5 minute read
Tom Morello
from Kutucnu_0221
by aquiaqui33
There’s serious business athand
ANAUDIENCEWITHTOMMORELLO
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LISTENING toTomMorello’s raucous new “Comandante” EP, on which he pays tribute to Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen before trading licks with Slash, it’s hard to believe that it was recorded at home during lockdown. “My 97-year-old mom and my 89-year-old mother-in-law are with us,” he explains, “so we’ve literally been under corona house arrest for eight months with nobody in or out.” But af er reading an interview where Kanye West extolled the virtues of recording to voicemail, Morello decided to make a whole EP doing just that. He’s particularly proud of how his version of “Voodoo Child” turned out: “It sounds pretty massive for a phone balanced on a little folding chair as the microphone.”
Such restrictions are nothing new for Morello. “Historically, I’ve written my most bombastic rif s on an acoustic guitar, which runs back to a time when I was living in crowded apartments. When inspiration struck at 2am, I couldn’t wake the whole place up by cranking up the Marshall stack, so I became very adept at knowing what a rif quietly strummed into a battery tape recorder would sound like when played on stage at a festival.”
Despite his extreme lockdown situation, Morello was still able to soak up some of the joy of Trump’s election defeat last month, as spontaneous parties erupted across Los Angeles. “There were a lot of amateur DJs set up in the street banging out tunes. It was a euphoric Rage life: RATM in 1993 and (above) the young Morello moment, but this drama is still and friend
Interview by SAM RICHARDS
playingout.Idonotbelieve thatwe’veescapeda21stcenturyfascistAmerica quiteyet.”Whichmeans,of course,thatMorello’swork asanoisyagitatorforsocial justicecontinues…
Seeingyouplay“Killing InTheName”onThe Wordblewmytiny youngmind.Whatdo yourememberabout thatperformance? KapilSandhu,viaemail
Irememberitwell!We wereinthemiddleofthis pressblitz,beingshuttled from place to place, so it felt like it was going to be just another moment of trying to get heard. But it turned into this very chaotic and electric moment that seemed to divide everybody in the room into two tribes – there were those who recognised that a meteor was striking the country, and those who were aghast! And of course, it echoed out from that day onward. Did we have an inkling of how big that song wouldbecome?Ofcoursenot.Icameup withtherifwhenIwasgivingaguitar lessoninmyapartmentinHollywood. Originallywhenweworkeditupforthe banditwasaninstrumental,andeven onourfrstdemoweburiedthesong; Ithinkitwastracksix.Theideaforitto bethefrstsinglewasnottheband’s, itwasourA&RMichaelGoldstone’s. Hesaid,“We’renotgoingtoedititfor radio,”andIwaslike,“Ithas16‘fuck yous’andone‘motherfucker’init–that’s awesome!”Sotherewasnoexpectation thatwe’dbetalkingaboutitthismany yearslaterorthatitwouldeventuallyfnd itswaytoNo1onthepopcharts.
Howmanyminutesintoyournaked protestatLollapalooza’93didyou begintoregretnotwearingpants? MarkDunham,Cornwall
Hahaha!Thiswasinafootball stadiumbytheway,andweopened theshow:helloeveryone,welcome toLollapalooza,here’snakedRage AgainstTheMachine!Therewasan outpouringofexcitementamongthe crowdforthefrstfveminutes.Then therewasaninterestingstand-of asitwasclearthatthiswasnotjust somesortofquickstunt.Andthen forthelastfveminutestherewas outrighthostility–booingandgiving usthefngerandquartercoinsbeing thrownatourdicks.ThetimeIwish Ihadmypantsonwaswhenthe policearrived.Irantotheonlyplace thatanakedblackmanmightbe
Bossing it: with Bruce Springsteen at Madison Square Garden, NYC, October 29, 2009
undercoverbackstageatLollapalooza, andthatwastheFishbonetourbus; they weresittingaroundinvarious states of undresswatchingStarWars, so I f t right in.Hopefullyinsomewaywe made the pointthatcontroversialmusic is not somethingyoucantakefor granted, you havetofghtforit.Although people just rememberusstandingthere naked.
TheEStreetbandwasoneof the greatest liverockbandsintheworld for 40 yearsbeforeIplayedwiththem, so my mainjobwasnottoruinaperfectly goodthing!Ilearned250songs before departingforthefrsttour, so I guess thatwouldbetheinduction. And still itwasn’tenough.Brucewould of en surpriseusbytakingrequests from the crowd–andsometimesthey weren’t evenBruceSpringsteensongs! When wewereinAustralia,weplayed songs by INXS,theBeeGees…No-one in the band knowswhatthenextsongis, ever. And thearrangementsofthesongs are also not carvedinstone,soyounever know when itmightbetimeforaguitar solo. It really keptmeonmytoes.
What’sthebestormost dangerous ‘guerrillagig’you’veplayed as TheNightwatchman? SteveBritton,Halifax
Thegigsatprotestssurrounding the G8 conferencestendtobethemost violent. In Miami,therewasahugepolice riot with stormtrooperschasingprotestors down thestreet.Iwasonacharity tour with SteveEarle,BillyBraggand Boots Riley. Whentheteargasbrokeout, they were allrunningbacktothehotel and I was like,“No,guys,thisway!”My eyes were burningforaweekaferwards. But the onethatwasmostdramatic was at the G8 inHamburg.Ihadbeenasked to play by thisanarchistcoalition.The city was shut downandyoucouldn’tget in, there were militarycheckpointskeeping alleged rioters out, so we bribed a f sherman to use his boat. We had to ram the sea blockade and then climb up this Pirates Of The Caribbean ladder and we arrived in the middle of a pitched battle. I played my set and then we had to run the sea blockade the other way, this time in the dark. But it felt like what I was born to do, man. The Nightwatchman will serve when called!
Backstage at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, after inducting Kiss into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, April 10, 2014
Your 2014 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction speech for Kiss is legendary. Did you ever get feedback from the band about it? Mikko Kapanen, Helsinki
I did. Prior to the ceremony I went on an all-out blitz to try to get the original four members to perform together. Af er an unsuccessful lobbying attempt, I realised that the only show that night was going to be my speech. Kiss were the band that ignited my f re and made me love rock’n’roll, so I spent a lot of time craf ing that speech, and af erwards they all seemed grateful. I was mocked in school for being a Kiss fan – in addition to some other factors, it really made me a hunted minority growing up. But I steadfastly believed in that band. They showed a way beyond the constraints of the conservative town that I grew up in.
What is your favourite guitar slogan? Jean Sarlat, Lyon, France
My favourite is not on my guitar, it’s on Woody Guthrie’s. “This Machine Kills Fascists” is such an awesome, poetic treatise. I love using the guitar as a canvas for additional sloganeering but it all goes back to Woody emphasising that these are not just songs to sing and dance to, there’s serious business at hand with three chords and the truth.
Do you think in this current cultural and political climate that socialism can still work and even be accepted again? PS I’m a Mikhail Bakunin anarchist. Karl Ozols, via email
I’m glad there are some of us lef ! I mean, I think it’s a necessity, to save the planet. Look at how capitalism has responded to the global pandemic – it’s a disaster. Look at how capitalism has responded to the impending environmental crisis – it’s a disaster. Look at how capitalism has responded to racism and anti-immigrant sentiment in the 21st century – it’s a disaster. I think that we have to look for solutions that serve humanity and the planet, and you can put whatever ism you want to it – that’s less important than the goal of a more humane, just, decent and sustainable earth.
When was the last time you did what somebody told you? James Entwistle, via email
Ha ha ha ha! Oh, around my household all day long. It’s ironic – the refrain around here is, nobody does what Dad tells them.
My children enjoy music and the 11-year-old loves contemporary hip-hop, the more facial tattoos the better. As a young person it’s imperative that you like music that your parents don’t really understand. In the same way that
Kiss and Black Sabbath made my mom raise an eyebrow, I raise that same eyebrow, but I have to push it down. My nine-year-old loves classic rock, for him it’s Zeppelin and Floyd and AC/DC… but sometimes it’s so loud. I’ve never once said “turn it down” because I recognise what that would mean – butIthinkit!
Morello’s photo memoir Whatever It Takes is out now from Genesis Publications. See TomMorelloBook.com for more details
