Rage Against The Machine Bassist Tim Commerford Gives Health Update Amid Cancer Battle

Two years after revealing his cancer diagnosis, Rage Against the Machine bassist Tim Commerford has given fans a health update. In a new interview with U.K.’s The Sound Lab, Commerford opened up about his nearly three-year battle with prostate cancer and shared how he’s doing.

“I’m 56 and I’m feeling good. I have cancer and I’m no longer crying about it. That’s a huge thing for me,” Commerford said, per Blabbermouth. “And to couple that with like being in a band and being proud of it and challenging myself, I feel like my life is full right now and I like it.”

When asked for an update on his cancer journey, Commerford replied, “I mean, I have it. It’s one of those things. And people will sometimes ask, ‘Is it gone?’ And it’s, like, cancer — I don’t care if you have skin cancer or prostate cancer or lung cancer, and let’s say you get treatment and it goes into remission, you’re not ever going to be saying, ‘Cool, it’s gone. It’s gone. I’m not gonna get it.’ You’re always gonna have it. It’s a dark passenger that you carry with you and you worry about and you have to get checkups and these sort of things. So it’s always there.”

Commerford went on to share, “There was about a two-year period where — I wouldn’t have been able to do this interview a few years ago, because I would have just gotten too emotional. You would ask me about cancer and I would have started crying and that was the hardest thing. That was harder than any of the treatments or anything.

He continued: “It was, like, ‘Whoa, am I gonna be crying now everywhere I go? Is that gonna be the way it is?’ And somewhere along the line, because I stay in shape, I’m proud of that, and I do a lot of exercising and I’m staying in really good shape, I think, and for a 56-year-old dude, I feel like I’m in really good shape. For a dude with cancer, I feel like I’m in really good shape. And so those two things really have empowered me.”

Noting another health issue he previously weathered, Commerford explained, “I used to know this guy… I have a cadaver hamstring tendon in my shoulder. So I got surgery on my shoulder one time and the doctor was, like, ‘Your shoulder is gonna be 75 percent as strong, your left shoulder as your right shoulder,’ and this man that I knew, he’s this old guy, he’s, like, ‘Well, so you can work it out 200 percent more than you would have and it’s still gonna be 125 percent stronger than it would have been.’ And so that’s how I live my life.”

Commeford added, “So here I am with cancer and I’m out just challenging myself physically and artistically. And it’s empowered me — to be able to have cancer and do these things is something that I’m proud of.”

“I’ve turned this really negative thing that made me cry into something that I’m actually proud of who I am and what I’m doing right now with it,” he continued. “Is it gonna make me live longer, cancer? I don’t think so, but I’m gonna get 200 percent stronger and see.”

Commerford first shared his prostate cancer diagnosis in 2022, telling SPIN that he found out about it while registering for life insurance. He failed to qualify due to high numbers in his PSA (prostate-specific antigen) screening. A biopsy later confirmed the cancer and doctors surgically removed his prostate prior to RATM reuniting for a tour in the summer of ’22.

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