10 Legendary Bands That Were Actually Side Projects

10. Audioslave

Having Rage Against the Machine break up at the turn of the ‘00s feels like one of the biggest missed opportunities in modern rock. Here was one of the most militant rock bands on Earth that decided to call it quits right when the Bush administration was about to spread their own reign of terror across the country. They weren’t planning on just laying low though.

Even with Zack de la Rocha gone, the rest of Rage got in touch with their inner arena rock band with Audioslave. After thinking through different singers, Rick Rubin suggested that they hook up with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, which made for some of the most enduring rock music of the ‘00s. Amid the rest of the nu metal genre happening at the time, Tom Morello was able to blend his signature weird style with the sounds of the ‘70s, now that he had a seasoned rock veteran behind the mic this time around. In between some of the traditional rock songs though, songs like Cochise and Like a Stone are a bit more adventurous than what you might expect, like Chris showing off his taste for gospel music on the latter song.

Then again, maybe this was the kind of music that Rage had intended making all along, just without the militant lyrics of Zack being brought in. If you look back on what was happening, the world was on fire, and Audioslave was just looking to just kick out the jams and have a good time.