Tim Commerford is an American musician best known for his work with the rock band Rage Against the Machine and the supergroups Audioslave and Prophets of Rage. He has also been the lead singer and bassist for the bands Future User and Wakrat since 2013 and 2015. But do you know how secretive Tim Commerford is about his base tone?
Tim Commerford is very private about his bass tone. He even goes so far as to put effects he doesn’t use on his pedalboard, build his gear, and remove the labels from some of his effects.
Who is Tim Commerford?
Tim Commerford, bassist and backup vocalist, was born in 1968 in Irvine, California, as the youngest of five children. His father was an aerospace engineer, and his mother was a math teacher. According to Stage Fighters, Commerford’s mother was diagnosed with brain cancer when he was seven years old, an early and devastating blow. By the third grade, Commerford’s mother could no longer help or even understand his homework. While Commerford’s father remarried, she left to seek treatment and stay with her sister in Sacramento.
Commerford had a strained relationship with his family, especially with his father. As mentioned in Know Your Enemy, he occasionally yelled at or bullied other children. Fortunately, he became friends with Zack de la Rocha in high school. Zack introduced Tim to the bass guitar, which inspired him to find healthier outlets in poetry and music.
Following the dissolution of the band Lock Up, which featured guitarist Tom Morello, Commerford, and Zack de la Rocha was encouraged by the band’s drummer, Jon Knox, to jam with Tom Morello. Tom quickly called Brad Wilk, who had auditioned unsuccessfully for Lock Up.
Rage Against the Machine was formed from this lineup. After spending time in L.A., Rage Against the Machine signed a record deal with Epic Records in 1992 after performing on the club circuit. The band’s self-titled debut was released the same year. They had tremendous mainstream success and released three more studio albums. (Source: Grunge)
The Misunderstood Rage
Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Clear Channel issued a memo containing a lengthy list of music deemed lyrically questionable for radio play. According to The Austin Chronicle, every song by Rage Against the Machine was listed.
RATM stunned the music world with its first reunion performance at Coachella in 2007. According to MTV, Zack de la Rocha was quiet between songs until he was asked about the Bush administration. In a passionate aside during Wake Up, the singer declared, Our current administration needs to be tried, hanged, and shot. We need to treat them like the war criminals they are. Of course, this sparked a backlash, which was twisted into a national-scale rage by Fox News, which claimed that the band wanted the president assassinated, as reported by NME.
From de la Rocha’s point of view, this was not the case: he distinguished between being tried for war crimes and being assassinated, but given his and his band’s history of making bold and controversial statements in direct opposition to the country’s power structures, it’s no surprise that nuance was overlooked. (Source: Grunge)
Image from Loudersound