“Tom Morello waved at me”

Muse frontman and longtime Rage Against the Machine fan Matt Bellamy has described an experience at one of the band’s recent reunion shows in which his inner fanboy jumped out.

Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe during a recent interview about Muse’s new album, ‘Will of the People’, Bellamy discussed how seeing other bands play throughout their career had made them a better live act.

“We’ve learned from, in my opinion, the best. I’ve seen Rage Against the Machine 15 times. I just saw them twice this weekend,” he said. “It was unbelievable. I even got a look from Morello. I was very happy with that.”

He continued: He gave me a little wave and a look, because our seats were kind of just to the side of the stage. He was playing ‘Calm Like a Bomb, and I think he might know it’s my favourite song, and I was like, ‘Yeah!’ Just going through it. And he gave me a wave. I was like, ‘Tom Morello waved at me!’”

Earlier in the interview, Bellamy said he was “very influenced” by Rage Against the Machine – who played their “final” show in 2011 in Los Angeles with Muse on the bill – and had “learned a lot of different perspectives” through being a fan of the band. That discussion came while describing the direct political nature of Muse’s new album, which Bellamy has said was thematically “influenced by the increasing uncertainty and instability in the world”.

Bellamy elaborated on those themes in a recent NME cover story, saying that he believes the world is on the brink of a “disruptive transition”. He added: “Everyone’s doing everything they can to pretend that’s not going to happen or to try and maintain the status quo [but] the longer they hold on to this, the worse it’s going to be when it happens.

“If we can just make the transition a little bit more gradual, it might happen a bit less violently,” he said. “But it’s gonna be a big, big shift. You’re talking about an economic collapse, shift and reinvention, total energy transition.”

Elsewhere in the Apple Music interview, Bellamy discussed how Muse opening for Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Foo Fighters in their early years influenced the band to take a heavier approach to their performances.

“I do think that actually changed the way we played. I think that, it was shoegazey, indie, shy. And then after that, after seeing Flea doing his thing and the energy he puts out there, it was like, you know, ‘We need to up our game massively.’”

Bellamy also revealed he’s a longtime Lady Gaga fan, noting that he’d seen her in Washington D.C. back in 2007 playing to 500-people rooms. “Always from day one, I thought she was just an absolute phenomenon,” Bellamy said.

‘Will of the People’, Muse’s ninth studio album, arrives today (August 26), after having been previewed with singles ‘Won’t Stand Down’, ‘Compliance’, its title track and ‘Kill or Be Killed’.

In a four-star review of ‘Will of the People’, NME praised the band’s pointed approach to approaching modern political and social turmoil. “Throughout the album, it’s clear that Bellamy isn’t just wallowing in a state of heightened paranoia, instead channelling these modern anxieties into Muse’s best music in years,” it reads.

Meanwhile, Rage Against the Machine recently cancelled their scheduled 2022 UK and European tour. It came following “medical guidance” frontman Zack de la Rocha received after injuring his leg at the Chicago date of the band’s North American reunion run. The band were due to headline this year’s edition of Reading & Leeds Festival – organisers replacing the band with The 1975.

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