Paul McCartney Backs Rage Against The Machine In U.K. Charts Battle

Paul McCartney says he supports Rage Against The Machine in the battle for the U.K. #1 Christmas single.

The announcement comes as a surprise, considering McCartney will perform on The X Factor with the television program's winner, Joe McElderry, on Sunday (Dec. 18).

"I like the idea of this Rage Against The Machine thing that's happening," McCartney told Britain's Sky News. "I think that's kind of interesting."

A Facebook group, which accumulated hundreds of thousands of members, was created earlier this month, urging its members to buy Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name" to stop McElderry from taking the Christmas #1 spot. X Factor winners have had the #1 over Christmas in the U.K. for five years running.

McCartney said he liked the idea of Rage taking the top spot because it was "out of leftfield."

"Everyone expects Joe to do it, and he certainly will sell a lot of records," Macca said. "And if he gets to #1, good luck to him. But it would be kind of funny if a band like Rage Against The Machine got it because it would prove a point."

Dave Grohl, Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello and Stereophonics' Kelly Jones spoke out in support of the Facebook group and campaign earlier this week.

Rage Against The Machine caused a bit of a broadcasting flap when they appeared on BBC Radio 5live on Wednesday (Dec. 15) to perform "Killing In The Name" and the expletive-laced end of the song was accidentally aired uncensored on the radio.

A video of that performance has surfaced online, and you can watch the whole thing in our media section.

Rage Against The Machine announced this week that they would use any profits from U.K. Christmas sales of "Killing In The Name" to raise money and awareness for Shelter, which fights homelessness.

X Factor producer Simon Cowell recently said he thought the Rage Against The Machine campaign was "stupid" and "very Scrooge."