Tom Morello used his set at Download Festival 2026 to send a message to the British far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
- READ MORE: Tom Morello: “In the past, I’ve wanted to use music as a battering ram for social justice”
The Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave guitarist played on the Opus Stage at the Donington Park festival this weekend (June 14), and took the chance while playing for a big UK crowd to share his feelings about Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
Morello played a set of provocative, politically-fuelled songs, including ‘Killing In The Name’ and ‘Soldier In The Army Of Love’, as well as Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Mr. Crowley’ and John Lennon’s ‘Power To The People’.
For the show, he had written in large letters on the back of the body of his guitar, “FUCK TOMMY ROBINSON”, with the big screens picking up the message. Morello later reposted a photo of the image on his X account – see below.
RATM guitarist Tom Morello's message at Download Festival this weekend. pic.twitter.com/5oMTg9936K
— Antifa_Ultras (@ultras_antifaa) June 14, 2026
Morello is no stranger to picking fights with right wing British leaders – in 2018, Rage Against The Machine hit out at Nigel Farage, branding him a “pissweasel” for co-opting their name for his podcast ‘Farage Against The Machine’.
“This pissweasel IS the machine – peddling the sort of inane, blame-heavy bullshit that the guys in RATM have been raging against since day one,” the band said.
Later that year, Morello said: “I am open to accidentally giving Nigel a dry slap, if I encounter him on the tube. Though I doubt he rides the tube for fear of all the dry slaps he would receive.”
At a show supporting Muse in 2019, Morello continued his vendetta against Farage, and presaged his Robinson attack, by taping a sign to the back of his guitar that read “FUCK FARAGE”.
Morello is curating the Power To The People festival in October in Maryland, with Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Joan Baez and System of a Down’s Serj Tankian all set to perform. It is described as “a non-partisan celebration of peace, justice, solidarity, music and community action”, and you can read more about it here.
Morello also joined Springsteen at every date of his ‘Land Of Hope And Dreams’ tour of the US earlier this year, duetting with him on ‘Purple Rain’, ‘Chimes Of Freedom’ and others.
In 2024, he spoke to NME backstage at Download Festival about the power of music to spark political change, and listed his all time favourite protest songs. “Off the top of my head, some of my favourites would be ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon, ‘Biko’ by Peter Gabriel, ‘Fight The Power’ by Public Enemy. There are also probably a few Rage Against The Machine Songs that make the list too…” he said.