Tom Morello started the year with a protest concert in Minneapolis, and by March, he was onstagewith Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for an anti-Trump tour. In October, he threw his own all-star pre-midterms festival, Power to the People, right
after releasing his heaviest album in years, Everyone Gets Everything They Want . If he seems unusually fired up lately at age 62, well, “What’s not to be fired up about?” he asks.
Everyone Gets Everything They Want branches out to his singer-songwriter side, and even finds him rapping on one track, “Soldier in the Army of Love.” Guests include Serj Tankian (on the distinctly Rage-ish “Adjourn It”), Kneecap, and Morello’s own son Roman, a precocious 15-year-old guitar virtuoso.
Morello sat down with Rolling Stone to talk politics, the Ed Sheeran controversy, and his album. “This is the record that embraces the totality of what I am as an artist and what I can do as a guitar player,” he says.
So you have your first solo rock record coming out, and then you have your own festival, Power to the People. You’re, as usual, a busy man.
Oh, that’s very, very true. With regards to the record, it’s probably the last record I’ll make before they throw us all in jail. So let’s make the most of it. And then the festival too comes at a historical crossroads in our democracy, doing what we can with what we’ve got.
On the album, you mention being on a blacklist. Do you really feel you’re on a blacklist?
It would be an honor to be on a blacklist at this point, and I think we live in a time where, if it looks like fascism, if it talks like fascism, if it acts like fascism, if it lies like fascism, if it kills like fascism, brothers and sisters, it’s fascism, you know? Just today we’ve had Trump announce his own state news network that will report the news to his liking. And so those of us that aren’t on a blacklist are the ones that aren’t doing enough at this point, I suspect.
Now, you love a lot of bands and a lot of music that isn’t political — from Judas Priest to Rush. But that said, what do you make of the Ed Sheeran situation?
In some ways it’s a distraction, and in some ways it’s the whole thing. It’s a distraction because Ed Sheeran is not a victim or someone we should be focusing on, nor is Macklemore. The war crimes that were brought to the fore on the stage by Macklemore’s speech are the ones that should be the primary focus. And not be distracted by whether or not Ed Sheeran is crying today or crying tomorrow. That’s what I think.
But on the other hand, it’s the whole thing, where the idea that a handful of ruling class billionaires get to decide what speech can occur on a concert stage is a very worrying element. But it’s indicative of the moment that we’re in. Who decides what the truth is? Who decides who gets to say what? There’s a handful of extraordinarily super rich people who believe it should be them in every instance. And I disagree with that assessment. And I think that at this crossroads of our democracy, the people who are gonna make a determination of whether or not that stands is no one different from you and from me. History is not something that happens, it is something that we make, and there is absolutely no neutrality in this particular moment.
Is there an argument that people’s focus on Ed Sheeran is indeed a distraction from what they should be focusing on?
Yeah, 100 percent. It’s all right to shame him in this moment because he deserves the shame, but not the focus. The focus is your and my tax dollars are going to commit horrific war crimes in the Middle East, and that, I believe, should be the focus and what we should be doing our best to stop in its tracks.
It’s a clickbait, it’s salacious, it’s, “Oh my gosh, poor Ed Sheeran.” First of all, has Ed Sheeran never seen a Macklemore performance before in the last three years? He certainly should’ve known what he was getting into.
The one thing that’s sort of adjacent is, this is a time where speech is being vilified and is a crime, where the truth is a crime, where skin color is a crime, where immigrant status is a crime, where gender is a crime, where sexual orientation is a crime. And it’s my belief that the true crime is the rise of authoritarianism, and the true crime is the erosion of freedoms, and the true crime is an impending environmental disaster. And so my hope at each one of my shows, I deputize the audience as anti-fascist crime fighters, and that’s really the way that I think you have to look at the world right now. Like, what are the real crimes that are happening, and what is it that you and I can do to stop it?
Now that I’ve gotten you fired up — your Power to the People Festival. What is its most essential purpose?
It is not PR or hyperbole to say it is a festival of peace, love, justice, and music. In a time where war is celebrated, this is a festival of peace. In a time where hatred and division are rife, this is a festival of love. In a time where injustice is the norm, this is a festival celebrating fighting for justice. In a time where there’s a lot of shitty music, there’s gonna be a lot of great music on this stage, so we’re going for four for four.
How much were the midterms on your mind when you scheduled this?
As my dear departed mom, Mary Morello, who passed away at 102 years old, was a very political person, said, “You’ve got to fight the fascists every which way you can.” One of those ways is at the ballot box. It’s not the only way, and you should not just think that because you’ve done that. Voting is a piece on the chessboard, and that you try to create an environment where in between the voting you can fight for a more just, a more peaceful, a more equal world.
And so, is the festival three weeks before the midterms? Yeah. Does the money from the festival go to voting rights organizations? Yeah, it does, but the festival is about something much bigger than that. It’s about what kind of world do you really wanna live in, and should we fight for that world, or should we settle for the one that’s being spoon-fed for us by the oligarchs?
I want to return to the electoralism issue in a second, but I did want to say I’m really sorry about your mom. I was wondering if her passing has fired you up in a new way.
Well, her existence fired me up from the time that I was a tot, you know? She led a very humble life, but a life of great purpose and power. In someone’s declining years, you’re spending a lot of time with them and focusing on their health. But when my mom passed, I heard from these teenage girl refugees in Afghanistan who had been inspired by her life. I heard from the president of Chile, who had been in the Rage Against the Machine mosh pit in 2010 and had followed Mary Morello’s story. Some of my favorite artists were doing moments of silence at their concerts for this little old lady from suburban Illinois who never had any ambition beyond just trying to help people.
From feeding hobos on the back porch in the night in the Great Depression to marching against wars for oil in the Eighties and Nineties. For her 100th birthday, she had two wishes. One was to feed the homeless at the Midnight Mission in downtown LA. The other was to walk the picket line for striking hotel workers with the UNITE HERE Union, which she did in her wheelchair.
So, does her passing fire me up? I miss her greatly. She was always the most radical and popular member of the Morello family, and that goes undisputed.
She basically was a real-life Tom Joad.
It is incredible, yeah. You’re not wrong. The way that I look at too is, whenever someone stands up without any hope of recognition, stands up for people who have less, my mom will be there. Whenever a parent allows their cacophonic punk rock band to practice in the basement, my mom will be there. Whenever a white person stands up against racism or for immigrant rights, Mary Morello will definitely be there.
Did you make this entire record after she was gone?
No, no, no. She got to actually hear it before she passed. I got to play it for her in her last week or so. And my mom always had unvarnished editorial comments on the music of my career. From practicing in her basement when I was 17 — she lived right next door to my studio. Actually, I was practicing in my mom’s basement when she was 100 years old, and she would comment on the songs she liked more and the songs she liked less. Fortunately, this record got a thumbs up from Mary.
This album really does encompass all the things that you’ve done in your career, which is more than people might realize.
On the one hand, this is the heaviest record that I’ve made since the first Rage record, that’s for sure. I wanted to make a record that had ten-out-of-ten powerful riffs strewn throughout. But that’s one of the goalposts. The other goalpost is, I love Darkness on the Edge of Town and Nebraska and the early Dylan records, and that Nightwatchman, Cafe Wha? folk music side of me is very much alive and well on this.
But the idea was to make a heavy record. And my muse for this record was my 15-year-old son, Roman Morello, who’s now toured with me for the last three summers, and I would be with my ear to his door poaching his best riffs for this record, and he contributed to five songs on the record, and we just got done with a run of shows, and I’ve never been more excited or happier playing music and writing music than I am right now.
Which riffs are his on here?
“Soldier in the Army of Love.” “Adjourn It,” the song with Serj Tankian. The song “Unconquered.” There’s a couple more as well. But the thing that’s interesting about lifting those riffs from Roman is that he clearly has, one, a knowledge of my catalog, two, has Morellian riff-writing DNA, but it’s through an entirely different lens. There’s a familiarity to them like, oh, that’s a kick-ass riff that I wish I had written, and we just have a ball doing it. Then he just goes back to being a humble little 15-year-old kid after shredding his ass off. It’s pretty special.
When you talk about a different lens that he has, what is that different lens?
It’s through his own individuality. First of all, my kids didn’t really know what I did for a living. I never played Rage for them. I never played Audioslave for them. I’m just dad who drove them to Little League games, right? And it was in 2022 when Rage was going on tour. One night we didn’t have a babysitter, so I had to drag them to the rehearsal studio kicking and screaming, and the first time they heard Rage Against the Machine, they were in a room with it, and they were like, “Oh, so Dad’s not just the guy that sleeps late.” There may be another layer to it. But then, touring, they came on tour that summer and they went from liking some artists in the world of K-pop and the world of this, that and the other to deeply exploring the Sabbath and Zeppelin and Rage Against the Machine catalogs.
You started much later than Roman got to start on guitar.
Sure. Yeah. I didn’t start till I was 17 years old.
So he’s way ahead of you.
Way ahead. Way ahead. He’s way ahead of me now. He has a technical prowess on the instrument that is one that I haven’t touched.
Does it make you wonder about the nature versus nurture thing? Do you think that if you’d started earlier you’d be even better?
Well, everybody’s on their own journey. The pillars of any guitar talent I have or any creative success that I have were all based on fundamental failures, right?
The first was I got a guitar when I was 13 years old. I took two guitar lessons, and I failed at them. I wanted to learn “Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin and “Detroit Rock City” by Kiss. They wanted to teach me the C major scale and how to tune the guitar. I said, “No, thank you.” The guitar collected dust for four years until I got the Sex Pistols cassette. So the failure to succeed at lessons unlocked for me the idea of really finding a wholly independent path on the guitar, right?
Then the next failure was I got my first check working for Senator Alan Cranston, back in the Eighties. I had a custom guitar made, and it was the worst guitar of all time. I failed to get a guitar that could sound like I wanted it to sound, and I finally just gave up after trying to buy equipment and whatnot, and I just decided the sound that I have, an imperfect sound, an island of misfit toy sound, was just gonna be my sound. I’m gonna create with it. And that guitar is the guitar I played on 22 records, right?
The next major failure was the most important one. It was I moved to Hollywood to be a rock star and to make albums, and I got signed to Geffen with my band Lock Up, my pre-Rage Against the Machine band Lock Up, and we made a record with possibly the worst title in the history of Western music, Something Bitchin’ This Way Comes. And then we were summarily dropped from the label, and we didn’t have 15 minutes of fame. We had 15 seconds of people returning our phone calls. I was 27 years old. I had failed to do the thing that I wanted to do. I was not gonna be a rock star. I was not gonna make records, but I still was a musician. We did everything everybody asked. The producer knew what was best. The A&R person knew what was best. And none of that worked out, so I made a solemn vow to never play another note of music that I didn’t believe in, and that’s when I began writing riffs that would comprise, in part, the first Rage Against the Machine record.
And the final crucial failure was being unable to keep that band together. And I sort of saw myself as like, I’ll be in one band — like Jimmy Page, you’re in Led Zeppelin, and that’s the thing — and it just did not happen, which felt like a tremendous failure. Like, the dream is real. You’re able to have the politics that you believe in and the music that you love, on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and it just goes away. And it opened the door to Audioslave, to playing with Bruce Springsteen, to collaborating with everybody from Joan Baez to Wu-Tang Clan, to playing with my son now in the greatest musical experience of my life, where one door closed and a million beautiful windows opened.
Do you blame yourself for not keeping that band together? It sounded like you were blaming yourself.
I blame myself for all those failures and they were the best thing that could’ve possibly happened to me.
The first time that I saw you front a rock band was the E Street Band, dueting with Bruce Springsteen on “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”
Well, the difference with that was I was very artistically content as a singer-songwriter in the world of folk music. I play a lot of guitar solos on a lot of records, and made a lot of records with a lot of guitar. And playing an 82 bar solo in “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” what it brought me back to was playing electric guitar. I was very comfortable singing songs of social justice, but in the context of a roaring band with a blazing guitar solo, that was really in some ways an important signpost on the road that’s led to Everyone Gets Everything They Want.
This is the 22nd record of my career, if you count the Springsteen records, Prophets of Rage, et cetera, et cetera. But all roads have led here. This is the record that embraces the totality of what I am as an artist and what I can do as a guitar player. And maybe more importantly, as a curator of artistic experience, whether it’s on the stage or whether it’s on a song.
On the album, there’s even a moment or two when you do something akin to rapping yourself.
Yeah. “Soldier in the Army of Love” — like Joe Strummer on the Sandinista! record, I would never consider myself a rapper, but sometimes saying words in a row that rhyme with a forceful set of ideas is not something I’m opposed to.
Did you have to psych yourself up to that?
No, no. If you’ve written something you believe to be true, there’s no psyching yourself up. There’s just a matter of delivering the goods.
There’s also some ballad moments. You evoke to me, more than ever, Leonard Cohen meets Roger Waters.
Well, those of us that are blessed and cursed with a deep, rich, milk-chocolate baritone voice, those are the waters you’re swimming in. But of course, huge fan of both lyrically and thematically and vocally of Leonard Cohen. And “I’m Not Yours to Command,” which is the first piano song that I wrote on the record, maybe will be surprising to some people, is very much in that vein.
Having Roman right there sort of in your mind kicking your ass a little bit — does it make you wanna practice more? How does that work?
I actually look at it like it’s very complementary to what I do in a way. It’s great in a concert to be able to throw focus, you know? We just were playing last night, and he plays those two solos in “Mr. Crowley,” and people’s jaws are on the floor. You can call it nepotism, but I don’t think it’s nepotism when your kid’s that fucking good.
I saw a few shows on the Springsteen tour, incredible rock n’ roll shows. You’ve played with the E Street Band before. This was different. What did you take away from that tour? What was different for you?
The spark of the tour was, I did a benefit show for the families of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and asked Bruce to be a part of that, and we were talking about doing the Power to the People show at the time, and I think it was those murders which really lit a fire under not just artists, but people everywhere were like, “This is really serious,” and the government is murdering American citizens in the streets with impunity. What are you gonna do about it, you know?
And so Bruce and I were talking, and he had written the song “Streets of Minneapolis,” and he asked me to play it at the show. And he sent it to me, and I thought, “This is such a gorgeous song.” And he was concerned that it was maybe too spot on, too nail on the head, and I proposed that he has 40 records of great nuanced poetry, and sometimes it’s all right to kick them in the teeth.
He put the song out and called me back and said, “I got good news and I got bad news, and the good news is it’s the number one song on YouTube in the world, and the bad news is I’m not gonna play your show in Minneapolis.” And I was like, “What? But why?” And he’s a very thoughtful person. He didn’t want it to come across as promotion for his song, like he’s trying to hype it up in any way. We had a long back and forth. I was saying, “Well, from an activist perspective, those people might need you in that moment in a way that’s gonna put steel in their spines and wind in their sails.”
But the final straw was I was actually in the car with my son, my older son, Rhoads, and he was very interested in the national events at the time, and he said, “Dad, you know who’s gonna be really psyched if Bruce Springsteen doesn’t go to Minneapolis? ICE.” Bruce overheard that and was like, “You really know how to twist the knife.”
And he came. I’ve played a lot of those shows, and Bruce has played shows which are spiritually 20 out of 10. But there was something in that room about, like, we’re involved in a fight right now, and we’re potentially difference makers in that. And a couple days later, his manager called up and said, “What are you doing in April and May?” And so taking the energy from that room and putting it in 20 arenas was, I think, just a genius stroke on his part, and it was an honor to be a part of it. And to feel that the uncompromising and uncompromised nature of those shows, at what will hopefully be the turning of the tide.
I’m curious how much you had to do with the choice of “Clampdown.”
Well, the first time we played “Clampdown” was in 2014, and it was my suggestion then. But it was Bruce’s idea to bring The Clash’s greatest anti-fascist song back, and make it a centerpiece of the set.
I am curious whether you see your relationship with Bruce as any kind of helpful metaphor for the closer-to-center left and the further left trying to find common ground and work together.
One hundred percent. I think that’s absolutely accurate, and that realizing that we’re all in this together. And a lot of it has to do with scientifically identifying what is the problem right now, and how would we address it? The problem is not trans athletes. You know what I’m saying? The problem is that the people who own and control the world don’t deserve to. They are not doing it in your interest, they’re not doing it in mine.
And also, it’s surprising to me that there are not more pitchforks, torches, and guillotines in the streets, given the fact that, at this point, I think it’s thirty-fifth in child poverty in the industrialized world, thirty-sixth in literacy, fifty-fourth in infant mortality, number one in prisons, prison population, number one in student debt, in healthcare debt, number one in taxpayer dollars committing war crimes around the world. Like, what the fuck? We’re at a now or never moment where, one, the biology of the planet is at stake, the health and welfare of billions of people are teetering on the brink, and this is not a moment to be just arguing about Ed Sheeran and trans athletes. It’s a moment to really rise up and do something about it.
How much, if ever, do you and Bruce Springsteen discuss your political differences?
I think we’re aligned on all the matters that count, you know? And much like Power of the People, I’ve done a lot of smaller shows than Power of the People where I think it’s important to have a big and welcoming tent, you know what I mean? There’s a very simple litmus test for this one. Are you for or against fascism in the United States? Check a box. You know what I’m saying? And if you check the right one, the stage is open.
Returning as promised to the electoralism issue — there are some on the left who tend to argue it doesn’t matter, don’t bother voting, both sides are the same. So what would you say to someone on the left who says, “Listen, man, I listen to Rage Against the Machine, and I know everyone’s the same. It’s about tearing down the power structure. Doesn’t matter who you vote for. I’m not voting”?
On the one hand, I think that rebellion is self-care, in a way, but I answered that already. Mary Morello was 100 percent right. You have to stop the fascists every which way you can. First of all, a lot of people who I greatly respect and admire the sacrifice they’ve made to try to get people with my color skin to be able to vote in this country, and have died, been lynched for it, they’ve been shot in the back for it, and it’s very disrespectful to their memory to do that.
But that in and of itself is not going to change the levers of power in a significant way. It’s not. It’s not. You should do it. But it would be like, okay, great, you vote, and on the next day you start working. You start working harder for the world you really want without compromise and without apology. And not just putting in the hands of whatever corporate Democrat you choke down your vote for in that particular election, that it’s your job to make the world the way that you think it could be to help those that are the most in need and to hold those accountable who are most guilty.
Do you feel that people on the left should have voted for Kamala Harris?
I’m crystal clear that people’s conscience cannot allow them to do something that they fundamentally believe is wrong. I was the scheduling secretary for United States Senator Alan Cranston. I saw how the corporate Democrat sausage is made. It is worse than you think. And there is a reason, there is a righteous fury at the corporate controlled, money controlled electoral system we have that is absolutely legitimate, and people cannot choke down — I understand it — voting for a candidate that’s responsible for what happened in Gaza, and they just can’t do it, and I’m not gonna blame them for that.
But I think that putting it on them is the most cowardly thing. Put it on the fucking Democratic Party. First of all, I don’t believe it’s their responsibility and they’re never gonna necessarily never do the right thing, but I think it’s all of our responsibility to co-create the world that we want and not point fingers at people that were just like, “Well, you know, my conscience didn’t allow me to do that, so it’s your fault.” I will not co-sign that.
Did you vote for Kamala?
I certainly did not.
You did not?
Did not. I couldn’t do it.
I didn’t realize that.
V for Vendetta — that one inch of who you are belongs to you, and they can’t have it. Now, I live in a state where it may not have moved the meter, but I just couldn’t do it. Couldn’t do it.
When’s the last time that you didn’t vote for the Democratic candidate?
Can’t remember the last time I did.
Wow, okay. I thought you were softening a little bit.
Can’t remember the last time I did.
So I would say this is a point of disagreement with Bruce Springsteen!
I think he is doing the right thing, how his political and personal barometer leads him and so am I, and I respect that, and I think that he respects my point of view.
Speaking of metaphors, is it also at all fair when people say, “Hey, there’s a cliche that people on the left are prone to factionalism and group splits”?
That’s not a cliche. That’s what it always is.
And so people say, “Well, look at Rage Against the Machine. Rage Against the Machine is a metaphor for that.” Do you see that?
That’s the issues with that band, which I will not give you clickbait to even talk about. But no, the left, it always has been a problem, and one of the reasons why I’m doing a show, like what I do at my shows, and we’ll do at Power of the People, is in that show and at that moment, you create a little bit of the world that you’d like to see. You create a kind of unity. You create a celebration of resistance. You create embracing folks who are today aligned because we love this music, and we’re opposed to fascism. And that for me feels like a path forward.
Brad Wilk said that Rage will never play again. Do you agree?
Rage Against the Machine last made a record 26 years ago. Rage Against the Machine played 19 shows in the last 15 years. If it ever becomes an issue again, you’ll be the first one I call.
I mean, you did just play. It was just a few years ago.
It was 19 shows in the last 15 years. I will say this. I even hesitate saying this because I know how journalism works. We can talk a lot about other stuff, and then the pull quote’s gonna be, “Tom Morello gives update on Rage Against the Machine. Says they still don’t know.” It’s a part of journalism. I really can’t say. So I’ll just leave it there. If there’s ever going to be any news about Rage Against the Machine, all four of us will report it to you.
Tell me about playing live solo. How is it different for you?
This record was greatly informed by the shows I’ve been playing over the course of the last four or five years, where I’ve embraced the catalog. I love and respect the fact that people need to hear Rage Against the Machine riffs in this moment. I very much, for myself, need to honor Chris Cornell’s memory at every show, and play Audioslave songs. The Nightwatchman stuff and the acoustic stuff is near and dear to my heart. That is music that I will never let go of. And I’ve never enjoyed playing new kick-ass riffs more than I do right now. That’s what the shows have been.
And over the course of the last three years, we’ve played probably in front of two or three million people around the globe with my great band, the Freedom Fighter Orchestra. And I wanted to make a record that reflected that. I wanted to make a record that reflected the heaviness of the riffs, the authenticity of the point of view, and on each song and in each venue, trying to create a little bit of that world that we’d like to one day see.
I did wanna ask you about the story behind the song “Date Night,” which is based on a true story.
Yeah. Well, I make anti-racist songs for anti-racists, anti-fascist songs for anti-fascists. In the case of “Date Night,” anti-Nazi songs for anti-Nazis. “Date Night” is a true story. The song is about a true story of three Dutch teenage girls in World War II, during the occupation, who seduced Nazi officers and murdered them in the woods. Hannie Schaft began her guerrilla campaign at 14 years old. Her sisters survived the war and lived to ripe old age. Hannie was captured, tortured, and murdered by the Nazis in the final months of the war, but never snitched on her sisters. And I wrote “Date Night” in their memory for those heroes.
Crazily, it is controversial to sing an anti-Nazi song in 2026. There’s been a considerable amount of pushback on that song. I thought that issue might’ve been settled, that World War II Nazis were bad, and that those that resisted them and fought against them were the good guys. That issue’s back up for contention now in 2026.
I always thought there was a movie in that story, but at least we got a song.
Yeah, exactly. I thought that, too. I went to every movie studio and production company in Los Angeles trying to convince them to make that television show or movie, and they didn’t, so I wrote it myself.
Do you still write riffs only on a nylon-string acoustic?
It varies now. The reason why I used to write riffs for Rage and Audioslave on nylon was because in a Hollywood apartment, you couldn’t exactly crank up the Marshall stack whenever inspiration struck. So yeah, I still have the principal guitar in my house. It’s now a steel-string acoustic. It’s actually Wayne Kramer’s old guitar, which is in my house now, which I try to evoke his spirit when writing new riffs on that one. When not stealing Roman’s.
So you’ve slightly gotten closer to electric by writing on a steel-string acoustic.
Yeah, exactly. But I still have the ability to hear, whether it’s a nylon-string or a steel-string acoustic guitar, what it’s gonna sound like at Reading Festival with a band roaring behind it.
Are you now writing some riffs on electric?
Yeah. Sometimes. Like, “Beth From Electronics,” the instrumental song that starts the record — I was recording a guitar solo for some other song, and while the engineer was fiddling around, I just played that in its entirety. It was just off the cuff. And I said, “Did you record that?” And he said, “Yeah, I did.” And I said, “We’re gonna start the record with that.” So that was one that was not just written on electric, that was written and recorded in one take.
This is either the least or most contentious thing I could ask you about. A lot of people are abandoning physical amplifiers and using digital emulation. And they sound pretty damn good. But what are your feelings about that?
I see that. Well, one, I’m a creature of habit. I’ve never used a wireless guitar or anything like that. Not out of any audio purity. It sounded pretty good in ’92, and it sounds pretty good in 2026. I will say, at the last couple of shows I played, there have been amplifier breakdowns on stage, and it’s been proposed by my longtime guitar tech that maybe just as a reserve, we have something that we can count on. I said no.
Very ideological about it.
Very, exactly. My most dogmatic position will be that I will not use wireless and I will not use one of those.
You recently said that there are a bunch of unreleased Audioslave songs. Will we ever get to hear those?
There’s no reason why not. There’s no one stopping it from happening, there’s no one making it happen, and yes, they exist. And as a fan, I hope that one day we get to hear them.
I feel like in part because of the huge shadow cast by Rage Against the Machine, that Audioslave is, as big as they were, perhaps a little bit underrated. They’re a great band.
Yeah. I couldn’t agree with you [more] about the great band part of it. Again, like I said, it was one of the many beautiful windows that was opened when Rage went away in 2001. Getting Chris Cornell, who I was a huge fan of and still am a huge fan of, got to be friends with and be in a band with for six years. And making those songs with him and with Audioslave is certainly one of the highlights.
Do you think the band name was not ideal? Do you think possibly you guys could’ve come up with a better name?
No, no band names are ideal. No band name’s ideal. I’m crystal clear on this one. The one thing I’m absolutely sure of is that your band name does not matter unless you choose a name that is so alienating that people cannot get past it to enjoy your Butthole Surfers. Well, that might’ve held them back, you know what I’m saying? That might’ve held them back.
But in the earliest inceptions of Rage Against the Machine, it was a name that was frowned upon by three quarters of the people in the band, all of our friends, and the newspaper. Like, the LA Weekly could never get it right. We were often known as Rage… What was it? It was something like Rage and If the Machine. That one worked out, though. That one, it turned out not to be Butthole Surfers at the end of the day.
I always felt at the time that Audioslave, the name, felt like the product of some kind of discussion that ended up with a compromise or something like that.
[Laughs] We actually recorded the Audioslave record in its entirety, and then the band broke up before it came out. And as we were reconstituting, it was like, “Are we gonna be a band? We need a name.” Rick Rubin was very helpful and pushing that forward. Audioslave was Chris’s suggestion.
Fronting a band, who do you look to?
I would say, certainly Bruce is one that I feel simpatico with in a couple of ways. One way is that you don’t leave a drop of sweat in anybody, including yourself. Two is, each show there is a determination that that show is going to be the best show, and then you’re gonna top it tomorrow, you know? Three is, you may be very excited to see a Bruce Springsteen show or a Tom Morello show, but no one in that room is more excited to be there than he is. And at my shows, no one in that room is more excited to be there than I am.
You are really fired up right now.
[Laughs] What’s not to be fired up about?
If you think about when Rage started — the Clinton era, things have arguably gotten a lot worse since then in a lot of ways. So what do you do to combat despair?
That’s not kinda how I look at it. All one has to do is be a student of history. There have been great inequalities, great challenges, authoritarianism, fascism in the past, and people stand up against it. That’s how I’m constituted, is it’s not like, oh, I’m despairing ’cause it’s not better now. Well, thank God we’ve been doing something. Lord knows how bad it might be, you know? If we hadn’t stood up, each of us, and I’m not saying just me or my band or whatever, but people in their time. I’m constantly inspired by what I see other people doing, too. And I don’t think it’s the job of a 62-year-old musician to dictate how the revolution is going to happen. Younger people are the ones who are gonna have the ideas that are gonna change the world or allow it to descend into the abyss. I’m here to provide a soundtrack.
I wonder if part of why you’re sort of undaunted by current events is that you saw the Trump thing coming perhaps more than others.
In a lot of ways I was surprised by some elements of it. But there are things you have control over and things that you do not. You have control over what you think and what you do, and then the world happens, and then you respond to it. Yes, I love Randy Rhoads, and yes, I love The Clash, but my inspirations were the Black Panther Party and the Weather frigging Underground, you know? And so the idea that you can engage and change the world and fight. I’ve been blessed and cursed to be a guitar player. I did not choose that. It chose me. So now I’m stuck, and the idea is to find a way to weave my convictions into my vocation. That’s what I’ve been doing over the course of the last 35 years. I think there might have been other paths where I might have been more effective in having my hand on the wheel of history. But this is the hand that I’ve been dealt, and it’s the thing that I do best, and it’s the thing that I enjoy most, and you can’t stop me.
I do want to ask you about the actions of the Weather Underground, and to what extent you really endorse that.
Well, first of all, Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers are the fairy godparents of my children. They are as good people as there are on the planet, you know? And Zayd Dohrn and I wrote the musical Revolutions together, song “Revolutions” together.
But they’ve denounced some of their past actions, right?
Yeah, yeah. But unlike the Democrat and Republican administrations, they didn’t kill millions of Vietnamese, which is what they were riled up about and fought against. And they were white people who stood up against white supremacy in a way that really maybe no one had since John Brown. And that’s an admirable quality.
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