Rage Against the Machine was formed in 1991 in the wake of the breakup of several bands. Guitarist Tom Morello had just left his band Lock up and was lookin for a new group. He first called drummer brad Wilk whom he had met while Brad had auditioned for Lock Up. Tom and Brad had an excellent playing chemistry together. The next step was a vocalist. One day Tom was at a club and whatching this band play(it might have been Inside Out) and their vocalist just amazed him. His rhymes, his anger, and his politics. His name was Zack de la Rocha, and when Tom read his lyrics he thought that he had almost founf a musical soulmate. So after Inside Out broke up Zack joined the band and recruited his high school friend Tim Commorford to play bass. The band got their name from one of Zack's old band's songs "Rage Against the Machine".

The band played their first gig in 1991 in the living room of one of Timmy C's friends. Shortly after the band recorded a twelve song demo which sold over 5000 copies at Rage's early live shows. The band made enough noise as to where they attracted they attention of many different record companies. But the band stayed away from the companies becuase they knew that the companies were greedy and just wanted sales. However eventually the band signed with Epic records. Tom Morello later siad that they signed with Epic becuase they supported the bands ideas more than the others. With that Rage began recording their first album with producer GGGarth. In November of 1992 the band released the first album "Rage Against the Machine".

The powerful deput album mixed emotionally charged hip hop vocals with guitar wizardry of Morello and the funky rhythm section of Tim C and Brad Wilk. It was hailed by critics everywhere and landed the band a spot on the '93 Lollapalooza tour where they stoof on stage naked at one performance with duct tape over their mouthes and the letters P M R C scrawled on each band members chest with the guitars feeding back for 15 minutes. The group also toured with Public Enemy and Cypruss Hill. When it came time to record their next album in 1994 tensions were running high with in the band. Things had happened so fast for the group that they had hardly got a chance to know each other before they began touring. The conflict between the band members very violent and its rumored that it even got physical at one point. Therefore the band was not able to accomplish anything musically and they broke up. However the break up was short and Rage reunited in the studio with producer Brendan O'brien.

In 1996 the band released the explosive follow up to their incredible debut entitled "Evil Empire". Evil Empire debuted at # 1 on the Billboard charts and earned them three grammy nominations for "Bull's on Parade", "People of the Sun", and "Tire Me". The group also was barred from playing on SNL after they hung upside down american flags on their amps. The band was even a success on MTV and began their relentless touring schedule again. When the touring was over however their still remained a lot of tension within the band. They recorded a single "The Ghost of Tom Joad" and released a music home video. But the band still was not at peace with one another. Zack took trips to Mexico where he helped to support tha Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico. The band then reunited in 1998 again with Brenden O'brien in the studio to record "No Shelter" for the Godzilla soundtrack. W

hen the rest of the band wanted to begin working on a new album Zack disagreed and went to Mexico again. The group than began working on the music of the new album. Zack returned to the band in time to play the Tibetan Freedom Concert and co-headlined the ill fated Woodstock '99. The recording process for Rage's third album continued. The new album took almost a year to complete. Zack spent a lot of time rewritignt his lyrics to get them perfect. But through this process the band emerged better, stronger, and closer. They began a massive promotional campaing for the new album, playing many promotional shows. Finally on November 2, 1999, Rage released their much anticipated third album the Battle of Los Angeles. The album went immideatly to # 1 on the charts and the began touring the United States.