Tom Morello Teams With Imagine Dragons Singer for Protest Anthem ‘Stand Up’
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello is letting the music do the talking after witnessing some of the recent Black Lives Matter protests around the U.S.. He's teamed up with Imagine Dragons singer Dan Reynolds, Shea Diamond and the Bloody Beetroots to record the new anthem "Stand Up."
The track is meant to unify people of all races in rallying against racism. Morello co-wrote the track with each of the artists involved.
“I grew up in the tiny lily-white, archly conservative town of Libertyville, Illinois. When I was a kid, someone hung a noose in my family’s garage, there was occasional N-word calling, etc, etc. On June 6 of this year, there was a Black Lives Matter rally and march in that same town that drew over 1,000 people,” Morello said in a statement. “It seems that the times, they are a’changin'. I was so inspired that night, I reached out to Dan from Imagine Dragons. The Bloody Beetroots and I had conjured a slamming track and within 24 hours Dan had sent back a completed vocal. We got Shea Diamond, a Black transgender woman with a long history of activism, on the track and the coalition was complete.”
Reynolds adds, “When Tom reached out to work together with Shea Diamond and The Bloody Beetroots on this track I immediately went up into my room and wrote/sang the chorus and verse that day. This country certainly needs fixing, and I believe it will take people from all sides and colors to fix it."
As revealed in the description for their new lyric video, 100 percent of artist proceeds from “Stand Up” will be donated to the NAACP, Know Your Rights Camp, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Marsha P. Johnson Institute. KIDinaKORNER/Interscope will additionally donate an amount equal to the artists’ record royalties derived from streams of the track for a 3-year period. Take a listen to the song below. It's currently available via the platform of your choosing here.
Tom Morello / Shea Diamond / Dan Reynolds / Bloody Beetroots, "Stand Up"
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