Tom Morello wears many hats, figuratively speaking: as well as being the guitarist with Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, Bruce Springsteen and his ongoing The Atlas Underground solo project, he’s an activist, agitator, comic book author and occasional actor. He also wears many hats, literally speaking, because, well, he owns a lot of hats. Either way, there is going to be plenty to talk about as he faces down your questions. “I’ll answer to the best of my ability… or to the degree of which I’m willing,” he warns us before we begin the grilling.
You’ve been on Star Trek and in Iron Man. What TV shows or movies would you love to be involved in?
“Yeah, I’ve blown my chances to be on the really big ones – Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars would really round out the nerd profile. JJ Abrams is a friendly acquaintance of mine, and I texted him and said, ‘I would like to be one of the Knights of Ren’ – this is before there was even a script! He told me I didn’t even have to audition and I should just give him a call when I was around. It kills me to say it, but I was never around at that time, so it didn’t happen.”
How do you feel about some fans telling you to stay away from politics when you rage on social media?
“I have a number of thoughts. One is that you don’t trigger a free speech exemption when you pick up a guitar, that right remains intact. Secondly, people who are offended by my politics on Twitter or Instagram, please know it’s because you weren’t intelligent enough to know what the music that you were listening to all these years was about. For the music, you’re welcome, but if you’re a white supremacist or a proto-fascist, that music isn’t written for you – it’s written against you.”
Who’s the most challenging person you’ve ever worked with in the studio?
“The producer for the first record I ever made, nice guy, Matt…