Confirmed: Rage Against the Machine to headline Coachella 2020
Rage Against the Machine will reunite to headline the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April, an industry source confirmed to The Desert Sun, part of the Paste BN network.
Fans started freaking out this morning after an unverified Instagram account @rageagainstthemachine posted a series of 2020 tour dates including El Paso, Texas; Las Cruces, New Mexico and Phoenix, Ariz.
The last two dates on the list are April 10 and April 17, both in Indio, California. This lines up with the two weekends of the 2020 Coachella music festival, which takes place at the Empire Polo Club.
Additionally, Wayne Kamemoto, a longtime associate of the band told Forbes "the band's social media is accurate."
The Desert Sun reached out to festival producer Goldenvoice for confirmation.
Rage Against the Machine has not performed since 2011, according to the band's official website. The group, which formed in 1991, played the first Coachella festival in 1999. On that hot October weekend, festival founders Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen presented the band alongside Beck, the Chemical Brothers and Moby — hoping to attract the 70,000 people they needed to turn a profit with just $50 daily admission fees. Unfortunately, only 37,000 people showed up.
“The first Coachella, watching Rage Against the Machine was crazy,” Winona McCallum told The Desert Sun. “I could feel the heat coming off the people in the mosh pit."
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Eventually, the promoters sold their homes and cars to save their company, and Coachella had to go dark for a year before Goldenvoice could re-create the festival.
After a nearly seven-year hiatus, the band reunited to play Coachella again in 2007, the first time the festival expanded to three days. Bonfires literally broke out throughout the massive closing night audience. Frontman Zack de la Rocha railed that the George W. Bush administration should be dealt with "as any war criminal should be."
The group also comprises bassist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Kristin Scharkey is features editor at The Desert Sun and editor of DESERT magazine. Reach her at kristin.scharkey@desertsun.com or on Twitter @kscharkey. Previous reporting by Bruce Fessier was used in this story.