Rage Against the Machine Bassist Tortures John McEnroe, Bursts into Flames For New Band Future User

What do tennis legend John McEnroe, dethroned bicycle racer Lance Armstrong, and veteran record producer Brendan O’Brien have in common? They all play a role in the twisted high-endurance, political, electo-prog world of Rage Against the Machine bassist Tim Commerford’s new project Future User.

The band, which Commerford formed about three years ago with multi-instrumentalist Jordan Tarlow, has recently released its debut album SteroidsorHeroin along with videos for the songs “Clockwork,” “Mountain Lion,” “Medication Nation,” and “Supernatural.” And that’s where the celebrity guests come in, and things start to get weird.

The videos, which all follow the oddball, extreme-sports-driven path of a masked character named S.W.I.M. (Commerford), feature Armstrong and McEnroe in roles that are odd if not downright uncomfortable.

In “Clockwork,” McEnroe beats Commerford in tennis, and is then captured and water boarded like a suspected terrorist. And in “Mountain Lion” Commerford shoots human growth steroid into his gut and blood dopes after a scene in which Armstrong taunts him over the phone about competitive mountain biking.

Between regular bike rides, Yahoo Music talked with Rage’s bassist about the history of Future User, near death experiences, the political significance of SteroidsorHeroin, how he tortured McEnroe, and the future of Rage Against the Machine.

Yahoo Music: What possessed you to form an electronic prog rock band with Jordan?

Commerford: I bought a house in Malibu. It was a fixer-upper, and when it came time to fix it I had to rent a place. It was two doors down from Jordan. I got to know him and found we didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. I’m more left of center when it comes to politics, and he’s leaning more right. But one thing we see eye to eye on is music. We both grew up on Rush and Pink Floyd. So we decided we should form a band. We both wanted it to be political, but we wanted to have fun. I enjoy my life and the things I do outside of music whether it’s riding my bike or skateboarding or setting myself on fire.

Everything made sense until the “setting myself on fire” part. Is that something you do for kicks?

Well no, but when we were thinking about the video for “Supernatural” I figured, well, I have some friends who are heavies in the stunt world and I’d have them chase me around. They represented corporations and money and religion and all the things that are horrible, so they chased me and at the end I decided to set myself on fire as an act of protest. So I went up to my stunt buddies and said, “How do you do it?” They taught me how, and I did it and it was exhilarating. When I did the burn for “Mountain Lion,” the stunt guy who was involved said, “Hey man, I want you to know that I’ve never burnt that much bare skin. And I’ve never burnt anyone who’s not a stunt man.” And I was like, “Right on! Killer!” It’s who I am, man. I like to take risks.

Did you get burned?

I did. The hair under my arm burnt off. And I burned the underside of my arm pretty good. I’m no stranger to pain and injury. I’m just coming off of back surgery from crashing my bicycle. And I have metal plates in my head from bike accidents. I have a cadaver’s hamstring tendon in my shoulder from a bicycle accident. I’ve had my fair share of road rash and stitches. So I was like, “What’s the worst thing that could happen if I set myself on fire? I’ll get a bad second degree burn?” I feel like road rash is almost like a third degree burn. I have scars from road rash that will be with me for the rest of my life.

Have you jeopardized your music career by taking risks skating and if so have you had to curtail your activities so you didn’t get hurt before major tours or studio sessions?

In 1996 I crushed my skull before we had a big show scheduled with the Beastie Boys. That show had to be postponed. I ride my bike every day. It’s my religion. For me, getting to the city and getting right on my bike and riding and playing a show — that whole experience was beautiful. I loved it and there was no way I wasn’t going to do it. We spent a lot of extra money taking out insurance to protect us in the event I got injured.

How did you crush your skull?

I had only been mountain biking for about a year. I went off this little jump that was on a trail I had ridden. It was fun to do. I was in Santa Monica and I had a Rage rehearsal over the hill in the Valley, so I figured I would ride to rehearsal and then ride back when we were done and I’d hit that jump again. I didn’t realize at the time that you don’t need to go faster to jump higher. I went down the mountain way too fast, wiped out, and landed on my face. I woke up in the emergency room. I don’t know who found me. But I was the Elephant Man for a week. Doctors put a plate in my eyebrow and another in my jaw. Right after that happened I thought, “Man, I can see why people get injured and never want to take risks again.” I didn’t want to be like that, so I did the exact opposite.

Was that your last serious head injury?

No, I’ve crashed and landed on my face a few times since then and exposed the plates in my eyebrow. Three years ago I landed and a sharp rock slid across my forehead and sliced into my temple area. It literally peeled the skin off my face and folded it back. I didn’t break any bones, but I looked like the Terminator. There was a metal plate with my eyeball in my skull. It was crazy. But the human body is incredible. You can barely even see the scars from that today.

You and Jordan aren’t political allies in Future User. Does that cause battles in the studio when you want to watch Al Jazeera America and he insists on watching Fox News?

Even though we don’t necessarily see eye to eye politically, there is that common area where people from the left and people from the right cross, like government surveillance and police states and Guantanamo Bay. It’s fun to find that common ground even when we don’t feel the same about a lot of stuff. I like being around all different types of people. I don’t want to only surround myself with people that are like me. I like to be challenged.

Was it challenging to perform vocals in Future User?

I did what I had to do. I’m a bass player, and that’s what I love. But I also love bass players that are able to play and sing. And I’ve always been a closet fan of Geddy Lee and Sting. That’s what I grew up on. When we were jamming, Jordan said, “Hey man, I saw you sing with Audioslave and you were good. Why don’t you give lead vocals a shot?” We had 10 arrangements at that point. So I said, “Alright. I’ll go home and come up with some.” I came back 45 minutes later with a melody and lyrics. I didn’t want to put a lot of thought into it, I just wanted to make it spontaneous, and he said, “I dig It!” That helped me get over my moment of insecurity. I’m not the greatest singer in the world but I started taking vocal lessons and I’ve gotten better. It keeps getting easier and easier and I enjoy it.

How did you get Brendan O’Brien to play guitar?

I just asked him. He’s known as a producer, but he’s an amazing guitar player. He can play any song by any band ever. You can name any song on classic rock radio and he’ll play it note-for-note. It’s funny because I started this whole project thinking I didn’t want a guitar player. I wanted to let the computer be the soloist and make the crazy sounds. It sounded cool like that, but it wasn’t until Brendan came in and put some guitar on it that it really came to life.

You have shot videos for four of the songs. Do you plan to make more?

I really want to make videos for every song and tie them all together. We have the main character, S.L.I.M. in all the videos, and it would be cool to follow his journey through all these different political scenarios. My goal right now is to make my own little rock opera.

How did you get Lance Armstrong, who was dethroned as a cycle champion for steroid use, to guest in a song about doping?

So many of my friends are people I’ve gained through cycling. I did this race last August called the Leadville 100 in Leadville, Colorado, which is a 100 mile mountain bike race where you climb 1,100 feet. It’s a death march. I went out there and trained with Lance and he took care of me. I love the guy. Biking is a corrupt sport and he didn’t do anything different than anyone else. They just decided to make an example of him. Steroid use in sports is neither here nor there as far as I’m concerned. There are people dying of heroin and people are imprisoned in our country more than any other country in the world. They’re mostly drug-related offenses, and the sad thing is most of those people are either black or Latino. And then we have privatized prisons where their labor is sold. Slavery is alive and well in this country. And we have presidents who speak about doping in sports as if it’s important. They’re not speaking about the war in Afghanistan, the poppy fields, drug lords, overcrowded prisons, or slavery. They’re talking about athletes using steroids.

Did you actually shoot steroids for the “Mountain Lion” video?

I shot myself with human grown hormone and I also blood doped. It’s a scary name and I think people have the wrong impression about it. All blood doping involves is taking your own blood out of your body, putting it in a refrigerator and then putting it back in your body at a strategic time. So all of a sudden you have more red blood cells and you become a high-octane version of yourself. I guarantee you that every pro athlete that’s doing any sort of endurance activity, whether it be football players at halftime or soccer players or tennis players, they’re doing it, man. Because it’s pretty much undetectable. I did a garage version of it. The first time I blood doped I was in Jordan’s studio. I didn’t do it right and ended up shooting a bunch of blood onto Jordan’s mixing board and I paid a gang of money to fix the board. But I decided to shoot human growth hormone because I wanted to keep it real for the video, and I didn’t really feel anything. I think that’s something you have to keep up for six months or so before you really feel the effects. It’s not like I shot up d ball, anavar, winstol, or one of those powerful steroids.

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The video for “Clockwork” is a commentary about police brutality and the way prisoners of war are treated. In the end of the clip you water boarded John McEnroe. Was he open to that?

Yeah, Mac is another friend of mine I met through cycling and if he’s in town for seven days we’ll ride every day of the week. At first when I told him I wanted to make a video about some of these human rights issues happening around the world and especially here in America in Guantanamo Bay, he was reluctant. He said, “Yeah, but some of these guys are terrorists.”

What did you tell him?

I said, “It’s about Guantanamo Bay, man. We’ve had 800 people there since 911 and only one person has ever been charged with a crime. There are a couple hundred people that are still there and they have no rights. And we have them there in Cuba because we can’t hold people like that in America. It’s really wrong. It’s the kind of thing you would expect the Nazis to do.” So he went along with it and we did the video.

The brutality you inflict on him doesn’t look simulated.

Nope, there was no breathing tube or anything. I gave him a hammer, though, that he held under the table and I said, “If it gets really bad, drop the hammer and we’ll stop.” He dropped the hammer bunches of times and I never stopped. He would choke up water and then go to take a big breath and I would pour water down his throat. I really messed with him. After it was over I brought some beers in and he didn’t say anything. He had his hands in his arms and his head on the table.

Was he pissed off?

He was clearly shaken by the whole thing. Finally he looked up and he was kind of crying. I said, “What’s up dude? You okay?” And he said, “Hey man, no one should ever have to go through that.” And I said, “Awesome, man. That’s exactly what I wanted you to say.”

For Record Store Day, your blood was used in a limited number of copies of SteroidsorHeroin. Was that your idea?

When they made the record they said, “Hey, is there anything you want to color it with?” And I was kidding around and said, “How about my blood?” And they said, “We can do that.” I said, “Okay, cool. I’m a pro at bleeding.” So I extracted a full bag of blood – it was about 100 ccs – and let them blood dope the vinyl.

Would you say you have masochistic impulses?

Yeah, for sure. Sometimes I think stuff like, “Maybe I’ll make a video where I operate on myself.” I’ve never done it, but stuff like that goes through my mind. “What if I have a film of me shooting myself in the leg?” I do think about all kinds of masochistic things. I don’t want to die, but I don’t think I’m gonna die. I feel pretty convinced I can take it. I feel like I’ve done worse to myself biking. There’s been a few times where I’ve been biking and I’ve crashed and gotten these big, gaping gashes that go deep into the muscle. I’ll come home with these gashes and go to my kids and put my fingers on the edges of the cuts and make them move up and down like mouths: “Hey! How you guys doing? What’s going on?” I’m kind of a local at the emergency room. They know me there and it’s always the same thing. “I don’t want any of the Novocain. Just stitch me up. That first prick of the first suture hurts for a second and then your endorphins kick in and you don’t even feel it. And when you’re not scared you feel powerful.

Are you still in contact with other guys in Rage Against the Machine?

I still am. I just texted with Tom a little while ago and I talk to Zach [de la Rocha] all the time. I haven’t talked to Brad in a little while.

Do you have any plans to do more work with Rage in the near future?

I don’t know. I never even think about it. I just wait for the call and when the call comes if there’s something to do, I’m in.