The Untold Truth Of Zack De La Rocha

Publish date: 2024-05-03

If you're among Rage's older fans, you'll remember the most confounding and controversial moment in the band's early history: their, er, performance at Lollapalooza in 1993. The band was slotted in for a brief 15-minute set, but there was a slight problem with Zack De La Rocha's voice. That is to say, it totally failed to show up after the previous evening's concert in Rhode Island.

Faced with either canceling the gig or finding a replacement singer on short notice, the band went with an unlikely third option. This was, you see, during the time when the government body known as the PMRC, or Parents' Music Resource Center, was cracking down on explicit lyrics as part of their ongoing war on music. Rage was unsurprisingly not in favor of their activities, and since De La Rocha couldn't voice his displeasure, the band decided to demonstrate it visually by taking the stage with their mouths duct taped, stark naked, with the letters "PMRC" painted on their chests, for the duration of their time (via Vice). Speaking to the press after the fact, guitarist Tom Morello explained, "The performance that day was more, um, performance art than a rock concert. The point we were hoping to make was that you can't take it for granted that you'll be able to hear music that challenges the status quo. People are trying to rob you of those First Amendment rights."

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