Killing in the Name — Slide Guitar (FU CANCER)
Rage Against the Machine on slide guitar. Drop D, raw tone, and a message. Wayne's version of one of the most aggressive songs ever written — played the way only slide can deliver it.
Killing in the Name — Slide Guitar
Some songs were made to be played loud. Some songs were made to say something. "Killing in the Name" by Rage Against the Machine is both — and when you run it through a slide in Drop D, it hits different.
This is Wayne's version. He calls it the FU CANCER version. You'll understand why when you watch it.
The Video
Drop D. Slide. No apologies. Recorded on the 2022 Dean SunBurst Cadillac through the Boss Katana MKII 50w.
Why Slide?
The original RATM track is all about aggression and tension — Tom Morello's guitar work is angular, percussive, and relentless. Running it through a slide in Drop D keeps all of that energy but adds something else: a rawness, a vocal quality that the slide gives you when you let it breathe.
Drop D drops the low E string down a whole step to D. That gives you:
- A heavier, darker root note on the 6th string
- Power chords with a single finger (or the slide itself)
- A resonance that sits right in the pocket of this song
The slide doesn't soften it. If anything, it makes it meaner.
The Tuning
Drop D — standard tuning with the low E dropped to D:
D A D G B E
The main riff lives on the low strings. With a slide, you're not fretting — you're gliding. The pressure, the angle, the muting with your picking hand — that's where the tone comes from.
Want to Learn It? Start Here
Wayne broke this down into a full lesson series so you can learn it at your own pace. Part 1 covers the intro and verse in Drop D — full speed and super slow:
Get the riff under your fingers in Drop D first. Once you know where the notes live, the slide version makes sense immediately.
Lessons with Wayne
Wayne teaches guitar, bass, and ukulele out of Venice Beach, FL. Whether you're a beginner who wants to learn their first riff or a player who wants to push into slide territory — he's got you.
Wayne Sorbelli — Venice Beach, FL. Guitar. Bass. Ukulele. Slide.
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Wayne Sorbelli
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