By PDX People

When the best drummers in rock music history come to mind, the name Brad Wilk is always at the top of the list with names like Keith Moon, Charlie Watts, John Bonham and Dave Grohl because he’s had a huge impact on music over the years with bands like Rage Against The Machine & Audioslave and at the age of 48 he’s still got a lot of left in his music career.

Rage Against The Machine

Born in Portland Oregon in 1968, Wilk quickly gravitated to the drums at a young age and was heavily influenced by rock bands of the 1980’s including Van Halen.

By the late 1980’s he auditioned for a band called Lock Up and he made an impression on its members which included Tom Morello. The band broke up by 1989 and Morello was interested in starting a new band with Brad Wilk, which would eventually become Rage Against The Machine.

Once Brad Wilk and Tom Morello connected with Zack de la Rocha and Tim Commerford to form Rage Against The Machine they quickly became a commercial success because Rage was the perfect blend of rap and rock.

During the early 1990’s Rage Against the Machine took the Los Angeles music scene by storm since their music also gave a voice to the disenfranchised youth of the era who were frustrated by things like the Rodney King beatings, L.A. Riots, and the O.J. Simpson trial.

Rage against the Machine would release four studio albums and ultimately disband in 2000 but Wilk quickly formed Audioslave, a “supergroup” which included Morello, Commerford and lead singer Chris Cornell from Soundgarden.

Audioslave stayed active until they disbanded in 2007 but Wilk, Morello and Commerford quickly reunited with Zach de la Rocha and reformed Rage against the Machine. Their reunion was praised by music fans around the world and they toured until 2012 when they disbanded once again, this time on the 20^th anniversary of the bands forming

Post Rage Against The Machine

Following the end of Rage Against the Machine in 2012, Brad Wilk started acting in independent films, he toured with bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, and became an in-demand session musician for bands like Black Sabbath.

As of 2017, Wilk remains busier than ever before, he currently plays drums with a band called Prophets of Rage which includes well-known names from other 1990’s bands like B-Real (Cypress Hill) and Chuck D (Public Enemy).

Audioslave also reformed recently for a concert following the inauguration of President Donald Trump and in these turbulent times it’s likely that we will continue to see Brad Wilk in the music world either with Audioslave or Prophets of Rage since his style of music continues to connect with music fans of all ages and gives a voice to people who are frustrated with the issues of the day.