Just days after British radio listeners rallied to give Rage Against the Machine the number one Christmas single in the U.K., rumors are flying that it was all a set up.
A campaign on Facebook generated 500,000 purchases of the band's 1992 single "Killing in the Name," pushing it over a single from X Factor's Joe McElderry. Rumors have spread, however, that the improbable upset was a clever ploy from Rage's label, Sony Music, to boost holiday chart rankings in the U.K.
Frontman Zack De La Rocha has spoken out against the claims, stating the band is not even in contact with Sony in the U.K.
"That's the most ridiculous thing!" De La Rocha said of the conspiracy theory. "I couldn't even get a return email from Sony U.K. I was like, 'Are we still on your label? Something's happening over there' and nobody hit me back."
Guitarist Tom Morello earnestly acknowledged the band's fans for the achievement: "It was tremendous, it was an incredible campaign to make a hard-hitting political song Number One with a budget of zero, and it outmatched this enormous machinery. Ordinary people, when they band together in solidarity, can do extraordinary things."
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