Remember When: Rage Against the Machine Was Banned From ‘Saturday Night Live’ After the Flag Incident That Was Never Broadcast

Pairing a musical guest like Rage Against the Machine (RATM) and a Republican presidential candidate as the host of Saturday Night Live was a recipe for disaster. Always one of the most politically vocal bands, when RATM was invited to appear on the April 13, 1996 episode of SNL, they had something to say to the billionaire host Steve Forbes.

Just days before the release of the band’s second album Evil Empire, RATM was scheduled to perform “Bulls on Parade” from the album, and “Bullet in the Head.” Before the band was set to perform, their crew draped upside-down American flags on their amplifier grilles.

“The inverted flags represented our contention that American democracy is inverted when what passes for democracy is an electoral choice between two representatives of the privileged class,” said Tom Morello of the band’s appearance choice of stage design. “America’s expression is inverted when you’re free to say anything you want to say until it upsets a corporate sponsor. Finally, this was our way of expressing our opinion about the show’s host, Steve Forbes.”

When they were noticed, SNL producers and stagehands were told to remove the flags from the stage before the band’s performance. The band went ahead and performed “Bulls on Parade,” but as they waited in their dressing room before their second outing, they were asked by the show producer Marcie Klein—designer Calvin Klein’s daughter—to leave the building.

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“‘SNL’ censored Rage, period,” said Morello. “They could not have sucked up to the billionaire more. The thing that’s ironic is ‘SNL’ is supposedly this cutting-edge show, but they proved they’re bootlickers to their corporate masters when it comes down to it. They’re cowards.”

He continued, “It should come to no surprise that GE, which owns NBC, would find ‘Bullet’ [in the Head’] particularly offensive. GE is a major manufacturer of U.S. planes used to commit war crimes in the Gulf War, and bombs from those jets destroyed hydroelectric dams which killed thousands of civilians in Iraq.”(NBCUniversal is now owned by Comcast Corporation.)

Before the band left SNL that night, bassist Tim Commerford was so enraged that he tore up one of the flags and hurled it into Forbes’ dressing room.

“We knew that he was going to be making a statement,” said Morello in a 1996 interview with host Forbes. “It was going to be all about how charming to have a billionaire telling these jokes and promoting his flat tax, and we wanted to stand in sharp juxtaposition to that by making our own statement.”

Photo: Rage Against The Machine Press Shoot, London 01/01/1992 (Sony Music Archive via Getty Images/Mark Baker)