Zack de la Rocha: Turnstile Are a “Bridge” to Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and The Clash

Turnstile recently played a landmark show at the Washington Monument, with 60,000 fans showing up to watch the Baltimore hardcore band perform in support of humanitarian aid to Palestine, Sudan, and Lebanon. A musician who certainly knows about political activism is Rage Against the Machine singer Zack de la Rocha, who believes a band like Turnstile can serve as a “bridge” for young music fans to discover acts like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and The Clash. The usually reclusive RATM frontman recently attended an exhibit in Barcelona, Spain, featuring the works of legendary punk and hardcore photographer Glen E. Friedman, who was with de la Rocha when they were approached by the Spanish music website Binaural for a few questions. When asked about Turnstile taking the baton from Rage Against the Machine, de la Rocha responded, “It’s interesting to see how this style is resurging. I don’t know if it will have the same impact, but, once again, there are a lot of kids who are discovering it for the first time. And they are doing so through their first experience with bands like Turnstile. Afterward, they start discovering Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Negative Approach, The Clash… So these b...