So it's exciting to have somebody that's listening to a sound that Tom's making on the guitar, and coming up with melodies�someone besides me. Cause in the past it's just been the bass, you know. That's a lot. *laughs* I'm psyched to let someone else step up.

NN: You're like, "yeah he's got good ideas man!" That's excellent. I was going to ask you that too, has anyone in the band thought of singing the songs and I mean, the first thing I thought would be cool, cause the idea of replacing Zack and the changing of the chemistry of what Rage has become, you know it's hard to think of something. One of the things I thought would be cool was if you guys just came out, played shows Rage Against The Machine and just punk rocked past the mic. You know fan gets on stage, "what do you want to hear dude"? Boom busts it out and just sings with tbe band. That gives a special...

TC: Could be good..could be a headache tough..

NN: Tim's all "nah dude, you've seen our fans, you've seen our shows"

TC: There's been a couple times where I think of fans that have gotten hold of the mic in the past and it's pretty terrifying.

NN: It's always scary what comes out of their mouths cause it's like dude, those aren't the lyrics. They're making up their own lyrics, you're like "no..what's wrong with you man!" So you guys aren't necessarily looking for a Zack 2 or anything like that, you're laying a new foundation of Rage Against The Machine, and when the vocalist apears, that will be that.

TC: Well see that's the thing, I don't know that we're actively searching for a singer for Rage, we, the three of us, are actively searching for a band. We want to rock and we want to pick up the slack where we've been dropping the ball in the past and it's like Rage Against The Machine is..we've got a lot to say and we're totally a great band but there are areas when I look back in the history of the band and say "hey man, we didn't do good" and for example we had a tour with the beasties and there was 350,000 kids that got..

NN: dicked.

TC: Yeah, that got dicked

NN: You had two shows at the Filmore bro!

TC: Yeah kids got dicked, you know, and I'm not down with that. And so that's where we've been dropping the ball. You look at our touring throughout the life of Rage Against The Machine..it's pathetic, you know.we've played half the amount of shows that some bands played in one year, you know. So I feel like, whatever we're going to do, it's going to be something that we're going to take out on the road before we record, we're going to do good, we're going to enjoy all the things that maybe we took for granted. And just rivet people with some serious music.

NN: Some serious loudness! If you guys could sense the energy from Tim and the excitement, it's infectious man, I wish I had my drum set here so we could just jam out a little bit.

TC: I got my bass man, I'm ready!

NN: You should go get it man, let's really freak everyone out! It is weird though, a lot of people don't understand like you were saying you know there are a lot of things that you as a band member weren't satisfied with Rage Against The Machine. As a fan to hear that it's hard to even imagine. And it's really hard for people all of a sudden on day in October Zack quits the band and they hear the news. It's hard for people to realize that inner things happen. What is your take on exactly what happened with Zack.

TC: Well like I said I mean, we've had a hard time in the past agreeing with things and some of those things are tours that 350,000 go out and buy tickets for. And tours that we go out on the radio and promise homeless shelters around the country that we're going to give them $2 every ticket. Tours that our 20 crew members timed their lives around, their families and their children, you know. And tour guys don't just pick up work the next day, you know. They have to plan out their year. It's funny, cause this to me is what humiliation is all about. I'm humiliated by that. I was humiliated when I had to look at one of the crew guy's in the eyes, he's about to cry telling me that he's not gunna be able to maybe afford the baby that's on the way. And that's where we're at. And there's kind of been 10 years of that. Ten years of getting excited about something and then having the rug pulled out from underneath you, you know.

NN: Because of someone's other obligations or whatever.

TC: Yeah, because that's part of being in a band, and things finally got to the point were Zack wanted to go do a solo project and we wanted to go on tour and promote Rage Against The Machine and that's why I'm here right now. Cause ideally I'd be on tour right now. We're only halfway into probably one of the best records we've ever made.

NN: For sure.

TC: And I want to be out on the road and I'm not able to do that. And finally for the first time we quit taking it in the ass, you know. And we started saying, you know we have a great record, we're a great band, we're just wasting our careers and our lives not playing and we need to get out there and play.

NN: Well I also think as a Rage fan it's...I mean I remember in the mid-90s there was rumors of you guys breaking up, and something about...I don't know if this is true but you guys all lived in a house in Atlanta or something.

TC: We went out, it was after our first record..everytime a band has success and sells a million record it messes up your head, and we were no exception, and we couldn't really get together and write music and so somebody at the record label Michael Goldson had the idea to send us to Atlanta and put us up in this house and in like Buckhead in this really ritzy area in Atlanta, and see if we could work it out. And we wrote like 3 songs and they kinda sucked, and we fought a lot. We watched this videotape we got of this one guy shooting himself in the mouth, and some guy gave us this video of just people dying and weird stuff, and we watched that. I'm just thinking of what sticks out in my mind.

NN: Sounds like a pretty fascinating kind of boot camp.

TC: Get this though, we bombed out landlord. We rented this house. And we had a refrigerator that never came, it was like 2 weeks late. We were there for a month and it came like three weeks into it or something. And it stopped working a week later after we had called a million times like "where's our refrigerator?" And all of a sudden it stops working and we call the guy up "come please bring us a new refrigerator" he never brings it. So we put it out on the front porch�he never brings the refrigerator. Eventually we kick it off the porch and it's like broken in the grass of this nice neighborhood. He never comes and gets it. Finally, one day we're in our house and this guy Clay that had this studio that we were rehearsing in and he was sneaking around the backyard of the house. And we're like "what the hell is going on?" And he had M-80s with cigarettes on the fuses and he was like putting them on the windowsills of our house trying to scare us. And we caught him and we're like, "wait, we know someone who could use these." And we looked up our landlord in the phonebook and we went to his house and just bombed him man. I'm serious we put those things on every window and then drove off an waited and the explosions were just echoing through Buckhead. *laughing*

NN: I can just imagine the neighbors "hey what's up with that fridge?" "Oh it's those, that Mr. Rage Against The Machine, I don't know.." That's classic stuff man. I remember hearing those rumors and how you guys would get in physical fights and so I think it's just important for the fans of the band to understand that there are a lot of things that go on personally in between bands that sometimes as a fan you can't even fathom. It's like a family in there.

TC: it's hard to imagine something as cool as Rage Against The Machine or being in something as cool as this and not maybe, having a great experience, but it is conceivable that you can do something as amazing as this and look back at this and say "man I wish I would have done it differently", you know? And that's just kind of where I'm at right now.

NN: Well, despite all the turmoil, I mean the band has been amazingly, I repeat amazingly active. It's NoName here with Tim from Rage Against The Machine. Uh, you guys, I mean I know Tom has been working with Crystal Method on the new Crystal Method CD you guys released a DVD, 'The Battle Of Mexico City.'

TC: yup

NN: Now is that available everywhere?

TC: I believe so, you're talking to the wrong guy, man. It's a dope DVD, I saw that.

*laughing*

NN: Tim's like "dude, I played their show, and I saw it"

TC: "I was there, it's killer, go buy it"

*laughing*

NN: I've also heard rumors that Tom's putting together like a home video kind of retrospective thing, is that true?

TC: I haven't heard anything about that, you know? Tom has definitely got a few tricks up his sleeve.

NN: That guy is like, everywhere!. That's why I was so glad you are here, I was like dude this is the guy that, people want to know more about you, you know, and I'm really stoked you're here. Do you have any other kind of side projects I know you're a big mountain biker, but outside of that?

TC: umm, I jam with this guy by the name of Adam Willard, he used to play drums for Rocket From the Crypt, you know? And he recently quit. And he and I mountain bike all the time. And we come back from rides and we jam. I was telling Amanda that we jam, and then for like the last year we've been jamming and we've been talking about like "dude, I hear Chris Cornell has a mountain bike. We need to hook it up. We need to go riding with Chris Cornell and then Jam!" And then now it's like tripping me out. The other day he called me up I'm like "dude, I'm on the other line with Chris Cornell right now."

NN: It all comes full circle. Good God. Also, let's see, I mean let's talk about...<<((had to flip the tape over))>>..

TC: the history of like, what inspired us to want to make social music, and rock people, and these are all amazing songs that we got together with Rick Rubin and said, hey, finally we have lyrics! Let's go on the Internet and download the lyrics. And then we can start writing the music. And so this is the first time that we ever knew that a verse was going to go 8 times and that the bridge section was going to go 4 times. You know what I'm saying?

NN: I hear ya.

TC: So we had like, our little outline in front of us.

NN: You're like "we know what we're doing man!"

TC: yeah, it was cool, though, it was really cool to take songs and just erase all the music and take the words and look at the words and let's right a new song now. And that's how we did it.

NN: It kind of sound like a Rage Against The Machine mix tape. What's like the biggest surprise on the CD? I think..I was pretty surprised you did the minor threat cover.

TC: That one was hard because we from the very first day that we started working on this record we played that song at the end of every rehearsal because we're not punk rock players, we don't play like that. And we all were kind of scared as far as me Tom and Brad. We're like "oh no" Like I didn't think Brad could do it, and he didn't think I could do it! He was like dude, I didn't think you could do it, and I was like yeah, well I didn't think you could do it. And so, we were in the same boat.

NN: Were there any covers that you guys wanted to do that you didn't put on the CD?

TC: Umm, yeah, there were some. There was like some 'Frankie Goes To Hollywood' songs, you know that I was thinking about, like "Two Tribes" would have been a cool song.

NN: Tim was busting all the 80's stuff, and the rest of the band's all "nah, dude, nah"

*laughing*

TC: A couple Carpenter songs..John Denver, Rocky Mountain High..

NN: That's for Renegades too, right?

TC: haha, yeah

NN: But, what was the process of picking out which songs you were going to put on the cd?

TC: We just made, like a...we just picked like 5 songs all of us including Rick Rubin, and we just narrowed them down to a couple songs each, and then worked them up. And that was it, once we had like 15 or 20 songs, that was it. And so we have a few extra songs and I can't even think about what they are now, but there are a few extra songs that we didn't put on the record. Oh, you know what there's a Rush track. We detuned working man into B, and then we did Ruthless Gansta, that Easy E track, you know "Ruthless gangsta definiton villian!" you know.

NN: Yeah, I know you guys have covered F the Police by NWA, so I thought that would be on there, but you know, it wasn't

TC: One day you'll get a chance to hear Ruthless Gangster over Working Man.

*laughing*

NN: See, there are things to look forward to in life!

TC: It's actually Ruthless Gangster over Working Man with a Wu-Tang beat underneath. It's pretty sweat.

NN: What is your favorite song on the new CD Renegades?

TC: I don't know...Renegades of Fuck is pretty sweet. That's one that I can't help but get excited every time I turn on the radio it's on, you know wherever I go. And that one was one that we did 28 takes, and we've never ever done that before. We've always done like maybe 4 takes of each song. And that one was 28 and well worth it, you know so..That one and Maggie's Farm. Maggie's Farm I didn't like when we did the music I thought it was monotonous. And then when the vocals got put on there I was like, "oh my god, this is sick." So every song, like, kind of surprised me in how good it is. I think it's a fun record, you know? It's great to listen to.

NN: Oh yeah, It definitely kinda came at the right time, you know what I mean?

TC: Fools need to get out and buy it thought! Hehe

NN: People are getting' it! Maybe it's cause people are downloading it. I know you guys had some problems with Napster, all the Rage fans got blocked and then they got unblocked.

TC: yeah..

NN: And now the future of Napster is, well we'll have to find out. Do you have any feelings about that? All the decisions just cam down this weekend.

TC: I'm not...I don't have any opinions about Napster, it's like I know if I was a kid, I would be downloading music, you know. And that's all I know.

NN: Well let's hear a couple of tracks off of the new CD Renegades if that's ok Tim, and then we'll come back and we'll talk some more.

TC: Sounds good

NN: Alright man, this is Renegades of Funk. They did this 28 times!

TC: yeah!

NN: 28 takes and this is the one that stuck.

TC: ah yeah

NN: It's Renegades of Funk, NoName with Tim from Rage Against The Machine on Live 105

<<((Plays Renegades Of Funk))>> <<((Ads))>>

NN: This is live 105 I'm here with Tim from Rage Against The Machine, and Tim, we are running out of time here, the Adam Corolla and Dr. Drew have to come save everyone's crotch in about 5 minutes so.

TC: ok

NN: You'll have to forgive the quick rap-up here. But I do want to thank you for coming by tonight. Definitely an honor and a privilege and I hope we have some peace to the Rage fans out there that maybe are feeling a little void.

TC: So do I, and this was cool, you know. And all I can say is just hopefully people will go out and get the Renegades album, check it out...it's filled with rock, punk.

NN: Filled with a variety of music, that Rage wants you to hear. And maybe it will open up a few doors for people who never heard of a Minor Threat

TC: Yeah, or..yeah, exactly. And maybe then they'll go out and get a Fugazi record.

NN: that;s right..Tim's all "dude I wanna hear some Fugazi, put on some Bad Brains. I'm all dude, we're running out of time! But he did pick one Rage Against The Machine song that he wants played for all the Bay Area Live 105 fans, and why don't you intro it man.

TC: uh...this is a song about a car...it's called Red Barcheta. Haha!

NN: haha It's Bullet In The Head, Rage Against The Machine. Tim thanks for stopping by, man. 'ppreciate it.

TC: All that NoName. Thank you.

NN: It's Live 105, Loveline is next after this song. Rage Against The Machine, 'Bullet In The Head;

<<(Plays Bullet In The Head))>>