Amid some level of public backlash over ticket prices for their 2020 tour, rock band Rage Against the Machine has issued a statement assuring their dedicated followers that their wealth will trickle down to fans over time.
The statement, written by guitarist Tom Morello and undersigned by other band members and corporate record executives, was issued in response to fans who said that RATM tickets — which commonly were priced upwards of $125 — signaled the band’s “greed”. The backlash mostly centered around pro-socialist rhetoric that the band has used in in it’s lyrical messaging. As some fans pointed out on social media, many of the people most inspired by the band and most supportive of their political stances couldn’t hope to afford tickets in that price range.
“We know that our price tag has upset some of our followers of the lazy and/or poorly educated persuasion, but fans can trust that our wealth will trickle back to fans over time,” the statement read. “Rest assured, we are actively donating money to different groups in each city, some of which will certainly benefit those who have $125-$600 to invest into 90 minutes of entertainment. It is important to us that some amount of our rapidly growing wealth trickles back to the fans.”
“Despite lyrics of a political persuasion, we are confined by the framework of a capital economy and engaged in the capital business of music and entertainment and deserve commensurate market value for our service,” the statement continued. “The fact that these shows will sell out and we’ll get to play our set to tens of thousands of suburban white kids and Gen-X concert-goers is proof that the market has no problem bearing our price tag, regardless of the emotions or financial standing of certain economically illiterate fans.”
“Either you like us or you don’t,” Morello’s statement concluded. “Those who love us will invest the extra hours shoveling ditches or picking fruit to pay the price to come out and hear us play, and even more-so if they’re waiting to pay scalper’s prices. For the rest? We guess you don’t love us enough, and that you’re perfectly content to hear some heavily-edited form of our music on the local rock station while staring longingly at .jpg images of us on the internet. That’s up to any fan to decide on his or her own.”
Brown Valley Observer 