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Rage Against the Machine sends cease and desist letter to Nigel Farage
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Zack de la Rocha, singer of US rock band Rage Against he Machine performs on stage during the music festival 'Rock im Park' in Germany June 3, 2010. Rage Against the Machine has sent a cease and desist letter to British far-right politician Nigel Farage, ordering him to rename his 'Nigel Farage Against the Machine' podcast. (DPA/AFP/Daniel Karmann)
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merican metal band Rage Against the Machine has sent a cease and desist letter to British far-right politician Nigel Farage, ordering him to rename his “Nigel Farage Against the Machine” podcast.
Rage Against the Machine, known for its radical politics and incendiary anti-establishment lyrics, accused Farage of “unlawfully exploiting” the band’s name and logo without its prior knowledge or consent.
“As you should know, RATM has publicly denounced the type of right-wing ideology you espouse for decades,” the cease and desist letter reads as quoted by Pitchfork magazine. “Your anti-immigrant rhetoric, lack of social compassion and barely disguised racism and xenophobia are the antithesis of what RATM stands for.”
Farage is the leading campaigner for a British exit from the European Union, or Brexit, and his nationalist rhetoric has won him praise from United States President Donald Trump, who invited Farage to Trump Tower only days after his election victory in November 2016.
Read also: Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead vie for first time for Rock Hall of Fame
This is not the first time the American band has raged against a politician who professed to liking its music.
In 2012, guitarist Tom Morello, who graduated with a degree in political science from Harvard, lashed out against US House Speaker Paul Ryan, a conservative politician from Wisconsin, who claimed to like Rage Against the Machine’s music.
"Paul Ryan is the embodiment of the machine our music rages against," Morello said at the time.
Rage Against the Machine's second album Battle of Los Angeles, which went on to inspire the anti-WTO protest in Seattle in 1999, was considered one of metal's best records.
