RATM Supergroup Revealed: 'We're An Elite Task Force Of Revolutionary Musicians'

With the mysterious countdown coming to an end yesterday morning, Prophets Of Rage are finally out in the open and ready to rock the system at a one-off LA show at the Whisky A Go Go.

As speculated, the supergroup consists of members of Rage Against The Machine (Tom Morello, Brad Wilk, Tim Commerford), Public Enemy (Chuck D and DJ Lord) and Cypress Hill's B-Real, and shares the name with the popular Public Enemy song, Prophets Of Rage.

Chatting to Rolling Stone in the band's first ever official interview, Morello explains, "We're not a supergroup. We're an elite task force of revolutionary musicians determined to confront this mountain of election year bullshit, and confront it head-on with Marshall stacks blazing."

Commerford confirms the political supergroup was Morello's idea: "He was the spearhead. When he gets his head wrapped around something it's like a mental python," while Chuck D says, "Tom talked to my wife first. She's very deep into the politics of Latinos, blacks, inequalities and stuff like that. They had a great conversation. For years I heard the rumor that Zack isn't going to perform with Rage Against Machine and they'll need someone to fill in. I talked to Tom and said, 'Sure.'"

B-Real told the magazine that Morello was inextricably driven by his desire to give people "a voice". "What he said to me was along the lines of, "The people need a voice right now. People need to hear these songs; a message." I was all about that.

"I'm not necessarily known for being in the political realm outside of [marijuana] legalization and whatnot. But I do have my beliefs. I think he valued that and decided to give me a call. I agreed that people need a voice right now. If we can serve that, I'm all for it."

Morello says, "It's my contention that we can no longer stand on the sidelines of history. Dangerous times demand dangerous songs. Both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are both constantly referred to in the media as raging against the machine. We've come back to remind everyone what raging against the machine really means."

In terms of the band's first LA show tonight (which has already sold out), Prophets Of Rage confirm that they'll be playing songs across all three bands' material with "a couple of Prophets Of Rage songs". 

"There's one new song called The Party Is Over which is an absolutely from-scratch collaboration of all of us. In my view, it's one of our best songs," says Morello.