Tom Morello: “The Prodigy are one of the few live bands that gave Rage Against The Machine a run for our money”

You played crewman Mitchell in a 2000 episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Which area of the ship do you give Captain Janeway instructions to?

“I tell her: ‘To the left, ma’am.’’

CORRECT-ISH. She asks for directions to Junction Room 16 – but you do indeed respond, ‘to the left, ma’am’.

“‘To the left, ma’am’ could have also been the name of my new album! [Laughs] I was also in Star Trek: Insurrection, two years earlier, as a So’na alien. I had to be there at 4am every morning for five hours of make-up. The other So’na actors were bummed-out because they had to be there so early, but I was like a kid in a candy store because I got to be in Star Trek and meet the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation who are TV heroes of mine. None of the extras knew that I was the dude from Audioslave or Rage Against The Machine, so they were confused about why Captain Picard was talking to So’na Number 4. But when they found out, they all handed me their demo tapes from their bands! [Laughs]”

What band T-shirt are you wearing on Rage Against The Machine’s first UK TV appearance on The Word in 1993 performing ‘Killing In The Name’?

“Jeez! I remember that performance well as it caused a stir. Was it a Warrant shirt?”

WRONG. Kiss.

“For a while, I was wearing a Warrant T-shirt in an ironic fashion. I’m 50/50 on answers right now! [Laughs]”

“We played The Word within the first couple of days of ever being in the UK. I didn’t realise the band had connected until the ’93 Reading Festival. We played ‘Know Your Enemy’ which has a false-ending. As they turned the lights on the crowd, the beat comes back in and the audience looked like a whole country jumping up and down. That was the revelation that maybe something was going on here. Very early on in ’92, we were at a dreary metal club in Birmingham. No-one knew who we were, but ‘Killing In The Name’ came on and heavy metal couples started banging their heads in unison. Our tour manager said: ‘You might write better songs, but I’ve got a feeling this is a song people are going to be banging their heads to for a long time to come.’ It was a prophetic statement.”

What animal head features on the album cover of your ’80s band Lock Up’s ‘Something Bitchin’ This Way Comes’?

“A horse head.”

CORRECT.

“My apologies because ‘Something Bitchin’ This Way Comes’ might be the single worst album title in the history of Western music! [Laughs] The Lock Up was a tremendous learning experience because failure is a great teacher. I had moved to Los Angeles with the express purpose of trying to become a rock star and to make albums. I got signed to Geffen Records with Lock Up which felt incredible. Live, the band was more raw. I had all this crazy stuff on the guitar.

“We were told: ‘Don’t do that.’ Our frontman was gay, but we were told he had to remain closeted and couldn’t talk about it. All to get on the radio. We listened and then made a record that I wasn’t particularly proud of. Fifteen seconds after its release, the label wasn’t returning our calls. The day that band broke up, I made a solemn vow to never play another note of music that I didn’t believe in. I sat on my couch in my squat and began writing riffs that were component parts of the first Rage Against the Machine record.”

What letter was painted on your chest when Rage Against The Machine famously protested, nude, against censorship at Lollapalooza in 1993?

“[Laughs] I think it’s ‘R’?”

WRONG. ‘C’.

“So I’m on the end?! [Laughs] I don’t remember that.”

At a Lollapalooza gig in Philadelphia in 1993, Rage walked onto the stage naked with duct-tape covering your mouths and the letters ‘P.M.R.C.’ daubed on your chests – a reference to the Parents Music Resource Center, who had successfully campaigned for ‘Parental Advisory’ warning stickers on albums. You then stood silently onstage for your entire 15 minute set.

“We were going to do it in Washington, DC, but there was disagreements about what the protest was going to be, so we did it in Philadelphia. The record company had brought down everybody to be like ‘Here’s Rage Against The Machine’. Lollapalooza was a phenomenon – that year, it had sold-out before they announced the bill. We were the first band on. Our tour manager was the only person who knew what we planned to do, and he’d worked out we had 15 minutes before the cops arrived, and we’d have to get the hell out of there. Backstage, we have our clothes on, and Layne Staley – whose band Alice in Chains is headlining – said to me: ‘I came early today. I heard you guys are great. I can’t wait to see you.’ I reply: ‘You’re going to see us all right!’ [Laughs].”

“We stripped, walked out and the crowd goes bananas. ‘Cause one: it’s Lollapalooza, two: it’s naked guys, some of whom are fairly well-hung. Three: it’s a protest. The guitars are squealing back. For the first five minutes, it’s euphoria. For the next five minutes, it’s a strange stand-off as the audience realise we’re now in minute seven, eight, nine… that’s a long-ass time to be standing buck-naked in a football stadium. During the last five minutes, it’s hostile – they’re throwing quarters at our dicks! People are booing. They now realise they’ve stepped into a pile of political art. Then we leave without playing a single song, and there’s a murderous outpouring from the crowd!”

“The point was you cannot take controversial music for granted. But now we’re scrambling backstage naked. The cops have arrived and it’s every man for himself! Layne Staley probably took my clothes because he was so pissed off! I’m running around in my sneakers and my birthday suit, so I go to the only place that a naked Black man might find refuge – on Fishbone’s tour bus! It’s 1.45pm and they’re all smoking weed, so I sit down buck-ass naked and watch Star Wars! [Laughs]”

Audioslave made their live debut on Late Show With David Letterman in 2002, but can you remember which Friends actor was the other guest on the programme?

“[Laughs] Courteney Cox?”

WRONG. Lisa Kudrow.

“We were outside, so we never even saw who was on the show. That was the first ever Audioslave performance, and it had been a tumultuous time. Chris [Cornell, frontman] had been in and out of rehab. We had just shot the crazy video for ‘Cochise’, and we were a new band – three dudes from Rage Against The Machine and the singer of Soundgarden. We’d made a record we were proud of, but I had no idea what was going to happen. Playing on a rooftop was an unusual gig. We were looking at an office building across from us, and women were shouting ‘Chris, take your shirt off!’”

Which controversial 1997 UK Top 10 hit samples Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Bulls On Parade’?

“Woah! Is it ‘One Man Army’ with The Prodigy?”

WRONG. Close – it’s The Prodigy’s ‘Smack My Bitch Up’.

“I did not know that! But I know that The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett is a big fan of that song. We recorded ‘One Man Army’ together in 1997, and that also samples ‘Bulls on Parade’, but that wasn’t a Top Ten hit*. I first met The Prodigy on the Australian Big Day Out tour. I’d never heard of them. We rode on the same tour bus to the hotel because ‘R – Rage’ and ‘P – Prodigy’ were letters next to each other. I thought they were Australian crew guys. Cut to Pinkpop Festival ’96. Backstage, I see The Firestarter [Keith Flint] coming my way and I recognise him as the nice Australian crew guy! I assumed he was working for one of the bands, but he told me he was in a band playing here. I asked: ‘How was your show?’ He replied: ‘No, we’re playing after you!’ Afterwards, I stayed to watch them. The Prodigy are one of the few bands in a live setting that gave Rage Against the Machine a run for our money.”

*The Prodigy & Tom Morello recorded ‘One Man Army’ for the Spawn soundtrack, though it was never released as a single. 

Which 1998 horror film did you cover Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ (both Parts 1 and 2) for?

“The band was called Class of ’99 and it was for a not-awesome film! I can picture the VHS box! This is some deep lore!”

WRONG. It was The Faculty. As part of the Class of ’99 supergroup alongside Layne Staley, Jane’s Addiction’s Stephen Perkins, Martyn LeNoble from Porno For Pyros and Matt Serletic of Collective Soul.

“That was Layne Staley’s last recording [before his death in 2002 from a drug overdose] and it was sad. He was very unhealthy at the time. We couldn’t get him down to Los Angeles and we were concerned about him doing the song ‘cause he was going to get a substantial cheque for it and who knew what that meant? He recorded in Seattle and it was a difficult day. He sounded great, but he was never able to conquer his addictions. Sadly, it wasn’t too long after that we lost him.”

What number did your rap-rock supergroup Prophets Of Rage self-titled album reach on the UK album chart in 2017?

“[Laughs] Gah! I’m going to guess 14?”

WRONG. Six.

“That’s pretty good! In my career, I’m honoured to have played with Zack de la Rocha, Chris Cornell, Bruce Springsteen, Chuck D and B-Real – five of my favourite frontmen and lyricists of all time, and two of them in one band with Prophets Of Rage.”

What is the gameshow called in the video for Rage Against The Machine’s 2000 track ‘Sleep Now in the Fire’?

“[Laughs] Well, it’s a take-off on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? I don’t know if we changed the name. So that’s my final answer!”

WRONG. Who Wants To Be Filthy F#&%ing Rich.

“Well, that’s all [director] Michael Moore’s genius. That day, of course, goes down in infamy in the history of Rage Against The Machine. The video that you see is not the one we planned because we did not anticipate the director being arrested and the band storming the New York Stock Exchange! Those were not in the video treatment when we sent it out! [Laughs]”

“The video also famously and notoriously predicts Donald Trump being President, as one of the day traders was given a sign saying ‘Trump for President 2000’. So we have to bear some measure of responsibility!”

Of all the times Rage Against The Machine have been arrested, have any of the cops turned out to be fans of the band?

“When Timmy [Commerford] climbed the scaffolding at the MTV VMAs in 2000 [in protest at ‘Sleep Now in the Fire’ losing the Best Rock Video award to Limp Bizkit’s ‘Break Stuff’] and there was a fistfight – I mean, he beat the living crap out of an off-duty police officer in the aftermath of that! – thank goodness that off-duty police officer was a fan of Rage Against The Machine. At the end of the day, he just had to sign a bass for the guy.”

Which Australian pop group (who were voted the Worst Band by NME readers a record three times in a row from 2015-2017) did you play guitar for on their 2019 single ‘Teeth’?

“Oh yeah! 5 Sauce? Five? 5 Seconds Of Summer?”

CORRECT.

“I was over at [producer] Andrew Wyatt’s house doing something for Ozzy Osbourne, and he said: ‘Do you want to play a guitar solo on this track?’ I had a nice time doing it. I was unfamiliar with the band. However, one of my son’s best friends was a huge fan and when they found out that I had performed on it, I went to see them at the Hollywood Palladium and they could not have been kinder and more gracious.”

Talking of Ozzy, you were the musical director for Black Sabbath’s ‘Back To The Beginning’ swansong.

“It was tremendously emotional and an honour. Heavy metal made me love music. Black Sabbath invented that and Ozzy brought the world [Black Sabbath guitarist] Randy Rhoads – who was a poster on my wall. That was my chief inspiration of putting in my 20,000 hours. I don’t just owe an artistic debut to Ozzy and Sabbath, but a great life debt also. So I took it very seriously. The idea was to make the greatest day in the history of heavy metal to honour those people. The artists they created and fans got to show how much they appreciate them. For a band who, in their early inception, were talked about as being evil and dangerous, to have their finale be so much about love was beautiful.”

The verdict: 3/10 

“There were some real stumpers there!”

Tom Morello’s new album, ‘Everyone Gets Everything They Want’, is out now via Mon + Pop Music.

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