Rage Against The Machine 'supergroup' officially announced

The purported 'supergroup' dubbed Prophets of Rage and featuring members of Rage Against The Machine, Public Enemy, and B-Real has now officially been announced. The band's first show will take place tonight (Tuesday, May 31) at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California, with more summer gigs in the works.

Talking to Rolling Stone, guitarist Tom Morello described how the project originally came to be:

"It all happened pretty organically. We've been friends for a long time. It's not like we went on YouTube and auditioned someone who could do a convincing version of "Bullet In The Head." That wasn't it at all. We've been musical comrades for a very long time. We've had a tremendous amount of respect for each other musically and politically. They're my idols and friends. I called up Chuck D. I think I texted B."

"We're not a supergroup," says Morello adds. "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."

In addition to performing songs from each of the three groups involved -- including "Bulls On Parade" and "How I Could Just Kill A Man" -- Prophets Of Rage will be performing some of their own songs. According to drummer Brad Wilk, "We're doing some writing, but I don't want to give too much away."

As for Zack de la Rocha, the sole member of Rage Against The Machine who isn't participating, bass player Tim Commerford says, " I spoke to Zack and got his blessing, and that's really great."

You can read an extensive interview with all of those involved here.