I first heard of RATM on the radio.� I didnt know who they were, what their band name was or anything.� The song was replayed a lot because it was popular.� I liked the song because of one of the lyrics.� The song featured the lyrics, "Rally 'round the family, with a pocket full of shells."� At that time I was 10 years old and it was May of 1996.� The lyric seemed funny to me.� I always pictured a guy having a sack full of shells in his hand and he was walking around a family that is sitting next to a fireplace.� He was walking like Native Americans go around a campfire.� Because this lyric seemed funny to me, I started to like the song, and i wanted to hear it over and over again.� I went on a trip with my friend and I repeated it over and over again.� He hated it and said he hated the song.� That was when I just said," This band is always going to be my favorite band."� I heard on the radio their name was something like Rage Against the Machine, but because my vocab wasnt that big I thought it was Race Against the Machine.� That made more sense to me.� Later on, I found out rage is a word.� When I had told my brother that my favorite band was going to be Rage, he gave me his Evil Empire CD.� My brother always buys CD's the day it comes out.� He probably bought Evil Empire because it was rap influenced (in early '96, I liked rap.� By about march I had changed to alternative music because my brother also changed from rap to alternative.)� At this time, a July day in 1996, I had owned my first Rage CD.� I thought Rage was a normal band.� But my brother told my dad about Rage and then they got into stuff about politics.� That is the day I changed.� On that day I changed from a citizen who just followed school and everything i needed to do, to a more abstract thinker.�� I went on websites and looked at Rage sites.� I read about politics.� I even found out they had a CD before Evil Empire.� I said i must try to get it.� I got it in October 1996.� When I listened to it, I saw the difference in how they sound when you know they are political and when you didnt think they were.�� They came to Phoenix in October of 1996 but i thought I was too young to go to one of their concerts.� They came again in 1997 and I didnt go.� I regret that.� I have really badly wanted to see them in concert because they are my favorite band.� If they come here on their next tour, "You'll see me."� Now to my influence with my friends.� When I first got into Rage my best friend hated them.� When I decided to go over to his house, we listen to the "Top 10 Freaking Favorites"(top 10 songs of the week on The Edge radio).� I said I really want to hear Rage.� And he said so do I.� And those quotes that long ago was the passageway for him to be a Rage fan.� He is a hardcore one and actually he visits this page a lot (even the forum).� All my friends in my middle school three years ago didnt like Rage.� They had barely heard of them.� People would make fun of me for liking them.� Well all of a sudden one of my friends at school becomes a hardcore Rage fan.� My influence on them is great because of the way Rage has changed them.� I have got my brother into Rage more, and he has bought me all kinds of Rage merchandise.� And if it wasn't for my kiddie mind I would have liked Rage.� If it wasn't for Rage I would be a totally different person.� I found Rage by myself, and I changed myself because of me, but I thank Rage for making me thinks further than whats going on.� To think beyond reality.� They have also got me back into playing musical instruments.� They have just changed me from the average Joe Schmoe to the Abstract Schmabstract.� I thank them and I am happy to await their next album.