Tom Morello
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| Tom Morello Best Of |
Tom Morello teaches 'Bulls On Parade' |
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| Tom Morello plays 'Bulls On Parade' |
Tom Morello plays 'Killing In The Name Of' |
| Guitarist Quick-Facts |
| Name: Tom Morello |
| Born: May 30, 1964 |
| Origin: Harlem, New York |
| Guitar Gear |
| Guitars: Fender |
| Amplifiers: Marshall |
| Bands: Past & Present |
| Electric Sheep, Lock Up, Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, The Nightwatchman |
Tom Morello was born on May 30, 1964, in Harlem, New York. He is the son of an Irish mother and a Kenyan father. Tom grew up in the mostly white suburb of Libertyville, Illinois. In High School, Tom sang in the school choir; he was also active in the speech and drama club, playing Oberon in the school production of Shakespeare's, “A Midsummer Night's Dream”. Morello took an early interest in political issues. When the high school held its mock elections in 1980, Tom campaigned for a fictional candidate named Hubie Maxwell, an anarchist. Despite the school's vast republican majority, Tom's candidate came in fourth, right behind Jimmy Carter. He voiced his activism further when he published an article, “South Africa: Racist Fascism That We Support”, in a school newspaper.
Although he bought his first guitar at the age of 13, Morello didn't begin serious study of the instrument right away. He opted instead, at the time, to be the vocalist in a Led Zeppelin cover band. In those early days, Morello's largest musical influences were the hard rock bands of the day, such as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, and Alice Cooper. Later, early punk bands lie The Clash and The Sex Pistols would influence him both musically and politically.
After graduating high school in 1982, Morello was accepted to Harvard University. In 1984, while at Harvard, he began serious study of the guitar. He formed a band with Adam Jones on bass, Jones was a former student of Tom's schoolteacher mother. Unlike the cover band of his youth, Electric Sheep wrote their own songs. As one would expect from a Tom Morello band, the songs were political in nature, but lacked any solo guitar work, a skill that Morello had not yet learned.
After graduating from Harvard with his BA in government, Morello moved to Los Angeles and began to work as an aide to Senator Alan Cranston. Adam Jones had also moved to LA, and Morello introduced him and Maynard James Keenan to Danny Carey. The three would go on to form the rock band Tool. Unlike his days in Electric Sheep with Morello, Jones took on the role of guitarist for Tool.
In 1989, Tom Morello replaced Mike Livingston as guitarist for a band named Lock Up, just before the recording of the band's first and only record, Geffen's “Something Bitchin' This Way Comes”. Although the band didn't last long, the drummer, Jon Knox, introduced bass player Tim Commerford and vocalist Zack de la Rocha to Morello and drummer Brad Wilk. The four would go on to form Rage Against the Machine.
Rage Against the Machine played in Los Angeles clubs before signing a deal with Epic Records in 1992. The band's self titled debut album would be released later that year. While with Rage Against the Machine, Morello would develop his highly unique guitar sound. He combined hip hop inspired sounds with a large variety of effects boxes. The most popular and recognizable effect in his setup is the Digitech Whammy, a pedal controlled effect that alters the pitch of the signal similar to the way a tremolo bar does.
When De La Rocha left Rage Against the Machine, the band broke up and its remaining members went on to join Chris Cornell of Soundgarden in a new band named Audioslave. Their self titled debut album, released in 2002 was a huge success and went triple platinum. Audioslave released two more successful albums, and became the first American rock band to play a free show in Cuba before breaking up in 2007, citing personality conflicts with vocalist Cornell.
Tom had been playing folk music under the pseudonym The Nightwatchman since 2003 and following the breakup of Audioslave released an album under the name. Morello explains the project, “The Nightwatchman is my political folk alter ego. I've been writing these songs and playing them at open mic nights with friends for some time. This is the first time I've toured with it. When I play open mic nights, it's announced as The Nightwatchman. There will be kids there who are fans of my electric guitar playing, and you see them there scratching their heads.”
On April 29, 2007, Rage Against the Machine performed together again for the first time since their breakup at the Coachella Music Festival. Although it was originally going to be a one time gig, the band played together for several more shows, including headlining at Lollapalooza.
