How Tom Morello Took Control of His Legacy

Tom Morello has been a nearly constant presence on the radio for many years, thanks to his pioneering work and outspoken activism with bands like Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, to name two.

Fans who have seen his solo concerts over the past year have finally been witness to an experience that takes stock of the guitarist’s entire career. So there’s music from those main projects that he’s known for. But there are also nods to things like the time he’s spent playing with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, as well as his post-Rage work with projects like the Nightwatchman.

Tom Morello, the music fan, known for his hard work championing the induction of bands like Kiss, the MC5, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, also shows up in the concerts he’s doing. There’s a bit of Ozzy Osbourne (Morello was the musical director for last year’s star-studded Back to the Beginning tribute to the late hard rock legend) and John Lennon’s “Power to the People” closed his performance earlier this year at the Newport Folk Festival.

How Tom Morello Brought His History Together on One Album

The experience of taking stock of a lot of what he’s done — see above — led him to an interesting place. He’s now preparing to release what is being described as his “first solo rock album,” a collection of work that draws inspiration from his entire timeline.

Everyone Gets Everything They Want lands September 25 on Mom + Pop Music featuring a number of special guests, including Serj Tankian, Kneecap, Beartooth and his son, Roman Morello.

Listening to “Date Night,” the latest single from the album, you’ll hear that musically, it checks a lot of boxes when it comes to what fans have grown to love about Morello’s work, something which he says was very intentional.

Listen to Tom Morello’s ‘Date Night’

“This is the 22nd album of my career between Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, Prophets of Rage, Bruce Springsteen, My Nightwatchman records, etc. But this really is the first solo rock album,” he tells the UCR Podcast in an interview you can listen to below. “The primary inspiration for it was over the course of the last five or six years, I’ve been playing solo shows with my sturdy backup band, the Freedom Fighter Orchestra, where I’ve been embracing the totality of my career.”

“[We’re] playing the the riffs of Rage Against the Machine, which are in the hearts of people around the world, giving tribute to Chris Cornell and playing some Audioslave, playing the acoustic Nightwatchman stuff, and leaning into the bludgeoning riffs that have been my stock and trade,” he explains.

Tom Morello Wanted the Album to ‘Stand Up’ With the Records He’s Made Previously

He was looking to make an album that would reflect “the totality of what it is that I do best,” something which he admits ended up being a bit of a challenge.

“It took a while to get to that,” he shares. “I’m very comfortable as a solo acoustic folk-y writer, and I’m very comfortable with the chemistry of a rock band writing songs. I had to find what felt like home for me.”

“What are the stories that I want to tell that accompany these huge riffs,” was one question he had to answer. “While it is a solo record, there are a few collaborations on it with Beartooth, Serj Tankian of System of a Down, the Irish rappers, Kneecap — and of course, my secret weapon, my 15-year-old guitar whiz son, Roman Morello, is featured on five of the tracks, giving me a run for my money.”

Listen to Tom Morello on the ‘UCR Podcast’

Roman and Tom Morello — Srdjan Stevanovic, Getty Images

Meet the Next Morello

It’s Roman Morello who really shows an impressive hand of cards on this new album. If you’ve seen the videos or had the chance to see the two of them play live together, he’s clearly cut from similar cloth, both visually and in his style, but it’s clear that we’re also seeing the next generation of Morello who has other source material that he’s working from as well.

“it’s interesting because it’s one thing when, you know, he started playing during the pandemic. He hasn’t played that long, but he’s already got his first 10,000 hours in,” Tom offers. “It’s one thing to be able to play the ‘Mr. Crowley’ solo note for note in your bedroom.”

“It’s quite another to be able to have the confidence he has as a young teenager. You know, this is the third summer we’ve toured together. It started when he was 13, and I remember we had played a couple of smaller shows,” he says. “It was our first big European festival show in Spain, with about 60,000 people and beforehand, he comes up, he goes, ‘Dad, I’m a little bit nervous today.’ I said, ‘Really?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah.'”

“I said, ‘Well, do you still know how to play the songs like you knew how to play them at the last show?’ He’s like, ‘Well, yeah.’ I said, ‘Are you still pretty confident that the rest of us know how to play the songs like we did a few days ago?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Let’s just go play the songs.'”

“He was like, ‘Is it that easy?’ I’m like, ‘It’s really that easy. Let’s just go play the songs.’ And then freed of that burden of nervousness about how many people are in front of you, he’s a ham, man. I mean, check the tape,” Morello concludes. “There’s a lot of video evidence over the course of the summer of him just really rocking the place to the ground, and that’s his very proud nepo dad speaking.”

Watch Tom Morello’s ‘Adjourn It’ Video Featuring Serj Tankian and Roman Morello

It Starts With a Good Song

Though Morello has long been known for being quite happy to be the least popular guy in the room if it helps to get an important viewpoint across, he points out that you have to have a solid song as your foundation. For that, he had some important teachers, in a certain sense, that he learned from.

“It was the Clash and Public Enemy,” he confirms, giving just a couple of examples. “I’ll say, [they are] two of my favorite musical artists that also had a message in their music that helped embolden me. You know, I felt less alone. It wasn’t like they taught me things necessarily. They didn’t teach me the political stuff. They taught me that you could make great music and not leave behind what you believe.”

“You know when you believe in human rights, when you believe in anti-racism, et cetera, et cetera. That became a North Star,” he explains. “But like, what’s the opposite of that? Is [it] leaving behind who you are to get a few more likes? [Or] denying stuff that is in your soul about how the world might be better, to be a little bit more popular. I mean there’s a special hot place in purgatory for people who make that choice.”

“Now on the one hand I will say that if you do not have political convictions or ideas like that, please do not pretend to have them because Tom Morello tells you to,” he adds. “What makes music great is authenticity, and so for me, a song like ‘Date Night’ about three Dutch teenage girls who murdered Nazis in the woods feels about as authentic a subject matter as I could want to have — and then I try to match it with a banger of a song.”

“If what’s on your mind are girls and cars and weed. Then you should write that song, and that’s going to be a great song for you.”

What’s Next for Tom Morello?

The guitarist recently established the Mary Morello Memorial Project to honor and continue sharing and spreading the important work and knowledge that was so important to his mother, who passed away earlier this year.

He’ll also host the all-star Power to the People concert happening Oct. 3 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. The bill features numerous heavy hitters, including Bruce Springsteen, Stephen Stills, Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, Foo Fighters and Dave Matthews just to name a few.

One additional highlight for the day’s entertainment? Jack Black will perform a special “Jack Sabbath” tribute set featuring a variety of musicians, including Roman Morello.

“I wanted to make a festival that kind of matched the trouble of our times,” Tom tells UCR. “You know, dangerous times demand dangerous festivals and I wanted to make a show that was going to be one that responded to that in the D.C. area [with] a lot of artists with a certain point of view to make a day that is a celebration of resistance and that’s exactly what’s going to be.”

“It is a celebration. Someone said, ‘Well, I’m sure there’ll be a lot of speakers.’ I’m like, ‘Nope, there’s zero speakers,'” he continues. “There’ll be zero speakers on the day. There will be a lot of great rock and roll and a lot of great hip-hop, under the banner of power to the people.”

Tom Morello’s Everyone Gets Everything They Want lands on Friday (Sept. 25). You can preorder the album.