Tom Morello started the year with a protest concert in Minneapolis, and in March he was on stage with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for an anti-Trump tour. In October, he hosted his own pre-midterms all-star festival, Power to the People, just after releasing his heaviest album in years, Everyone gets everything they want. If he seems unusually excited lately at 62, well, “Why not be excited?” 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 about politics, the Ed Sheeran controversy and his album. “It’s the record that embraces the totality of who I am as an artist and what I can do as a guitarist,” he says.
So you released your first solo rock record, and then you have your own festival, Power to the People. You are, as usual, a busy man.
Oh, that’s very, very true. As far as the record goes, 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 also arrives at a historic crossroads in our democracy, where we do what we can with what we have.
On the album, you mention being on a blacklist. Do you really feel like you’re on a blacklist?
It would be an honor to be blacklisted 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, Trump announced his own state news network that will report the news his way. And so those of us who aren’t blacklisted are the ones who aren’t doing enough at this point, I guess.
Now you like a lot of bands and a lot of music that isn’t political – from Judas Priest to Rush. But that said, what do you think of the Ed Sheeran situation?
In a way, it’s a distraction, and in a way, that’s all. It’s a distraction because Ed Sheeran is not a victim or someone we should be focusing on, any more than Macklemore is. The war crimes that were brought to the forefront by Macklemore’s speech are the ones that should be the center of attention. And don’t get distracted by Ed Sheeran crying today or tomorrow. That’s what I think.
But on the other hand, that’s the whole point, where the idea that a handful of ruling class billionaires can decide what speech can take place on a concert stage is a very worrying element. But it is indicative of the moment we find ourselves in. Who decides what is the truth? Who decides who can say what? There are a handful of extremely wealthy people who think it should be them anyway. And I disagree with this assessment. And I think at this crossroads in our democracy, the people who are going to decide whether this is valid or not are no different than you and me. History isn’t something that happens, it’s something we do, and there is absolutely no neutrality in this moment.
Is there an argument that people’s focus on Ed Sheeran is actually distracting them from what they should be focusing on?
Yeah, 100 percent. It’s okay to shame him right now because he deserves the shame, but not the attention. The goal is that your and my tax dollars are going to commit horrific war crimes in the Middle East, and that, I believe, should be the goal and what we should do our best to stop cold.
It’s clickbait, it’s salacious, it’s: “Oh my God, poor Ed Sheeran.” First of all, has Ed Sheeran never seen a Macklemore performance in the last three years? Surely he should have known what he was getting into.
What is sort of adjacent is that we live in a time where speech is vilified and is a crime, where the truth is a crime, where skin color is a crime, where immigration status is a crime, where gender is a crime, where sexual orientation is a crime. And I believe that the real crime is the rise of authoritarianism, and the real crime is the erosion of freedoms, and the real crime is impending environmental disaster. That’s why I hope that in each of my shows, I represent the audience as an anti-fascist crime fighter, and that’s really how I think we should look at the world right now. For example, what are the real crimes happening, and what can we do to stop them?
Now that I’ve got you excited, your Power to the People festival. What is its most essential objective?
It is not an advertisement or hyperbole to say that it is a festival of peace, love, justice and music. In a time when war is celebrated, it is a celebration of peace. In a time where hatred and division are commonplace, this is a celebration of love. In a time where injustice is the norm, it is a festival celebrating the fight for justice. In a time where there’s a lot of shitty music, there’s going to be a lot of good music on this stage, so we’re going for four for four.
How much did you have midterm exams in mind when you scheduled this?
As my dear mother, Mary Morello, who died at 102, was a very political person, said: “You must fight the fascists by any means possible.” » One of these ways is to vote through the ballot box. It’s not the only way, and you shouldn’t think that just because you’ve done it. Voting is a piece on the chessboard, and you’re trying to create an environment where, between the votes, you can fight for a more just, more peaceful, more equal world.
So, is the festival three weeks before the midterms? Yeah. Does festival money go to voting rights organizations? Yes, that’s true, but the festival has something much bigger than that. It’s about what kind of world do you really want to live in, and should we fight for that world, or should we settle for the one spoon-fed to us by the oligarchs?
I want to come back to the issue of electoralism in a second, but I wanted to say that I’m really sorry about your mother. I was wondering if his passing excited you in a new way.
Well, its existence has excited me since I was little, you know? She led a very humble life, but full of meaning and power. In a person’s declining years, you spend a lot of time with them and focus on their health. But when my mother died, I heard about the teenage refugees in Afghanistan who had been inspired by her life. I heard from the president of Chile, who participated in the Rage Against the Machine mosh pit in 2010 and followed Mary Morello’s story. Some of my favorite artists would do silent moments at their concerts for this little old lady from suburban Illinois who never had any ambition other than to try to help people.
From feeding the bums on the back porch at night during the Great Depression to marching against the oil wars in the 80s and 90s. For her 100th birthday, she had two wishes. One was feeding the homeless at the Midnight Mission in downtown Los Angeles. The other was walking the picket line for striking UNITE HERE union hotel workers, which she did in her wheelchair.
So, does his passing excite me? I miss her very much. She has always been the most radical and popular member of the Morello family, and there is no denying that.
She was basically a real Tom Joad.
It’s amazing, yeah. You are not wrong. For me too, every time someone stands up without any hope of recognition, defending people who have less, my mother is there. Every time a parent allows their cacophonous punk rock band to rehearse in the basement, my mother is there. Whenever a white person stands up against racism or for immigrant rights, Mary Morello will definitely be there.
Did you make this whole record after he left?
No, no, no. She was able to hear it before she died. I had to play it for her last week or so. And my mother always had unvarnished editorial comments on the music of my career. After practicing in her basement when I was 17, she lived right next to my studio. I was actually rehearsing in my mom’s basement when she was 100, and she was commenting on which songs she liked the most and which ones she liked the least. Fortunately, this record received Mary’s approval.
This album really encompasses everything you’ve done in your career, which is so much more than people could imagine.
On the one hand, it’s the heaviest album I’ve made since the first Rage album, that’s for sure. I wanted to make a record with ten out of ten powerful riffs scattered throughout. But that’s one of the goals. The other goal post is, I like Darkness on the edge of the city And Nebraska and Dylan’s first records, and that Nightwatchman, Cafe Wha? my folk music side is alive and well on this.
But the idea was to make a heavy record. And my muse for this album was my 15-year-old son, Roman Morello, who has now toured with me for the last three summers, and I was listening at his door to poach his best riffs for this album, and he contributed five songs to the album, and we just finished a series of shows, and I’ve never been more excited or happier to play music and write music than right now.
What are his riffs here?
“Soldier in the army of love.” “Ajourn It”, the song with Serj Tankian. The song “Unconquered”. There are a few others as well. But what’s interesting about removing these riffs…
Gn entert
