In 2011, Tom Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Neil Young acted as his sponsor and introduced him. Waits took the stage with his legendary awkwardness and said in his cavernous voice: “Songs are just very interesting things to do with air. And they say within the music industry that I have no hits and that I am someone difficult to work with. The most surprising thing is that they say this as if it were a bad thing.” The laughter in the auditorium was thunderous. These words reveal two characteristics of the Californian artist: uncomfortable and brave. The same can be said of his current allies, the British Massive Attack.
Tom Waits and the two members of Massive Attack, Robert Del Naja and Daddy G, have been friends for several years. Apart from the miles that separate them (he lives in California and they spend most of their time in the United Kingdom), this fraternity should not be surprising: they share a bold artistic vision based on freedom outside (and against) the markets; and politically they have been active forming a barrier against authoritarianism directed from governments and against social injustices. They lacked musical collaboration. And it has come at a moment, much to their regret, perfect: the warlike and racist drift of Donald Trump. Waits and Massive Attack have just released Boots On The Ground (which can be translated as Boots on the Ground), published by the label PIAS, the biggest musical slap to the repressive policies of the President of the United States. Part of the lyrics says: “Who the hell are these federal idiots? / Hiding in the Senate like a tick swollen on the ass. / Shitty loafers with air conditioning. / Sitting in a room full of army posters.”
The song, as Waits himself explains in a statement, has been composed for some years, but it seems written a week ago: “One day, a few years ago, I accepted an invitation from Massive Attack to collaborate. At that time I sent them Boots on the Ground. Their delay in releasing it never worried me. Today, as in all yesterdays of Humanity, it guarantees that this song will never go out of style. Man’s madness is a feast for flies.” Waits is the author of the lyrics, his partner Kathleen Brennan participates in the composition, and his son Casey is on backing vocals and drums. They recorded the track without resorting to remote: they met together in a studio. Massive Attack has commented: “This song arrives in an atmosphere of chaos. Throughout the West, authoritarianism and the militarization of police forces are merging with neo-fascist politics.”
Boots on the Ground, which lasts four minutes and 20 seconds, extends to seven in the video supporting the release. The short film captures a succession of images by photographer thefinalye taken over a period from the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 to recent ICE raids (the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement service created by Trump) and the killing of civilians. They are black and white and color images of various moments of police repression in the United States: agents armed with rifles threatening protesters; smoke bombs; fire; ICE chief Gregory Bovino, wearing a bulletproof vest directing operations; citizens arrested, mistreated; people burning images of Trump; destroyed cars; crying Latino children and their parents with fear drawn in their eyes; the United States flag in flames; homeless people lying on any street corner of a city. At the end of the video, austere white letters on a black background inform about the consequences of political and police punishment: “As of March 2026, eight people have died at the hands of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents or in their custody. Their names are…”; “As of February 2026, 68,289 people were detained by ICE. Of that number, 73% (50,259) have no criminal record. Many of those who have criminal records were for minor offenses, such as traffic violations”…
Musically, Massive Attack adapts to Waits’ style, who sings with his characteristic howling animal voice over the percussion of tubes and clock engines that abound in his discography. The duo provides a dark and ghostly atmosphere driven by a sumptuous piano. The atmosphere they build is unsettling. Boots on the Ground belongs to the category of Waits’ twisted blues, which are so enjoyed in a very peculiar career that began in the seventies as a piano singer in a smoky nightclub portraying the underside of the night in cities and continued in the eighties, nineties, and two thousands changing style through increasingly rough voice experimentation and unusual percussion.
Both Massive Attack (both from Bristol, 61-year-old Del Naja and 66 Daddy G) and Tom Waits (California, 76 years old) have gone a decade and a half without releasing an album. The singer’s last, Bad as Me, dates from 2011, and the duo was even lazier, as their Heligoland was released in 2010. However, the British have been performing regularly lately: this year they will headline the first day (June 4) of Primavera Sound in Barcelona. Waits, however, limits himself to brief performances spaced out over time but has given up touring, something he has not done much throughout his distinctive career. His last tour took place in 2008 and was held especially in Spain since it was the first (in San Sebastián and Barcelona), and the last, time the Californian musician performed in our country. Waits currently prefers to develop as a performer, almost always under the direction of his friend, director Jim Jarmusch. His latest collaboration, Father Mother Sister Brother, premiered in December 2025.
Boots on the Ground, which will also be released on vinyl along with a poem (The Fly) recited by Waits, carries another message, this time for the music industry, although also with a political component: the song will not be available on Spotify (but on other platforms), whose head, Daniel Ek, actively invests in companies that supply weapons to, among others, the government of Israel. The British duo has been active in this regard, organizing concerts and leading organizations such as No Music for Genocide. The group’s concerts have become first-rate political expressions where the musicians denounce, through artistic and aesthetic concepts, the genocide of Gaza, the power of the state over citizens through technology, excessive consumerism, or the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Just four days ago, on April 13, a rather unusual image occurred: seeing how some police officers took away, held by the hands and legs, a famous musician. Robert Del Naja was arrested, along with several people, in central London at a pro-Palestine demonstration. “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action,” said the musician, who already denounced the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003.
This furious response from Tom Waits against the Trump government joins those of Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, or Patti Smith, veterans who have set out to mobilize against the coercive policies of some rulers. Young musicians, however, lean more towards caution.
