In 1991, following the break-up of the band Lock Up featuring guitarist Tom Morello, the band's drummer, Jon Knox, encouraged Commerford and Zack de la Rocha to jam with Tom Morello. Tom soon called drummer Brad Wilk, who had unsuccessfully auditioned for Lock Up. This line-up went on to form Rage Against the Machine. After frequenting the L.A. club circuit, Rage Against the Machine signed a record deal with Epic Records in 1992. That same year, the band released their self-titled debut. They achieved a phenomenal amount of mainstream success and released three more studio albums.
Commerford's appearances on Rage Against the Machine's studio records have been marked with a running joke where his credits on the record were under humorous nicknames, such as "Y Tim K" or "Tim.com".
On September 7, 2000, Commerford climbed atop onstage scaffolding during the MTV Music Video Awards, and disrupted the proceedings when Limp Bizkit won an award. Commerford was arrested that evening, and a disgruntled de la Rocha quit the band soon after. On September 13, 2000, Rage Against the Machine performed the final concert of their original incarnation, at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles.
After Zack de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine, music producer Rick Rubin suggested the three remaining members of Rage get together with then-former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, and "see what happens".
By May 2001, they had begun to work in the studio, writing their first song "Light My Way". By April 2002, the newly formed band had split due to "outside" pressures, mainly from management companies. They soon got back together though, and on November 19, 2002, they released their eponymous debut, which would attain triple platinum status. Audioslave attained a large amount of success, and released another two studio albums. On May 5, 2005, Audioslave played a free concert in front of 65,000 Cuban fans, becoming the first American rock band to play a concert within Cuba.
On February 15, 2007, Chris Cornell officially announced his departure from Audioslave, thus disbanding the group.
On April 29, 2007, Rage Against the Machine reunited at the Coachella Music Festival. The band played in front of an EZLN backdrop to the largest crowd of the festival. The performance was first thought to be a one-off, but this turned out not to be the case. The band played seven more shows in the United States in 2007 (including their first non-festival concert in seven years at the Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, Wisconsin), and in January 2008, they played their first shows outside the US as part of the Big Day Out Festival in Australia and New Zealand, and then played at the T in the Park festival in Scotland and at the Reading and Leeds festival in England in the summer of 2008.
Commerford co-founded provocative band Future User, together with Jordan Tarlow (keys), Jon Knox (drums) and producer Brendan O'Brien (guitars). He plays bass and is the vocalist of the band. Tim Commerford hid several months under the S.W.I.M persona on the first music videos, before unmasking himself in the "Mountain Lion" video.[6] In the band's first video, tennis player John McEnroe subjected himself to waterboarding.[7] The "Mountain Lion" video featured road racing cyclist Lance Armstrong, a close friend of Commerford,[8] while a skateboarding Commerford appears to inject himself with a steroid.[7][9]
In 2015, he formed "punk and hardcore-influenced band", named Wakrat. The band also features drummer Mathias Wakrat and guitarist Laurent Grangeon. The band debuted their first single, "Knucklehead", in September 2015.[10]
In 2022, Tim Commerford launched a new project, 7D7D, with Mathias Wakrat and Jonny Polonsky. The group debuted their first single, "Capitalism", in November.[1]
In 2001, Commerford married his longtime girlfriend, Aleece Dimas. They have two sons together, Xavier and Quentin. In November 2018, the couple announced they were divorcing.[12]
They're not real. They're high-def. They have a soundtrack. The parts of those videos that you couldn't fake are edited out. At first, I thought it was edited out by our government so our kids wouldn't be seeing it on the Internet, but no. That's the way those videos came. The knife starts to cut the neck, and then it fades out. There's too much stuff that doesn't look real. They've edited out the parts that would be too hard to fake. We created Jihadi John and ISIS so we can go drop bombs.[13]
In December 2022, Commerford revealed he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier in the year, and had undergone surgery prior to going on tour with Rage Against the Machine that summer.[15]
Equipment
Commerford has been using various Music Man StingRay basses since 2016, a brand he has liked since his beginnings with Rage Against The Machine.[16] MusicMan released several custom Artist Series basses in 2021.[17] He previously used Fender Jazz Basses with Fender Precision Bass necks and Lakland basses.[18]
^"Tim Commerford – Fender News & Tech Talk". fender.com. September 18, 2009. Archived from the original on February 14, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2014. I like Jazz basses. I've been playing Jazz basses with Precision Bass necks, and I'm almost thinking that I want to switch to Jazz Bass necks, because I have one regular Jazz Bass out here on tour and I end up playing that one because it's the most comfortable one for me.
