Tom Morello’s favourite guitar solos
Read More
Credit: Raph PH
Tom Morello named his favourite band of all time
Tom Morello is a guitarist like no other, and he made his name in a band that is one of the most unique out there. The cap-wearing, Telecaster-toting maverick’s sound carried Rage Against the Machine (RATM) and made the rap-rock outfit one of the most consequential of the past 30 years.
Morello formed RATM alongside frontman Zack de la Rocha in 1991. Standing out from the derivative guitar acts of the day, they combined music and politics, giving them an unmistakable edge that has resulted in their longevity and a timeless spirit, as their themes are universal.
This was confirmed in 2009 when the band’s thunderous single ‘Killing in the Name ‘beat X-factor winner Joe McElderry’s cover of Miley Cyrus’s song ‘The Climb’ to the UK Christmas number one spot. 13 years later and their cultural relevance hasn’t withered, and every so often, the song returns to the fore in the name of righteous causes, a testament to their potency.
As well as being the guitarist of RATM, Morello’s work has been extensive. He formed the supergroup Audioslave in 2001 alongside the late Chris Cornell, giving us mammoth moments such as ‘Cochise’. He also joined the supergroup Prophets of Rage in 2016 alongside RATM bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk, B-Real of Cypress Hill, and DJ Lord and Chuck D from Public Enemy.
A genuine punk hero, given that Morello is such an iconoclast, for years, his legions of fans have sought to dig deeper into his complex mind to understand better how he shaped his artistry. Taking many of his cues from punk and metal, he once revealed the identity of his favourite band of all time, and unsurprisingly, they are one of the most political outfits to have ever graced the earth, English punks The Clash.
Speaking to Classic Rock in 2021, he discussed why Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, and Co. are his favourite band and described why their classic 1979 album London Calling is so crucial for him.
Morello said: “The Clash are my favourite rock’ n’ roll band of all time. London Calling was the launching point for my love of the band. Until I discovered punk, I was a heavy metal fan, and it was the cover of that album that first piqued my interest and made me think: ‘Who is this great new heavy metal band?'”
“I devoured that record. I could not believe how great it was; it made much of my heavy metal collection seem very silly. It was music I could relate to lyrically much more than the dungeons-and-dragons-type lyrics of my metal forbears. The conviction with which the band played and with which Joe Strummer sang was indescribable”, he continued.
“It was at a time that I was becoming politically aware, and here was a band who made me feel that I wasn’t alone. So it was a band that told the truth – unlike my president, unlike the people on the national news, unlike my teacher – and I thought: ‘I’m in’.”
London Calling proved to be so monumental for Morello that afterwards, he was inspired to write his first political song. The significance of this cannot be stated enough, as in the years that followed, Rage Against the Machine would rise to become the most political rock band of all time, as they went one step further than The Clash in their political crusade.
Morello recalled: “I wrote my first political song immediately in the aftermath of listening to London Calling. It was called ‘Salvador Death Squad Blues’. So the possibility of combining kick-ass music and lyrical content that mattered became real.”
“At the time, it was said of The Clash that they were the only band that mattered, and it really felt that way. The Clash were more than a punk band, they were much more musically adventurous, and London Calling was really the record where they incorporated music from around the world, and every song sounded like The Clash.”
Explaining how the album captivated him, the guitarist said: “The album was a revelation; it really made anything seem possible, like you could play a reggae song, or a hard rock song. So London Calling made me realise that there were bands out there who were willing to tell the truth and in an unflinching, uncompromising way where every note of music and every lyric mattered. That was brand new to me. And they had outfits that looked cool.”
