When the Rage Against The Machine triggered the chaos to the SNL

The inventor of the Saturday Night Live, the 80 year old Lorne Michaelsonce said nobody was ever truly banned from his show, the only ones who went close to us were the Rage Against The Machine. We must return to April 1996, the band was a guest of the television program to present the second album, “Evil Empire”. He ended that the band of Tom Morello He sparked chaos both on air and in the backstage.

Morello himself tells it in the documentary that celebrates the 50 years of the transmission, ‘Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years ofSnl music ‘. Jokingly the New York guitarist stressed: “It can be seen that the Rage are not in the greetings of that show. However, I then went to Afterparty”.

The first wrong move The group made it before the airing of the program. So he says Tom Morello: “On the day of the tests, we had the American flags upside down, the navy rescue signal, on our amplifiers.

They asked us to remove the flags from the amplifiers, for two reasons: one, it would not have been good for the sponsors, and two, was present in transmission Steve Forbes (US politician exponent of the Republican Party, ed.), And that thing could create a strange atmosphere . We thought, ‘You invited the Rage Against The Machine, the band that fuck-noon-noisham-to-the-like and then you told him not to do that thing. Just to be clear, that’s what you are saying right now. Fantastic.'”.

On the evening of the show, the Rage’s Roadie had put the flags upside down, but received the order to remove them. “Our roadie we said something like, ‘to defend the perimeter’. 35 seconds were missing at the live. The stage manager sent the Insnl troupe. To snatch the flags from amplifiers seven seconds from the start of the transmission “.

But he ended up there. Morello always speaks: “It’s a rock performance. Let’s go back to the dressing room and there is tension. Our dressing room is right in front of that of Steve Forbes. Time passes. A representative of the SNL shows up at the door and says: ‘It seems That the show is going a little too long, we will cut your second piece ‘.

To the bassist of the Rage Tim Comerford This does not like it at all, then he snatched one of the flags and knotted it by making a ball. “We could call her a weapon. He entered Steve Forbes’ dressing room to attack him. Steve Forbes was not in his dressing room, but he was his family. So Timmy launches his ball rocket with the American flag against aunts, cousins, wives , Fortunately, children are not so solid and unroll, without hurting anyone “.

However, you cannot try to attack a politician, or his family, and then think of getting away. “The corridor was invaded by the secret services. We closed ourselves in our dressing room. They were protecting Steve Forbes and his family, then we were escorted out and left on the sidewalk”.