Phil Labonte

Vocalist Phil Labonte of Massachusetts metallers ALL THAT REMAINS has clarified his recent harsh remarks about RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE‘s Tom Morello over Morello‘s commentary on Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who was tapped last week to run for vice president on the Republican ticket alongside presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

In a New York Times profile, Ryan — who is known for his far-right positions on both economics and social issues — claimed that he enjoyed the music of Morello‘s ultra-leftist rap-rock band.

In reponse, Morello penned an op-ed piece for Rolling Stone on Ryan in which he said that Ryan‘s “love of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Charles Manson loved THE BEATLES but didn’t understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn’t understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE,” Morello said.

A few days later, Labonte took to his Twitter account and offered his two cents on Morello‘s op-ed piece, writing, “Tom Morello is a communist and a fool. He’s also had the wool pulled over his eyes by the system.” The singer added, “I’m not saying he’s dumb. I’m saying he’s a fool for the statist perspective that our government is good when a Democrat is in office.”

Earlier today (Thursday, August 23), Labonte released the following statement clarifying his remarks and offering his views on the upcoming presidential election:

“OK, so here we go. I’m taking the time to write this to clarify my 140-character comment on Tom Morello‘s piece in Rolling Stone. I’ve caught a lot of heat over my remarks about it. Mostly from the metal blogs or individuals pointing out that he went to Harvard and I didn’t, so he must be right and I must be an idiot.

“Well, I would submit to the left (the most vocal, angry and vitriolic about my comment) that GWB and Bill O’Reilly both went to Harvard. Does that make them infallible and brilliant? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

“Let me start by stating I do not support Romney/Ryan in the upcoming election. I am not a Republican. I do not support statism. I know it’s hard for the far left and the far right to understand, but it’s true. I am called a ‘liberal’ by the far right for my opinion on drug policy, gay marriage, immigration, etc. I am called a ‘right-wing nut’ by the far left for my opinion on gun rights and fiscal policy. That myopic and lazy view of ‘right’ and ‘left’ is what I am staunchly against. On to the point.

“I’ve never met Tom Morello, so my comments were in no way meant to be a personal attack on his character. Though I do believe his political opinions are incoherent and foolish, I also believe he has good intentions.

“I said he’s a communist because I believe I have heard him call himself a communist. I have seen him wear a hat that said ‘COMMIE’ on it in photos. If I am incorrect and my recollections are inaccurate and he is simply a socialist, then I would offer my apology. Regardless, that remark wasn’t intended to be an insult as so many people have portrayed it. It was a comment on what I believe his political ideology is, and again, if I am incorrect, I am sorry. But I don’t retract the core of my statement.

“I’m gonna quote Tom‘s piece. ‘I wonder what Ryan‘s favorite RAGE song is… is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production?’ That one sentence speaks volumes about his perspective. He is advocating theft and the initiation of violence against a minority by the majority. That is immoral.

“Now I understand he is focusing his rage on ‘The 1%’ and because of the minority in question, it’s socially acceptable to demonize them and call for theft and violence against them. But that doesn’t change the fact that he is calling for violence against, and seizure of the property of, a minority.

“In the piece he calls for ‘a more humane and just planet.’ Is aggression and theft justice? Unequivocally no. It is my perspective as a libertarian, the best way to limit the power and influence of ‘The 1%’ is to limit the power of government to influence society via legislation. If you have no favors to sell, you will have no one trying to buy favors.

“One may not share my libertarian views, but nonetheless, it is hard to reconcile advocating violence as somehow morally correct.

“He talks about covering ‘Fuck The Police’ and wonders if that is one of Ryan‘s favorites. Yet he would need a powerful government who would use the police to force people into submission to further his agenda. His perspective and agendas could not be achieved any other way. This makes no sense.

“He condemns U.S. imperialism, and I agree on this point, but then later in the piece he whimsically hopes that Paul Ryan is a mole who would ‘Throw U.S. military support behind the Zapatistas.” Is that NOT a contradiction? He would condemn U.S. intervention in one area of the world, but support it in another? Never mind the fact that constitutionally, not even the president, let alone the vice president, has the authority to do this. Again this makes no sense.

“In closing, if Tom‘s perspective was not simply looking to use the force of government to further his own political predilections, I would retract my statement and offer a full apology. But I don’t believe any of the things he is advocating could be achieved without the force of government.

“Government is violence. Using violence to coerce is immoral. Tom‘s perspective therefore is advocating violence and aggression, disguised as peace and unity. This is immoral and I’m not sorry for pointing that out.”

Source: Blabbermouth.net

Jack Mehoff of the Colorado Springs, Colorado radio station 94.3 KILO recently conducted an interview with vocalist Phil Labonte of Massachusetts metallers ALL THAT REMAINS. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.

On whether ALL THAT REMAINS will perform in the Czech Republic after Randy Blythe‘s (LAMB OF GOD) recent incarceration in the country on manslaughter charges:

Phil: “I assume that if we get booked in the Czech Republic, we’ll be going. I’m not a huge fan of touring overseas anyways. Our label is a U.S. label and there’s really not been a whole lot of representation in Europe or in other countries and stuff. We’ve had a few good experiences — specifically the Japanese; they really, really have been supportive of ATR and stuff — but there’s not a whole lot of label support in Europe and stuff, so it’s not as fun touring in Europe as it is touring in North America. So, I guess, really, if I’m gonna be straight-up honest, if we never went to Europe again, I really wouldn’t care much. But I mean, if we get booked in the Czech Republic, we’ll go and I’ll do my best to avoid anyone getting on stage or contacting anyone who comes to the show. I mean, it will be something that I’m aware of, it will be something that I think about. I mean, it’s something that I think about here in the U.S. Our manager called me up and he was like, ‘Dude, there are times when you tell people you wanna see them knock the shit out of each other. And if you do that, you might get in trouble. Considering the Randy thing…’ And I’m like, ‘Ahhhh…..'”

On his recent allusion to the fact that he or may not have a weapon on stage:

Phil: “Yeah. Well, it depends on the state and the local laws. Me and a couple of partners have got a gun shop in New Hampshire, so that’s what I wanna do after I stop yelling at a stick, so I’m pretty up on laws and I’m definitely aware of where I’m allowed to carry and where there’s reciprocity for my concealed permit and stuff. So I know where I can and can’t. But if I can, there’s a very solid possibility that I have a gun on me, regardless of whether I’m on stage or walking around. I’m a gun dude, so…”

On recording the new ALL THAT REMAINS album, “A War You Cannot Win”, with longtime producer Adam Dutkiewicz (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, AS I LAY DYING, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE):

Phil: “Recording with Adam is awesome. I think I’ve known Adam for going on 20 years. And I sound like an old man, and I can’t even believe it, but yeah, I definitely have known Adam for 20 years. We did our first our record with him 10 years ago almost, just shy of 10 years. So we’re really comfortable with him. He’s a really good friend. Mike Martin, our guitar player, lives with him. Adam‘s got a house and Mike rents a room there. It’s tough to find someone that you are more close and more comfortable all of ALL THAT REMAINS is working with Adam. And to be honest with you, not to name names, but there were some people that, we were trying to figure out who was gonna mix the record because Adam wasn’t available. And we had some people that we sent stuff to do a test mix. I knew Adam was brilliant — I’ve known that for a long time — and I know that he’s got a better ear than 99 percent of the people, of musicians, that I’ve ever met. But when you… again, I’m not gonna use any names, but when you send stuff out to names that are supposed to be big names and they send back something and you’re just like, ‘What the hell did you do?’ They send back something that sounds like they just threw everything into a blender and just mixed it up and said, ‘What do you think about this?’ And you’re like, ‘If the guy that we’re used to working with had done this, it would be done already. It’s like you’re shoving mashed potatoes into my ears. This doesn’t make sense. How is it that you can’t hear that this sounds terrible? And you’re supposed to be a big name. And blah blah blah.’ So there was a lot of, kind of like, woah, I knew that Adam was great, but I didn’t realize that he was so great until we started working with people who were supposed to be great and they were terrible compared to the guy that I already knew was great.”

On the musical direction of “A War You Cannot Win”:

Phil: “The songs are strong. There’s some really, really, really strong songs. I don’t like to get too involved in tooting my own horn, but I think that we really wrote some killer songs. I mean, there’s gonna be people with different opinions that are gonna go ahead and make comments based on their opinions and what they think we should have done, and that’s all fine. But if you get past that and just look at the record for what it is and listen to the songs for what they are and judge them on their own merits as opposed to, ‘I wanted you to write this record,’ or ‘I wanted the record to sound like this and it doesn’t sound like what I wanted you to write a record to sound like,’ if you just look at the songs and the material that’s actually there, we really did a good job. There’s gonna be critics out there that are gonna be like, ‘Well, ALL THAT REMAINS, in my opinion, should have done this.’ But the hilarious part is they’re not in ALL THAT REMAINS, so no one gives a fuck [what they think]. And that’s the thing about people on the Internet and blogs. Like, ‘Oh, you should have done this. You should have done that. And blah blah blah.’ Guess who’s not in the band? You. Shut up, f****t. Seriously. Are you gonna sit there and be like, ‘Ah, I think you should have done this. And I think you should have done that.’ We don’t give a fuck! We did what we wanted to do. So if you don’t like it, s**k a d**k. I don’t care. If you listen to the songs themselves and really base an opinion on the music that you’re listening to without the bias of, ‘I think you should have done this,’ or ‘I think you should have done that,’ or ‘I wanted your next record to sound like this,’ or ‘I wanted that,’ and just listen to the stuff that we wrote, it’s a killer album; it’s great. It’s a really, really well-put-together record. The songs are really strong, the melodies are all really cool, the hooks are there, there’s heavy parts that really kind of pummel you a little bit. It’s really there.”

Interview: