Questlove’s new documentary, Ladies & Gentlemen...
50 Years of SNL Music does not just cover the most memorable musical performances in Saturday Night Live ’s history . A good chunk of it focuses on many of the series’ most infamous moments involving a musical guest, such as the time Rage Against the Machine got kicked off the show. I had previously heard about the influential rap-rock outfit’s one and only time performing on SNL on April 13, 1996.
Yet, I had no idea just how insane things got backstage at Studio 8H that night, before guitarist Tom Morello – who is no stranger to onstage violence – recalled it in full detail in the doc, which is now available to stream with a Peacock subscription . Learn all about the previously untold story below. Rage Against The Machine's Defiant Stunt Caused A Backstage Fight On the 17th episode of SNL ’s 21st season (also the first for beloved SNL cast member Will Ferrell ), musical guest Rage Against the Machine planned to protest the night’s host, entrepreneur and one-time conservative presidential hopeful Steve Forbes, by hanging American flags turned upside down from their amplifiers.
Of course, they were instructed not to during rehearsal, which only made the famously anti-authoritarian band more insistent on pulling the stunt and went as far as telling their roadies to keep SNL ’s stagehands from removing the flags. However, as a result, a vicious “scrum,” as Morello describes it, broke out between the roadies and the “burly” crew members, who literally wrestled the flags out of the roadies’ hands. They managed to remove them from the stage literally seconds before RATM began their performance of “Bulls on Parade” from the album, Evil Empire , which can be found on YouTube .
RATM's Bassist Retaliated Against Their Cancelled Second Number After the song, RATM was told that their second performance, which was supposed to be of “Bullet in the Head,” would be cut from the show to make up for time, which they were not convinced was the truth. The group’s bass player, Tim Commerford, decided to express his displeasure with another radical stunt. He grabbed one of the aforementioned American flags, crumbled it up into a knotted ball, and walked across the hall from their dressing room with the intent of throwing this makeshift “weapon” at the host.
He came to discover that Steve Forbes was not in his dressing room at this time but his family was. That is when things really started to go off the deep end. Secret Service Locked RATM In Their Room And Kicked Them Out Of 30 Rock Timmy C.
’s "attack" on Steve Forbes’ Studio 8H dressing room caught the attention of the Secret Service, which he and RATM probably should have seen coming, considering the host’s previous bid for presidential candidacy. Agents then swarmed the corridor, barricading the band in their dressing room while they dealt with the situation outside. CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News The group was then escorted out of 30 Rockefeller Center and literally placed on the sidewalk, explaining their absence from that night’s final goodbyes.
Still, Forbes had the courtesy to thank the musical guests, even after all the commotion, and Morello, as he reveals in Ladies & Gentlemen...
with a laugh, enjoyed the after-party. After attempting a defiant political statement in the vein of the late Sinéad O’Connor ripping the Pope’s picture on stage, Rage Against the Machine never returned to Studio 8H but, contrary to popular belief, they were never banned from SNL . In fact, executive producer Lorne Michaels confirms in Ladies & Gentlemen.
.. 50 Years of SNL Music that he is willing to invite anyone back, which means we might not have seen the last of RATM on the show after all.
Perhaps Michaels should be more selective about who they book as the host that night, though..
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The Story Behind Tom Morello Getting Kicked Off SNL Is The Craziest Thing I've Ever Heard, And The American Flag Is Involved
Rage Against the Machine lived up to their name that night.