Rage Against the Machine’s Tim Commerford: “I Have Prostate Cancer”
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Rage Against the Machine bassist Tim Commerford has revealed that he’sbattling prostate cancer.
“I’ve been dealing with some pretty serious shit,” he told Spider. “Rightbefore I was about to go on tour with Rage, I had my prostate removed, and Ihave prostate cancer.”
As Commerford explained, “I went to get life insurance but my PSA numbers wereup. I couldn’t get it. They wouldn’t insure me. At first, the number was verylow — like one-point-something. I watched it over the course of a year and ahalf, and it kept elevating further. Eventually, they did a biopsy and foundout I had cancer, so they took my prostate out. I had been thinking, well,because they’re watching it and let it get to this point, maybe it’s not thatbig of a deal. I blame myself. I should have said, ‘My numbers are elevatedand what does that really mean?’ I should have taken it more seriously.”
The 54-year-old added, “Now I’m in the situation that I’m in, which is, holdyour breath for six months. It’s not a good one and not one that I’m happyabout. I’m just trying to grab hold of the reins. It’s going to be a longjourney, I hope. My dad died in his early 70s from cancer and my mom died fromcancer in her 40s. Split the difference to 65 and I’ve got 10 years. I’mtrying to get to the 100-song mark — I have some goals now.”
He’s pursuing those goals with his new band, 7D7D, which recently releasedtheir debut single “Capitalism,” as well as with his old friends in RageAgainst the Machine. But Commerford nearly wasn’t able to perform on Rage’shighly anticipated “Public Service Announcement Tour.”
“Two months before the tour, I had surgery and my doctors said I wasn’t goingto be ready,” he recalled. “That was brutal. I would be on stage looking at myamp in tears. Then you just kind of turn around and suck it up. Because ofZack [de la Rocha]’s injury, we had planned these little video interstitialsthat came in between blocks of songs. We were meant to go on stage, play somesongs, go off stage, and on to the interstitials for a few minutes. It wasseamless. Then he got hurt and we couldn’t leave the stage. So during theinterstitials, we’re just sitting there. That was surreal. I would sometimessit down and try not to think about certain things. It was weird. I kept it tomyself throughout the touring we did and it was brutal.” de la Rocha’s tornachilles ultimately forced Rage to cancel their 2023 tour dates.
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Commerford hadn’t planned on revealing his diagnosis. “Prostate cancer is avery, very, very tough one because it’s connected to your sexuality,” he said.“It’s hard to disconnect from that and when you’re forced into that situation,it’s a brutal psychological journey. I’ve been trying to find support groups,and it’s hard to find people and hard to talk about it. The suffering part ofit, the physical suffering after the surgery, I’ve never felt pain quite likethat. I have metal plates in my head and cadaver parts in my body. I’ve done alot of damage through sports and mountain biking and this sort of thing andI’ve always felt like I had a really high tolerance for pain, and that shitbrought me to my knees. After the pain went away, I still haven’t really beenable to get up, even though I’m working out and doing shit, butpsychologically, the damage is severe. It’s very hard for me to not break downand get emotional.”
But Commerford has found a community of sorts, and has seen his experiencemirrored in some of his idols. “I was with my girlfriend and we were watchingthe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony on TV. Duran Duran was on and I waslike, ‘Ah, fuck, I used to learn those songs when I was a kid.’ I saw them onstage and wondered, where’s Andy Taylor and why do they have this other guy inhere?! Then it was like, ‘Andy Taylor is suffering from stage four prostatecancer and is unable to make it.’ My life is sort of like that. There are alot of people who have it. There are a lot of people who are like, ‘Where doyou go?’ You can’t talk to a therapist. You can only really talk to someonewho’s going through it.’”
After everything he’s been through, there’s cause for optimism. “I just got mysix-month test, and it came back at zero. I was like, ‘Fuck yeah!’ That’s thebest I can feel for the rest of my life. Every day I get closer to that testis like, ‘Fuck man, is this going to be the time when the number is going togo up and I’m going to the next thing, whatever that is?’ I already wentthrough some pain and shit. And I’m continuing to go through like, some crazyshit.”
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