Tom Morello Praises The Prodigy’s Live Energy as a Rare Match for Rage Against the Machine

1You portrayed Crewman Mitchell in a 2000 episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Which section of the vessel do you instruct Captain Janeway to navigate to?

“I instructed her: ‘To the left, ma’am,’”

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

“To the left, ma’am could have also been the name of my new album!” [Laughs] “I also appeared in Star Trek: Insurrection two years prior as a So’na alien. I had to arrive at 4 a.m. every morning for five hours of makeup. The other So’na actors were frustrated by the early call times, 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 I was the man from Audioslave or Rage Against The Machine, so they were confused about why Captain Picard was speaking to So’na Number 4. But once they found out, they all handed me demo tapes from their bands! [Laughs]”

2What band T-shirt were you wearing during Rage Against The Machine’s first UK television appearance on The Word in 1993, where you performed ‘Killing In The Name’?

“Jeez! I recall that performance vividly, as it certainly caused a stir. Was it a Warrant shirt?”

WRONG. Kiss.

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

“We performed The Word within the first few days of being in the UK. I did not realize the band had truly connected until the ’93 Reading Festival. We played ‘Know Your Enemy’, which features a false ending. As the lights came up, the beat resumed, and the crowd looked like an entire country jumping in unison. That was the revelation that something significant was happening. Very early in ’92, we performed at a dreary metal club in Birmingham. No one knew who we were, but when ‘Killing In The Name’ came on, heavy metal couples started banging their heads together. Our tour manager remarked: ‘You might write better songs, but I have 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.”

3Which animal head appears on the album cover of your 1980s band Lock Up’s ‘Something Bitchin’ This Way Comes’?

“A horse head.”

CORRECT.

“My apologies—‘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 becoming a rock star and making albums. Getting signed to Geffen Records with Lock Up felt incredible. Live, the band was rawer, and I had all this crazy playing on the guitar.

“We were told: ‘Don’t do that.’ Our frontman was gay, but we were instructed he had to remain closeted and could not discuss it, all to secure radio play. We complied and then made a record I was not particularly proud of. Fifteen seconds after its release, the label stopped returning our calls. The day the band broke up, I made a solemn vow to never play another note of music I did not believe in. I sat on my couch in my squat and began writing riffs that would become the component parts of the first Rage Against the Machine record.”

4What letter was painted on your chest when Rage Against The Machine famously protested nude against censorship at Lollapalooza in 1993?

“[Laughs] I believe it was ‘R’?”

WRONG. ‘C’.

“So I was at the end?! [Laughs] I do not recall that.”

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

“We were going to stage the protest in Washington, DC, but disagreements about its nature led us to Philadelphia instead. The record company had brought everyone down to represent ‘Here’s Rage Against The Machine’. Lollapalooza was a phenomenon; that year, it sold out before the bill was even announced. We were the first band on. Our tour manager was the only person aware of our plan, and he calculated we had 15 minutes before the police arrived, at which point we would have to leave. Backstage, we had our clothes on, and Layne Staley—whose band Alice in Chains was headlining—said to me: ‘I came early today. I heard you guys are great. I can’t wait to see you.’ I replied: ‘You’re going to see us all right!’ [Laughs].”

“We stripped and walked out, and the crowd went bananas. One: it was Lollapalooza. Two: it was naked guys, some of whom were rather well-endowed. Three: it was a protest. The guitars were squealing back. For the first five minutes, it was pure euphoria. For the next five minutes, it was a strange standoff as the audience realized we were now in the seventh, eighth, ninth minute—that is a long time to be standing buck-naked in a football stadium. During the last five minutes, it was hostile—they were throwing quarters at us! People were booing. They now realized they had stepped into a pile of political art. Then we left without playing a single song, and there was a murderous outpouring from the crowd!”

“The point was that you cannot take controversial music for granted. But there we were, scrambling backstage naked. The cops had arrived, and it was every man for himself! Layne Staley probably took my clothes because he was so furious! I was running around in my sneakers and my birthday suit, so I went to the only place that a naked Black man might find refuge—on Fishbone’s tour bus! It was 1:45 p.m., and they were all smoking weed, so I sat down buck-ass naked and watched Star Wars! [Laughs]”

5Audioslave 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 wild video for ‘Cochise’, and we were a new band—three members from Rage Against The Machine and the singer of Soundgarden. We had 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!’”

6Which 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 do know that The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett is a big fan of that song. We recorded ‘One Man Army’ together in 1997, which also samples ‘Bulls on Parade’, but it was not a Top Ten hit*. I first met The Prodigy on the Australian Big Day Out tour. I had 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 saw The Firestarter [Keith Flint] approaching, and I recognized 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.

7Which 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. It was 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 a sad time. He was very unhealthy at the time. We could not get him down to Los Angeles, and we were concerned about him doing the song because he was going to receive a substantial cheque, and we did not know what that would mean for him. He recorded in Seattle, and it was a difficult day. He sounded great, but he was never able to conquer his addictions. Sadly, it was not long after that we lost him.”

8What 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 am 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.”

9What 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 is all [director] Michael Moore’s genius. That day certainly goes down in infamy in the history of Rage Against The Machine. The video 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 elements were not in the video treatment when we sent it out! [Laughs]”

“The video also famously and notoriously predicts Donald Trump becoming 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!—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.”

“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 or more gracious.”

Speaking 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 for putting in my 20,000 hours of practice. I do not just owe an artistic debut to Ozzy and Sabbath, but a great life debt as well. 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 their 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.”

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