Rage Against the Machine played the inaugural Coachella in 1999, but according to guitarist Tom Morello, the band returned half their fee after the festival lost money in its first year.In a new interview with the Tuna on Toast podcast, Morello said that because the festival had been so unsuccessful organisers asked for half of RATM’s fee back, with the band reportedly happy to comply, “because they were friends”.According to Consequence of Sound, organisers of Coachella lost US$850,000 with the first event, with only 37,000 people attending over two days.
By comparison, Coachella’s most recent edition drew in around 200,000 people.“They [festival promoters, GoldenVoice] had booked every back-alley show from day one,” Morello said, as.
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