Did you know that the Secret Service intervened and detained Rage Against the Machine for a period during their one and only appearance on Saturday Night Live? That was one of the revelations that came to light during Tom Morello’s appearance in the new Ladies and Gentlemen …. 50 Years of SNL Music documentary that aired Monday (Jan. 27) on NBC.Though many are aware of Rage Against the Machine’s appearance and made note that they haven’t ever returned, it was Morello who revealed the particulars of why that was the case in the documentary.What Happened During Rage Against the Machine’s Saturday Night Live Appearance?It was April 13, 1996 when Rage Against the Machine were asked to be the musical guests on Saturday Night Live. They already had their well-received self-titled debut album under their belt and were just getting ready to release their sophomore set, Evil Empire.To the audience viewing at home, you might not have even caught that anything of consequence even happened. The band played an energetic version of their single “Bulls on Parade” and nothing seemed out of place. But the group did not have a second performance during the show and were conspicuously absent during the end show hugs and sign off.So what happened?As Morello tells it, “One thing I think is very important is to weave your convictions into your vocation, whatever it is, whether you’re directing a film or running a camera or playing guitar in a rock ‘n’ roll band. And for a band like Rage, SNL was a perfect opportunity to do that. Being on SNL was something that was valued. It was a part of the DNA of American culture and entertainment.””So, when the offer came to be on it, we were like, ‘We’d be happy to’. But Rage never did things in a normal way. So, we were thinking, like, ‘How do we make this into some sort of crazy performance art thing?’”The guitarist notes that the host for that evening was Steve Forbes, the Forbes magazine tycoon who had recent run for the Republican nomination for president. “He’s Forbes of Forbes magazine, one of the richest people in America, and one of the driest and most boring humans to ever walk the face of the earth… Let’s see how that works out,” recalled Morello.The guitarist recalls that as part of their musical presentation, the band had draped upside-down American flags on their amps during rehearsals, but were asked by the SNL staff not to do so given that Forbes had been the host and that it might generate a “weird vibe.””“We were like, ‘You invited Rage Against the Machine, the ‘fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me‘ band,” Morello adds.READ MORE: That Time Rage Against the Machine Didn’t Do What They Were Told By the BBC“So, the night of the show comes, and our roadies are primed … We’re about to rock ‘Bulls On Parade’ and our roadies put the upside-down flags back up onto the amplifiers. The stage manager is barking into his headset like, ‘Take those down right now!’ Our roadies have been told to like, defend the perimeter.”“There’s 35 seconds ’till we’re live. The stage manager sends the SNL crew. There’s a quick scrum onstage. Unfortunately, the burly New York City union men are able to wrestle the flags off of the amplifiers with seven seconds to go before we go live.”Rage Against the Machine Perform on Saturday Night Live in 1996But There’s More ….While the band’s attempt at defying SNL’s request yielded a “tense” situation, according to Morello, that was not what earned them the Secret Service visit.“Our dressing room is right across the hall from Steve Forbes,” he said. “Time goes by. A representative of SNL comes to the door and says, ‘Looks like the show’s running a little long, and we’re gonna cut your second number’. And then they leave us alone. That was their mistake,” says the guitarist, while also noting that “Bullet in the Head” was their scrapped second number.“[Bassist] Timmy [Commerford] doesn’t like things like that. And he expresses himself. So, what he did was he took one of the American flags and he tore it up and he knotted it into a ball. You might call it a weapon. And he entered Steve Forbes’ dressing room across the way to attack him. Steve Forbes was not in his dressing room, but his family was. So Timmy launches his American flag ball rocket at aunts, cousins, wives, children. Fortunately, the kind of solid integrity of it is not so great. So … it flaps apart, hurting no one,” adds Morello.“However, did I mention before that Steve Forbes had just been a presidential candidate? The hallway floods with Secret Service. We’re now locked in our room. They’re protecting Steve Forbes and his family,” he adds. “We get escorted out and put on the sidewalk at 30 Rock. You might notice Rage is not in the farewells on that particular show.”But, all was not lost. Morelllo concludes with a laugh, “I still went to the after party.”It appears as though whatever tensions may have been present at the time over the band’s actions before the cameras went live have long since been forgiven as Morello’s discussion on that night’s fraught moments was one of the highlights of the SNL music doc.Musicians Who Are Banned From Saturday Night Live These musical acts were naughty and got exiled from the NBC late night comedy show.Gallery Credit: Todd Fooks