Tom Morello

The guitarist who made six strings sound like a turntable

Tom Morello was born in Harlem in 1964 and grew up in Libertyville, Illinois, where he came to the guitar relatively late, in his teens. He threw himself into practice with unusual discipline while studying social studies at Harvard, graduating in 1986. After moving to Los Angeles he played in the hard-rock band Lock Up, which landed a major-label deal but went nowhere, and the frustration of that experience pushed him to stop imitating his heroes and start inventing sounds nobody else was making.

In 1991 he formed Rage Against the Machine with vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk. Their 1992 debut fused heavy riffs with hip-hop rhythm and delivery, and Morello's solos, built from pickup-switch stutters, whammy-pedal squeals and scraped strings, sounded like a DJ cutting records. Evil Empire (1996) and The Battle of Los Angeles (1999) both topped the Billboard 200, and the band collected Grammys for “Tire Me” and “Guerrilla Radio” before de la Rocha departed in 2000.

Morello, Commerford and Wilk then joined Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell to form Audioslave, whose 2002 debut produced “Cochise” and “Like a Stone” and showed Morello could serve melody-driven rock as well as rap-metal. The group released three albums, including the chart-topping Out of Exile (2005), before splitting in 2007. That same year he launched The Nightwatchman, an acoustic folk alias, and Rage Against the Machine returned to the stage with a celebrated reunion set at Coachella.

From 2008 Morello became a regular collaborator of Bruce Springsteen, touring with the E Street Band and playing prominently on the 2014 album High Hopes. He also formed Street Sweeper Social Club and later Prophets of Rage, and on The Atlas Underground (2018) paired his guitar with electronic producers. Rolling Stone has ranked him among the greatest guitarists, and in 2023 he entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Rage Against the Machine.

The 10 greatest Tom Morello solos

1. 1
   Bulls on Parade

   Rage Against the Machine · solo by Tom Morello · 1996
2. 2
   Killing In The Name

   Rage Against the Machine · solo by Tom Morello · 1992
3. 3
   Like A Stone

   Audioslave · solo by Tom Morello · 2002
4. 4
   Know Your Enemy

   Rage Against the Machine · solo by Tom Morello · 1992
5. 5
   Sleep Now in the Fire

   Rage Against the Machine · solo by Tom Morello · 1999
6. 6
   The Ghost of Tom Joad

   Bruce Springsteen · solo by Tom Morello · 2014
7. 7
   Cochise

   Audioslave · solo by Tom Morello · 2002
8. 8
   Guerrilla Radio

   Rage Against the Machine · solo by Tom Morello · 1999
9. 9
   Show Me How to Live

   Audioslave · solo by Tom Morello · 2002
10. 10
    Freedom

    Rage Against the Machine · solo by Tom Morello · 1992

The sound

Morello treats the electric guitar less as a melodic instrument than as a sound generator. With one pickup's volume turned off, he flicks the selector switch to create rhythmic stutters; he rubs his palm over the strings near the pickups to mimic record scratching, and leans on a DigiTech Whammy for octave leaps and harmonized shrieks. Underneath the noise sits a riff writer of rare economy, favouring drop-D tuning, tight palm-muted grooves and space for the drums. His tone, a Marshall JCM800 barely changed in decades, is thick and dry, which makes each unconventional effect stand out.

• “Arm the Homeless” custom superstrat (guitar) His main guitar since the late 1980s, heavily modified over the years; used across most standard-tuned Rage material.
• Fender Telecaster (1982) (guitar) His go-to instrument for drop-D tuned songs.
• Fender Tom Morello “Soul Power” Stratocaster (guitar) Signature model released in 2020, with a built-in killswitch for his stutter effects.
• Marshall JCM800 2205 head (amp) The 50-watt head at the core of his sound since before Rage Against the Machine.
• Peavey 4x12 cabinet (amp) Paired with the Marshall head for decades.
• DigiTech Whammy (effect) Source of his octave-jumping solos and harmonized squeals.
• Dunlop Cry Baby wah (effect) Often used as a fixed filter or rhythmic sweep rather than a classic wah solo.
• Boss DD-2 Digital Delay (effect) Used for repeats and for building layered, rhythmic textures.

Covers

• Renegades of Funk, originally by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force Morello rebuilds an electro-funk track from guitar alone, simulating its synth stabs with effects.
• Kick Out the Jams, originally by MC5 A raw, loud homage to one of the proto-punk bands that shaped his idea of high-energy guitar.
• The Ghost of Tom Joad, originally by Bruce Springsteen Rage turned Springsteen's hushed acoustic song into a crushing electric piece, years before Morello played it with Springsteen himself.
• Maggie's Farm, originally by Bob Dylan A heavy, grinding reading that transplants a folk-rock tune into a riff-rock setting.
• Microphone Fiend, originally by Eric B. & Rakim He translates a hip-hop beat and sample into guitar riffs and noise.
• Beautiful World, originally by Devo An unusually restrained arrangement that shows his quieter, atmospheric side.

Timeline

• 1964 Born in Harlem, New York; raised in Libertyville, Illinois
• 1986 Graduates from Harvard University and moves to Los Angeles
• 1991 Forms Rage Against the Machine
• 1992 Rage Against the Machine releases its self-titled debut
• 1999 The Battle of Los Angeles debuts at No. 1 in the US
• 2001 Forms Audioslave with Chris Cornell, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk
• 2007 Launches The Nightwatchman; Rage reunites at Coachella
• 2008 Begins performing regularly with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
• 2018 Releases The Atlas Underground, pairing guitar with electronic producers
• 2023 Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Rage Against the Machine

Facts

1. He graduated from Harvard in 1986 with a degree in social studies.
2. Rage Against the Machine's debut carried a note that no samples, keyboards or synthesizers were used, even though many of its sounds seem electronic.
3. His record-scratch effect is produced by rubbing the strings over the pickups while working the pickup selector switch.
4. Before Rage, he played in Lock Up, a Los Angeles band that released one album on Geffen.
5. He has relied on essentially the same Marshall JCM800 head and Peavey cabinet since before Rage Against the Machine formed.
6. Rage Against the Machine won Grammy Awards for both “Tire Me” and “Guerrilla Radio.”
7. Audioslave's second album, Out of Exile, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
8. He performs acoustic folk music under the alias The Nightwatchman.
9. In 2013 he toured with Springsteen's E Street Band while Steven Van Zandt was away on other commitments.
10. Fender issued a Tom Morello “Soul Power” Stratocaster with a built-in killswitch in 2020.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Tom Morello