Tom Morello names the “apex moment in the history of live rock ‘n’ roll music”
Due to his work with Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, and as a solo artist, Tom Morello isn’t happy to take up a seat in somebody else’s backing band. However, some offers have proven too tempting to refuse, hence why he agreed to temporarily tour with Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band in 2013.
Before hitting the road with Springsteen, Morello had previously performed live with ‘The Boss’ as a special guest and built a relationship with the legendary musician. After contributing to two songs on 2012’s Wrecking Ball and joining the band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the Rage Against The Machine guitarist was Springsteen’s first choice as a replacement for Steve Van Zandt, who couldn’t make the tour due to filming commitments.
Morello’s stint as an honorary member of the E-Street Band was limited to the Oceania leg of the Wrecking Ball tour, but although his time in the group was only brief, he enjoyed every second of his time.
Springsteen headed back out on tour the following year and invited Morello back for the ride. During the Australian leg of the tour, Vedder decided to pay tribute to one of his musical heroes and visited the grave of the late AC/DC frontman Bon Scott.
When returning to the hotel, Morello recollected to the BBC: “I saw Bruce and said, ‘Bruce, do you think that the circle of AC/DC and the circle of the E Street Band might ever overlap while we’re here in Australia?’ And he said, ‘Tommy, I have never thought about that before but I’m going to give it some thought now.'”
The guitarist continued: “We began rehearsing ‘Highway to Hell’ at soundchecks and a few days later found ourselves in a huge football stadium in Melbourne, about 80,000 people, and Eddie Vedder happened to be there – he was on a solo tour at the time. And a lightbulb went off on my mind.”
In Morello’s mind, the personnel and location were a match made in heaven to create the “apex moment in the history of live rock ‘n’ roll”. He explained: “I knocked on Bruce’s dressing room door and said, ‘We are here in Australia where AC/DC is king, where the song ‘Highway to Hell’ is the unofficial national anthem of rock ‘n’ roll liberation. What if we open the set with ‘Highway to Hell’ with Eddie Vedder?’ Bruce was like, ‘That sounds like a pretty good idea…’ So we did, and it was an apex moment in the history of live rock ‘n’ roll music.”
He boastfully concluded: “If you think you’ve seen a crowd go ape, you haven’t, unless maybe you were there in Melbourne on that night.”
During his time in the music business, Morello has been the spectator to wild crowds on countless occasions, but the explosive reaction to ‘Highway To Hell’ that night in Melbourne is unrivalled. Years later, the trio reconvened to record an official version of the track, which appeared on Morello’s The Atlas Underground Fire EP, further demonstrating how highly he values the memory of 2014.
Watch the incredible performance below.
