Rage Against the Machine Cancel European Tour, Per “Medical Guidance” for Zack de la Rocha

The band’s three-night run at Madison Square Garden, starting tonight, will go ahead
Rage Against the Machines Zack de la Rocha
Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha, January 2008 (Martin Philbey/Redferns)

Rage Against the Machine have canceled the European leg of their reunion tour, but will go ahead with their three-night run at Madison Square Garden starting tonight. They wrote on social media that bandleader Zack de la Rocha had been instructed not to proceed with the intensive European run on the advice of his doctor. Canceled dates including headline shows at Reading and Leeds festivals. North American dates early next year are scheduled to go ahead.

Although the band did not specify the ailment, de la Rocha sustained a leg injury during a July 11 performance in Chicago. He concluded the set while seated on a monitor. The show ended with de la Rocha’s band mates embracing him before crew members carried him off stage. El-P, who is supporting the reunion tour with Killer Mike in Run the Jewels, tweeted this morning that de la Rocha “trooped through what for most people would be an immediate tour ending injury like a true warrior and i know him and the rage crew truly wanted to keep going as we certainly did.”

The band’s statement reads:

Per medical guidance, Zack de la Rocha has been advised that the August and September 2022 U.K. and European leg of the Rage Against the machine tour cannot proceed. It is with great disappointment that we announce this cancellation.

Rage Against the Machine will be finishing their run at Madison Square Garden on August 11, 12 & 14 and then Zack must return home for rest and rehabilitation. The flights, travel time, and rigorous schedule in the U.K. and Europe are simply too much of a risk for a complete recovery.

We are so sorry to all of our fans who have waited years to see us and hope to Rage again soon.

Please contact your point of purchase for refunds to any headline shows.

The tour has faced multiple delays since the band first announced dates in 2019. The pandemic pushed the tour from 2020 into 2021, then once more into 2022. This year, the start of the tour was pushed back again from March to July.