Tom Morello on Killing In The Name surpassing one billion streams: “Righteous proof that rebel music and irony are alive and well”

Rage Against The Machine’s classic Killing In The Name has surpassed a whopping one billion streams on Spotify.

The 1992 rager – taken from the band’s legendary self-titled debut album – hit the milestone this month, with Tom Morello taking to X/Twitter to celebrate.

“KILLING IN THE NAME just hit 1 billion streams on Spotify!” he wrote. “Thanks to all those who listened to it: those who love it, those who hate it, and those that have enjoyed it without understanding it. Righteous proof that rebel music and irony are alive and well.”

In a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone, Tom said the iconic line, ‘Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me,’ was a “universal sentiment”. “While it’s a simple lyric, I think it’s one of [Zack de la Rocha’s, singer] most brilliant,” he enthused. “And to me, it relates to [19th century U.S. abolitionist] Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass said that the moment he became free was not the moment that he was physically loosed from his bonds. It was the moment when master said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘No.’ And that’s the essence of ‘Fuck you, I will not do what you tell me.’ And that’s why it’s encouraging to hear it shouted at the Fed goons who are shooting tear gas at American citizens.”

In the same discussion, Tom also revealed that the track “was originally an instrumental. There’s a Rage Against The Machine video from Cal State Northridge – which is our first public performance – where we open the show with an instrumental version of Killing In The Name and Timmy [Commerford, bass], I think, came up with hat really cool [bass riff]. [Brad Wilk’s] crowd-bouncing beat is there from the very, very beginning.

“And then Zack laced it with the historic lyrics. We actually left the lyrics off of the lyric sheet of the first record, because it’s I think it’s two lines, 16 ‘fuck yous,’ and one ‘motherfucker.’ And we’re like, in the midst of all this grand political poetry, let’s just that one stand for itself.”

In 2021, the band released a short documentary in collaboration with The Ummah Chroma in which they examined the history behind Killing In The Name and “the fiction known as whiteness”, which you can still watch below.

Of course, the shame is, we’ll probably never get to hear Rage playing this song – or any other – live again.

This time last year, drummer Brad Wilk announced: “I know a lot of people are waiting for us to announce new tour dates for all the cancelled RATM shows. I don’t want to string people or myself along further. So while there has been some communication that this may be happening in the future… I want to let you know that RATM (Tim, Zack, Tom and I) will not be touring or playing live again. I’m sorry for those of you who have been waiting for this to happen. I really wish it was…”

Read this: Tom Morello: My life in 10 songs