Everything about Tom Morello totally explained
Thomas Baptist Morello (born
May 30,
1964) is a
Grammy Award-winning American
guitarist best known for his tenure with the bands
Rage Against the Machine and
Audioslave, and as the acoustic artist
The Nightwatchman,
He was featured as one of 20 guitarists in
Rolling Stone magazine's "The Top 20 New Guitarists" article. An outspoken political activist, he was also ranked #26 on
Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Early years
Tom Morello was born in
New York, New York. His mother,
Mary Morello, who is part
Irish and part
Italian, is a founder of
Parents for Rock and Rap, an anti-
censorship group. She was also a teacher at Libertyville High School. His father,
Ngethe Njoroge, a Kenyan, was the country's first ambassador to the
United Kingdom. He sang in the school chorus and was active in speech and drama club - a prominent role was
Oberon in
A Midsummer Night's Dream.
He showed his political leanings early. Morello has described himself as having been "the only anarchist in a conservative high school", but has since identified as a nonsectarian
socialist. In the 1980 mock elections at LHS, he campaigned for a fictitious
anarchist "candidate" named Hubie Maxwell, who came in fourth place after
Jimmy Carter at the overwhelmingly Republican school.
Ronald Reagan won the mock election. He also wrote a piece headlined "South Africa: Racist Fascism That We Support" for the school's alternative paper,
The Student Pulse.
At age 13, Morello joined Nebula, a
Led Zeppelin cover band as lead singer. At this same age, Morello purchased his first guitar at Rigoni Music in Libertyville. He wanted a solid-body Ovation guitar, but he didn't have the money to buy one. Instead, he purchased a Kay guitar. Wanting to learn how to play "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin, he took two guitar lessons, but instead was taught the C-major scale. He decided that playing the guitar was a waste of his time, so he placed it in his closet for the next three years.
Around 1984, Morello first started studying the guitar seriously. He had formed a band in the same year called the
Electric Sheep which featured future
Tool guitarist
Adam Jones on bass. Few if any of the Sheep could really play an instrument at first, but the band was an impetus for Morello to start honing his skills. Instead of performing cover songs, the Sheep wrote original material that included politically charged lyrics. None of the songs composed by the Sheep contained solos; soloing was a skill that Morello began learning in college.
At the time, Morello's musical tastes lay in the direction of
heavy metal, particularly
Kiss,
Alice Cooper,
Led Zeppelin, and
Black Sabbath. Morello developed his own unique sound through the electric guitar. Later, his music—and musical politics—were greatly influenced by
punk rock bands like
The Clash, the
Sex Pistols, and
Devo.
Morello graduated in 1982 and began attending
Harvard University. There, he made a point of practicing every day for up to eight hours without fail, no matter how much studying he'd to do. He graduated in 1986 with an honors degree in
political science. He moved to
L.A., where he briefly worked as an aide to Senator
Alan Cranston as he set about trying to join or start a band. Adam Jones moved to L.A. as well; Morello introduced Jones and
Maynard James Keenan to
Danny Carey, who would come to form the band Tool.
Career
Lock Up (1988-1990)
In 1988, Morello joined Lock Up, a
glam rock band that released one album through
Geffen Records before splitting up. This record was called
Something Bitchin' This Way Comes, which enjoyed only slight success at the time.
Rage Against the Machine (1991-2000; 2007-present)
After Lock-Up's demise, Morello visited a club in Los Angeles where
Zack de la Rocha was rapping. After viewing de la Rocha's lyric books, Tom asked him to front a band. Morello drafted
Brad Wilk, a drummer who had unsuccessfully auditioned for Lock Up, and de la Rocha introduced the two to his friend
Tim Commerford. The four formed a new band, Rage Against the Machine.
Rage had great success, especially in
North America and Europe. A mixture of
heavy metal,
hard rock,
hip hop, and
funk, their self-titled first album gained widespread attention for its overtly political themes and Morello's unconventional use of guitar effects to create new sounds and ambience. Morello commented on the success of the album internationally, focusing less on the political elements than the musical ideas behind it:
Evil Empire. The album moved away from the traditional metal guitar work of the first album; it was experimental in nature and further demonstrated Morello's ability to use the guitar in new, attention-holding ways.
In 1999, the band released
The Battle of Los Angeles, their most commercially successful record. In late 2000, they released an album of cover songs titled
Renegades. Shortly before the release, de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine, and the band's instrumentalists said they wanted to continue making music together.
On
April 29 2007, the band reunited at the
Coachella Music Festival. This was originally thought to be a one-time affair, but the band has subsequently performed together at several live events. Also in January 2008 Rage reunited once again to tour on the Big Day Out Music Festival in Australia and New Zealand. They also played 3 shows in Japan in February 2008 and will play 11 shows in Europe from May until August 2008 including the Pinkpop 2008 festival in
the Netherlands, and also T in the Park, in
Kinross, Scotland, and the
Reading and Leeds Festivals. They will also be headlining
Lollapalooza 2008 in Grant Park, Chicago along with
Radiohead and
Nine Inch Nails. The festival takes place from August 1st through August 3rd.
Audioslave (2001-2007)
After de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine, the remaining bandmates started jamming with former
Soundgarden vocalist
Chris Cornell at the suggestion of producer
Rick Rubin. The new group was first called The Civilian Project, but changed their name to Audioslave before their first album was released.
The band released their eponymous debut album on
November 19,
2002. It was a critical and commercial success, attaining triple-platinum status.
The band released their second album,
Out of Exile, on
May 24,
2005. It debuted at number 1 on the Billboard charts and attained platinum status. In the same year, they released a
DVD documenting their trip as the first American rock band to play a free show in
Cuba. The band's third album,
Revelations, was released in the fall of
2006. As of
February 15 2007, Audioslave have broken up as a result of frontman Cornell's departure due to "irresolvable personality conflicts". The band reunited with Zack de la Rocha and resumed their previous band, Rage Against the Machine.
The Nightwatchman (2003-present)
Morello is less known for his
folk music, which he plays under the alias The Nightwatchman. He has explained:
Billy Bragg, Lester Chambers of
the Chambers Brothers,
Steve Earle,
Jill Sobule,
Boots Riley of
The Coup and
Mike Mills of
R.E.M. on the Tell Us the Truth Tour. The thirteen-city tour was supported by unions, environmental and media reform groups including Common Cause, Free Press and A.F.L.-C.I.O. with the ultimate goal of "informing music fans, and exposing and challenging the failures of the major media outlets in the United States." Tom Morello explained:
"Media consolidation needs smashing and globalization needs unmasking. When presidents and politicians lie, it's the job of the press to expose those lies. When the press fails,the gangstas come out from Hiding. the lie becomes the law. The point of the Tell Us the Truth Tour is to help others make connections, and to show them that activism can change the policies of this country."
One of his many songs, "No One Left," which compares the aftermath of
September 11 to that of a U.S. attack on
Iraq, appears on the album
Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11.
The Nightwatchman also appeared on the album/DVD, contributing the songs "Until the End", "The Road I Must Travel", and "Union Song".
Morello, as The Nightwatchman, released his debut solo album,
One Man Revolution, on
April 24,
2007.
The Nightwatchman joined the
Dave Matthews Band for its short European tour in May 2007. As well as opening for the Dave Matthews Band, he was invited to guest on a couple of songs each night. The last night of this Morello/DMB arrangement was
May 30 2007 at
Wembley Arena in London, on Tom's birthday.
The Nightwatchman is currently supporting
Ben Harper on tour. During this tour, Morello has been joining Harper onstage for a cover of
Bob Dylan's "
Masters of War", on which he plays the electric guitar in the style for which he's best known.
Morello has presided over a Hotel Cafe residency in LA since November 2007, which has featured many of his musical cohorts, including
Serj Tankian,
Perry Farrell,
Jon Foreman from
Switchfoot,
Shooter Jennings,
Nuno Bettencourt,
Queen V, Sen-Dog from
Cypress Hill,
Jill Sobule,
Boots Riley,
Alexi Murdoch,
Wayne Kramer from
MC5, and others.
Other side projects (1994-present)
Morello and Wilk joined with
Maynard James Keenan of
Tool and
Billy Gould of
Faith No More to record the song "Calling Dr. Love" for the 1994 Kiss tribute album . The lineup was billed as Shandi's Addiction.
In August 1995 Morello contacted former
Articles of Faith frontman
Vic Bondi and asked him if he wanted to work on a Rage side project. Tentatively titled Weatherman, the short-lived group featured Bondi on vocals, Morello on guitar, Matt Johnson on bass, and Abe Van Eyck on drums. They recorded demos in September 1995. Bondi wrote all the lyrics, while Morello wrote all the music. One track, "Enola Gay", was recorded by Brett Eliason in fall 1996. Tom re-used the main riff of the song for the
Audioslave single "Cochise."
Morello also played lead guitar and produced on three tracks of
Primus' 1999 studio album
Antipop.
Morello played the guitar on "The Faculty" soundtrack, featured with Class of '99 for their cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (pt. 2)"
Morello worked with
The Crystal Method on their 2001 album
Tweekend. He co-produced and played guitars on the smash single "
Name of the Game" and "
Wild, Sweet and Cool".
Morello produced the 2003
Anti-Flag album
The Terror State. He has also been known to play with Anti-Flag in some of their concerts.
Morello played guitar in the score for (2006).
Morello played the guitar riff heard in the final battle scene of the film
Dodgeball.
Morello played guitar in the single "One Man Army" by
The Prodigy.
In July 2006, reported that Morello and Boots Riley, front man of
The Coup, would collaborate on a project called Street Sweepers. Riley has often performed alongside Morello's alter ego The Nightwatchman, and Morello produced and performed on a track for The Coup's 2006 release
Pick a Bigger Weapon.
Morello played the guitar solo on the track "Depleted Uranium is a War Crime" by
Anti-Flag from their 2006 album
For Blood & Empire.
Morello sat in with the
Dave Matthews Band featuring
Butch Taylor and
Rashawn Ross for multiple dates on the band's May 2007 stint in Europe. He performed on "#41," "American Baby Intro" and "Satellite" at various dates on the brief tour.
.]]
Morello appears in as a "guitar boss" (the first of 3 in the career mode of the game) in a
night club. Beating him in a one-on-one battle (playing an original composition he recorded for the game) will unlock him as a playable character and will result in the player and Tom playing the master track of "Bulls on Parade" as an encore immediately following the battle. Before the song is played, two dancing girls come out from backstage and start dancing to "Bulls on Parade". Morello's original composition features many of his trademark guitar effects like those heard in songs such as Audioslave's "
Cochise" and
Doesn't Remind Me and Rage Against The Machine's "Bulls on Parade" and "
Sleep Now in the Fire".
Morello also worked with Maynard James Keenan and Chris George to write Cuntry Boner, featured on Puscifer's first CD single release.
In April 2006, Morello produced two tracks for the group Outernational; on the band's website, it states that Morello will be producing their debut album.
In April 2008, Morello made two guest appearances with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Anaheim Pond. They performed "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (which had been previously covered by Rage Against The Machine) The new, edgy arrangement featured two extended solos by Morello. The videos posted on Youtube quickly garnered thousands of views and were the buzz of Springsteen fans worldwide.
Guitar and Technique
Morello is famed for his
guitar style, which consists of
heavy metal/
punk hybrid
riffs and
hip hop-inspired sounds. His guitar playing is also characterized by heavy use of guitar effects, such as delay, modulation, wah, harmonizers, distortion, feedback, and others in unique ways and combinations. The most recognizable effect in Morello's arsenal is the
Digitech Whammy, which helps him create many of his sounds.
Critically acclaimed, he's said to use the guitar in a unique and imaginative way; rather than just plucking the strings, his maneuvers include toggling between two pickups - one on and one off - while rubbing his hands on the strings over the pickups (his signature vinyl scratch effect used in "Bulls on Parade"). He also uses techniques such as rapidly hitting a pencil on the strings ("Cochise", although he now emulates the sound by "baby-tapping" the strings), scraping an allen wrench on the strings for a whole song ("People of the Sun") and even tapping or scratching his pick-ups and strings with his audio jack cable ("Bullet In The Head").
To assist in his alien guitar sounds, Morello chooses various effects pedals. During his tenure in RATM, he used a
Dunlop Cry Baby, a
Digitech WH-1 Whammy, a Boss DD-2 Digital Delay, a DOD EQ pedal (used to boost the volume during guitar solos), and an Ibanez DFL Flanger. Around the time of
The Battle of Los Angeles he added a Boss TR-2 Tremolo pedal (which can be heard on "Guerrilla Radio"). For Audioslave, Morello replaced the Ibanez Flanger with a MXR Phase 90. His amplifier of choice has always been a 50-watt Marshall JCM 800 2205 and a
Peavey 4x12 cabinet. Though the Marshall is his amp of choice with
Rage Against the Machine, he used a Vox AC30 combo amplifier to record multiple tracks on
Audioslave's 'Revelations' album. While the Marshall amplifier has two channels, he only uses the overdrive channel, and simply turns down the volume on his guitar to get cleaner sounds.
In the studio, Tom uses the same setup for the bulk of the guitar tracks. For
The Battle of Los Angeles, he also used a few other amps, such as a Line 6 as heard on the clean, spacey intro of "Mic Check," plus a Pignose mini-amp and a MusicMan "Twin" style amp. Morello has used several guitars throughout his career, two of the most well-known being branded "Arm the Homeless" and "Soul Power",with "Arm the Homeless" available to play in . For Audioslave's
Revelations album Tom used a red
Gibson Les Paul(External Link
). He also uses an acoustic guitar called "Whatever It Takes" for his performances under the alias
The Nightwatchman.
Axis of Justice
Serj Tankian of
System of a Down are the co-founders of
Axis of Justice, a political group whose declared purpose is "to bring together musicians, fans of music, and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice together." They "aim to build a bridge between fans of music around the world and local political organizations to effectively organize around issues of peace, human rights, and economic justice." The group has worked for such causes as
immigrant rights and
death-penalty abolition. Its recommended book list includes such authors as
Noam Chomsky,
Che Guevara,
George Orwell,
Mumia Abu-Jamal and
Grant Morrison.
Morello and Tankian, together with a handful of other artists, including
Maynard James Keenan,
Wayne Kramer of the
MC5, the hip hop group
Jurassic 5, and
Michael "Flea" Balzary of the
Red Hot Chili Peppers, released a live recording of covers and original songs, titled
The Axis of Justice Concert Series Volume 1.
On
April 6,
2006, Tom Morello was honoured with the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award for his support of worker's rights and for his AOJ work. Tom has worked on numerous labor campaigns: the Guess sweatshop boycott, the LA janitors strike, the Taco Bell boycott, the southern California grocery workers strike and lockout, and others.
Morello was a strong supporter of the
Immigrants Reform Rally and protest around the US. Morello played as The Nightwatchman at
MacArthur Park in Los Angeles and has featured many articles on AOJ. On
September 28,
2006, Morello was one of 400 protesters arrested protesting in support of immigrant hotel workers' rights, in what organizers called "the largest act of civil disobedience in the history of the Los Angeles". Morello knew he was going to be arrested; he wore a bright yellow shirt, and gave the LAPD his driver's license number a few days before the march. Morello told MTV:
his mother's podcast for
Axis of Justice she tells that
Discography
Lock Up
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine (1992)
Evil Empire (1996)
Live & Rare (1997)
The Battle of Los Angeles, (1999)
Renegades (2000)
Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium (2003)
Audioslave
Audioslave (2002)
Out of Exile (2005)
Revelations (2006)
The Nightwatchman
One Man Revolution (April 24 2007)
Guest Spots and Remixes
"Big Willie" for Run-DMC, appears on Down With The King (1993)
"Rappaz R. N. Dainja" for KRS-One, appears on Rappaz R. N. Dainja remix EP (1996)
"One Man Army" for The Prodigy, appears on Spawn: The Album (1997)
"Snoop Bounce (Roc N Roll Remix)" with Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk, for Snoop Doggy Dogg, appears on Tha Doggfather CD single (IND 95550)
"Come with Me" for Puff Daddy and also Features Jimmy Page, appears on Godzilla OST (1998)
"Shed Your Skin" for Indigo Girls, appears on Shed Your Skin (1998)
"It's a Rockin' World" for Joe Strummer and also Features Flea, appears on Chef Aid – The South Park Album (1998)
"War" for Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, appears on Small Soldiers Soundtrack (1998)
"Electric Uncle Sam", "Mama Didn't Raise No Fool" and "Power Mad" for Primus, appears on Antipop (1999)
"Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothing Ta Fuck Wit" for Wu-Tang Clan, appears on Loud Rocks (2000)
"Name of the Game" and "Wild, Sweet and Cool" for The Crystal Method, appears on Tweekend (2001)
"Checkmate (Hang 'em High Remix)" for Cypress Hill, appears on Stash: This Is the Remix (2002)
"Nutmeg Phantasy" for Macy Gray, appears on Spider-Man Soundtrack (2002)
"Lateralus" for Tool, appears Live at Bonnaroo (2007)
"Captain Sterling's Little Problem" for The Coup on their 2006 Pick A Bigger Weapon.
"Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock"
"Iron Man" (film) providing 'Additional Electric Guitar' (2008)
Actor
Saturday Night Live (Episode #21.17, 1996) .... Musical Guest (Rage Against the Machine)
(1998) (uncredited) .... Son'a Officer
(Season 6, Episode 20, 2000, "") .... Crewman Mitchell
Made (2001) .... Best Man
Berkeley (2005) .... Blue
Iron Man (2008) .... Insurgent #5Further Information
Get more info on 'Tom Morello'.
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