20 years ago today (9/7/00), in an MTV “awards” ceremony dominated by the likes of Britney Spears, Fred Durst, Kid Rock and Carson Daly, Tim Commerford bassist for Rage Against the Machine (and two years later Audioslave), gave the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards a big middle finger in quite a unique and dangerous way. Commerford climbed a piece of set scaffolding and refused to come down after Rage lost the award for Best Rock Video to Limp Bizkit. The show went to commercial while security removed Commerford, who was later arrested and forced to spend a night in jail. Rage drummer Brad Wilk summed it up best when he said it was a “brutally honest act of frustration.” Check out the MTV News clips of the happenings….
