The legendary band that introduced Tom Morello to the “Holy Spirit of rock and roll”
In the beginning, Tom Morello did what most aspiring musicians did, and “emulated his heroes”.
He had his trusty circle of heroes – Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stevie Vai – and got to work, practising for what was sometimes over eight hours each day. Even though he was young when he started playing at age 17, he felt like he was far behind his peers, sparking a deep commitment to improving his technique as much as he possibly could, for as long as it possibly took.
While that paid off in spades, especially at his age as someone merely trying to “catch up”, it also meant that he wasn’t the most original in his technique. So, then came the challenge of applying more intuition to his style, a bigger focus on feeling, and a new drive and realisation that made him, quite literally, want to change his tune.
In the early days of Rage Against the Machine, Morello quickly learned that he was “the DJ in the band”. They had amassed an expansive load of influences, which made them well-versed in what it took to be a great rock band, but if they were going to become iconic, memorable, and timeless, they needed to focus on what they did that was actually unique.
From then on, Morello started leaning into little quirks that made them seem different. And a big part of that was also figuring out how to break free from the traditional mould, the styles and techniques that he had been practising for hours a day, that made him able to, at the very least, play well. A lot of this came from, as he once said, focusing on “odd noises” and adding them into songs, and realising at the same time that “there was no ceiling” when it came to guitar playing.
And although many of their influences taught him some of the more technical aspects of guitar-playing, like shredding and finger-picking, establishing his own unique style came from the basic principles of rock ‘n’ roll, and bands that built on the foundation of others but who also eventually ended up becoming their own fully-realised beast.
For Morello, it was all about Kiss. So much so, in fact, that he remembers their impact through the three different stages of his journey – one of which covers that transition from replicating to innovating. As he explained to The Line of Best Fit, “These are all watershed moments in my evolution from being a fan, to being a musician, to being an artist.”
He went on, praising Destroyer in particular: “Due to their elaborate costumes, they were my favourite band before I heard one note of their music. I was a big comic book fan, so it was a very simple transition to Kiss for me. The heaviness of the music really spoke to me, and the escapism of the characters – the commitment to this rock power that was embodied in that song – that, I would say, was really the beginning of my journey of becoming inhabited by the Holy Spirit of rock and roll.”
For Morello, Kiss was incredibly eye-opening to the possibilities of creative expression. Growing up somewhere considerably conservative and trying to catch up by imitating his influences, Morello was endeared to Kiss from the off, especially the way that they demonstrated the path from aspiring musician to mythological visionary, letting Morello in on worlds that could feel entirely fantastical but which offered something creatively authentic.
