By nu metal standards, Rage Against the Machine is ground zero.
While Tom Morello never identified as a nu metal guitarist, he thought that their music paved the way for rap rock.
Although he may have been proud in the beginning, the rest of the band weren’t prepared for Limp Bizkit.
In the early days, Fred Durst had mentioned being a huge fan of Rage saying,
“That was fucking huge for me. I came from the break dance and hip hop background, so to see this band that put a lot of hip hop into this heavy rock was really inspiring.”
Durst wasn’t the only one fawning over Rage either.
When DJ Lethal joined the band, he followed Morello’s lead saying,
“My stuff had to be musical. The way Tom Morello was an inspiration was the way he made other sounds with his guitar. I ran my turntable through a Marshall stack and they were like ‘THAT’S IT.”
Once Limp Bizkit’s brand of nu-metal crossed over, Rage were not impressed.
During Rage’s reunion, Tim Commerford thought Limp Bizkit were a passing fad saying,
“I do apologize for Limp Bizkit. I feel really bad that we inspired such bullshit. There’s only one left, and that’s Rage, and as far as I’m concerned, we’re the only one that matters.”
While Rage were supportive of the nu metal scene, Morello traces his distaste back to Woodstock ‘99 riots.
In the chaos, Morello mentioned everything great about the scene dying during the riots saying,
“This music started with the idea of making powerful music that had a message and a solidarity between band and crowd. And that show became a bunch of thugs assaulting women in the pit and burning the festival to the ground. I was just looking around thinking ‘Man, what have we done?.”
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