Tom Morello, the guitarist from Rage Against the Machine, couldn’t resist taking a playful jab at Elon Musk for a tweet he shared.

The tech tycoon took to his social media platform, X, to share a musing that appeared to reference the band’s name.

“Why are so many people raging FOR the machine?” the Tesla founder pondered.

The billionaire CEO didn’t offer any explanation for what he meant or who he was targeting. But his attempt to co-opt the rebellious spirit of the band caught the attention of several social media users, including the Rage Against the Machine rocker.

“Why are so many people raging FOR the machine?” wondered Elon Musk, triggering a response from Rage Against the Machine’s guitarist Tom Morello

Image credits: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Sharing Elon’s tweet, the guitarist quipped: “Funny cuz Elon was the kid on the cover of Evil Empire.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer had cleverly referenced the band’s 1996 sophomore album Evil Empire and shared the album’s cover art, which featured a clean-cut young man—who, amusingly, could be seen by some as resembling the SpaceX CEO.

Social media joined in on the fun, with one saying: “I was hoping that you were going to comment on Elon’s tweet. Perfect response.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer poked fun at the Tesla founder by mentioning the band’s 1996 sophomore album Evil Empire

Image credits: Tom Morello / Instagram

“Perfect tweet,” said one.

Another took the effort to morph Elon’s face onto the body of the cape-wearing individual on the band’s album cover.

But Elon loyalists came to his defense, with one saying: “Perfect, yes. Perfectly failed to refute the point.”

One X user took the time out to morph the tech tycoon’s head onto the cape-wearing figure on the band’s album cover

“That was a terrible response because Tom actually supports the machine. He’s the clown here,” another said.

This isn’t the first time Elon has ruffled the feathers of a world-acclaimed band.

He targeted pop-punk rockers Green Day earlier this year over a change they made to the lyrics of their hit track, “American Idiot”.

The billionaire CEO once took a jab at pop-punk rockers Green Day for a change in their lyrics

Instead of singing, “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda,” they sang “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda” during their performance at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, hosted by Ryan Seacrest.

Following the band’s New Year’s Eve performance, Elon commented on an article about the change in the lyrics.

“Green Day goes from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it,” he said.