Rise Against's Tim McIlrath recently spoke with Billboard about their forthcoming tour with Rancid and how the double header came together. Tim explained:

It's amazing just to tour with such a legendary band. Without them paving the way for us, who knows where we would be. It's something we never saw happening; it was kind of like a fantasy idea, and I can't believe it all came together to happen. It'll definitely be an honor to share the stage with them.

We were just completely shocked when they came back and said (Rancid) was interested in doing it. I didn't believe it at all, and it wasn't until Tim Armstrong came personally to one of our shows in L.A. and came to our dressing room and shook all of our hands and said, 'Hey, we are so excited to be going out on tour with you guys'…and I was still like, 'I can't believe this is happening.

Rise Against issued Appeal to Reason in 2008. Rancid will be releasing their long-awaited new album, Let the Dominoes Fall on June 2, 2009.