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Rage Against the Machine bassist Tim Commerford has revealed that he’s battling prostate cancer.
“I’ve been dealing with some pretty serious shit,” he told Spin. “Right before I was about to go on tour with Rage, I had my prostate removed, and I have prostate cancer.”
As Commerford explained, “I went to get life insurance but my PSA numbers were up. I couldn’t get it. They wouldn’t insure me. At first, the number was very low — like one-point-something. I watched it over the course of a year and a half, and it kept elevating further. Eventually, they did a biopsy and found out 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 that big of a deal. I blame myself. I should have said, ‘My numbers are elevated and 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, hold your breath for six months. It’s not a good one and not one that I’m happy about. I’m just trying to grab ahold of the reins. It’s gonna be a long journey, I hope. My dad died in his early 70s from cancer and my mom died from cancer in her 40s. Split the difference to 65 and I’ve got 10 years. I’m trying to get to the 100-song mark — I have some goals now.”
He’s pursuing those goals with his new band, 7D7D, which recently released their debut single “Capitalism,” as well as with his old friends in Rage Against the Machine. But Commerford nearly wasn’t able to perform on Rage’s highly anticipated “Public Service Announcement Tour.”
“Two months before the tour, I had surgery and my doctors said I wasn’t going to be ready,” he recalled. “That was brutal. I would be on stage looking at my amp in tears. Then you just kind of turn around and suck it up. Because of Zack [de la Rocha]’s injury, we had planned these little video interstitials that came in between blocks of songs. We were meant to go on stage, play some songs, go off stage, and on to the interstitials for a few minutes. It was seamless. Then he got hurt and we couldn’t leave the stage. So during the interstitials, we’re just sitting there. That was surreal. I would sometimes sit down and try to not think about certain things. It was weird. I kept it to myself throughout the touring we did and it was brutal.” de la Rocha’s torn achilles ultimately forced Rage to cancel their 2023 tour dates.
Commerford hadn’t planned on revealing his diagnosis. “Prostate cancer is a very, 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 of it, the physical suffering after the surgery, I’ve never felt pain quite like that. I have metal plates in my head and cadaver parts in my body. I’ve done a lot of damage through sports and mountain biking and this sort of thing and I’ve always felt like I had a really high tolerance for pain, and that shit brought me to my knees. After the pain went away, I still haven’t really been able to get up, even though I’m working out and doing shit, but psychologically, the damage is severe. It’s very hard for me to not break down and get emotional.”
But Commerford has found a community of sorts, and has seen his experience mirrored in some of his idols. “I was with my girlfriend and we were watching the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony on TV. Duran Duran was on and I was like, ‘Ah, fuck, I used to learn those songs when I was a kid.’ I saw them on stage and wondered, where’s Andy Taylor and why do they have this other guy in here?! Then it was like, ‘Andy Taylor is suffering from stage four prostate cancer and is unable to make it.’ My life is sort of like that. There are a lot of people who have it. There are a lot of people who are like, ‘Where do you go?’ You can’t talk to a therapist. You can only really talk to someone who’s going through it.’”
After everything he’s been through, there’s cause for optimism. “I just got my six-month test, and it came back at zero. I was like, ‘Fuck yeah!’ That’s the best I can feel for the rest of my life. Every day I get closer to that test is like, ‘Fuck man, is this going to be the time when the number is going to go up and I’m going to the next thing, whatever that is?’ I already went through some pain and shit. And I’m continuing to go through like, some crazy shit.”
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Rage Against the Machine’s Tim Commerford: “I Have Prostate Cancer”
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