Everyone’s favorite iron-pumping, fiscal-hawking, ice bucket-lifting, Rand-reading, chart-drawing 2016 presidential possibility is Raging no longer.
Paul Ryan flakes in a New York Times Magazine interview, admitting that Rage Against the Machine was “never my favorite band. I hate the lyrics, but I like the sound. Led Zeppelin has always been my favorite band.”
Ryan’s fondness for Rage became part of his popular image as the nation’s first Generation X vice-presidential candidate during the 2012 campaign. Now, Ryan is calling his fondness for the band an “urban legend.”
It’s cool. Rage wasn’t keen on Ryan either.
In 2012, guitarist Tom Morello blew steam and blasted Ryan in a Rolling Stone op-ed:
“Ryan claims that he likes Rage’s sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don’t care for Paul Ryan’s sound or his lyrics. He can like whatever bands he wants, but his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage.
I wonder what Ryan’s favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of ‘[F—] the Police’? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!”
No word yet on what Led Zeppelin’s frontman Robert Plant thinks of being Ryan’s new “favorite band.” Instead, Plant directs his rage against Spotify.
