“I believe that protest music and folk music is a pretty big tent,” Tom Morello says backstage at this year’s Newport Folk Festival. “It can both encompass ‘We Shall Overcome’ and, ‘Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me.’”
As one of the most prominent figures in protest music over the last three decades, Morello knows what it means to rock truth to power. The legendary guitarist has spent his entire career using his platform to speak against injustice, whether it’s recording and sharing anti-ICE songs, performing with Bruce Springsteen on his “Land of Home and Dreams” tour, or launching the upcoming Power to the People Festival. Morello tells Consequence that much of that drive was instilled in him by his late mother, Mary, who passed away earlier this year.
“My mom was 102 years old, and lived a life of both humility and powerful purpose,” he tells us. “She remains to this day the most popular and the most radical member of the Morello family, and God bless her,” he says.
Morello is ensuring that purpose carries on into the next generation. In addition to starting both the Mary Morello Memorial Project and the Power to the People Festival, he’s recruited his own son, 15-year-old Roman, to perform with him live and on his upcoming solo album, Everyone Gets Everything They Want. He admits there are “two things that are weird and crazy about” playing with Roman: “The first weird and crazy thing is that this is our third summer playing together — so from the time he was 13 years old — and so it’s very odd to be rocking big festivals with a child who is a shredding wizard. Then the weirder thing is when you just get used to it, and he’s just, like, another dude in the band. The advantage, though, is if we have any sort of musical disagreements, I can send him to his room.”
Tom Morello, photo by Ben Kaye
In our interview, Morello says all of this — his mother, his son, Power to the People — are just “links in the chain” of activism and protest music. “Bruce is a very important link in the chain of protest music that goes the way back from the Joe Hills and the Woody Guthries and the Pete Seegers and the Phil Ochs, to the Jimi Hendrixes and the Sly and the Family Stones to System of a Down and Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, The Clash, et cetera. Bruce Springsteen, and my set [at Newport Folk], those are all links in the chain of people that were, in some ways, stuck with the burden of being musicians and then finding a way through our music to change the world.”
Tom Morello connects all these links in the chain, as well as new single “Date Night,” during our exclusive interview. Watch it above (or via YouTube) and/or read it transcribed below.
Everyone Gets Everything They Want is out September 25th on Mom + Pop Music. Power to the People Festival goes down October 3rd at Columbia, Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, and will feature performances by Morello, Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Jack Black, Joan Baez, Public Enemy, Killer Mike, Brittany Howard, Serj Tankian, The Linda Lindas, and more. Get tickets to that and all of Morello’s upcoming tour dates via Vivid Seats, where you can get a $20 discount on your first order of $200 or more with promo code CONSEQUENCE20 at checkout.
The legacy of Newport Folk Festival and protest music
Tom Morello: Well, historically, this festival has been one that is very important for its protest music roots. I’ve had the honor of playing it several times. I’ve played it acoustic; today, I’m gonna rock it electric. I believe that protest music and folk music is a pretty big tent. I think it can both encompass “We Shall Overcome” and, ‘Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me.’ And you may hear both those songs in my set today, if you’re not careful.
Touring with Bruce Springsteen and the “Links in the Chain” of protest music
Morello: Well, we’ve had the pleasure of touring before, but Bruce is a very important link in the chain of protest music that goes the way back from the Joe Hills and the Woody Guthries and the Pete Seegers and the Phil Ochs, to the Jimi Hendrixes and the Sly and the Family Stones to System of a Down and Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, The Clash, et cetera. Bruce Springsteen, and my set [at Newport Folk], those are all links in the chain of people that were, in some ways, stuck with the burden of being musicians and then finding a way through our music to change the world.
I’ve found in my decades of doing this that music can be a very galvanizing thing. On the one hand, it can make people feel less alone in what they think and what they feel and what they believe. On the other hand, it can put steel in the spines and wind in the sails of those people who are actually doing the grassroots work to try to make the world a better place.
Performing and recording with his teenage son, Roman
Morello: For me, this is a very special event because I’m playing this music festival and two things are different than the other times. One, I’m playing with my 15-year-old son, Roman, who is a shredding monster. And he will be thrilling and upstaging me throughout the day. And also, it’s on the cusp of releasing my first-ever solo rock record. My 22nd record of my career is called Everyone Gets Everything They Want. It will be announced in a couple of days, and we’ll be playing some songs from that.
Tom Morello and Roman Morello, photo by Ben Kaye
The first weird and crazy thing is that this is our third summer playing together — so from the time he was 13 years old — and so it’s very odd to be rocking big festivals with a child who is a shredding wizard. Then the weirder thing is when you just get used to it, and he’s just, like, another dude in the band. The advantage, though, is if we have any sort of musical disagreements, I can send him to his room
But this is an all-time great festival. I remember the first time I played it, it really gave me goosebumps because of the history of this festival, and I look forward to trying to create another important chapter tonight.
One more thing I’d like to say: a brand-new single from the record is coming out in a couple of days. It’s called “Date Night.” It tells the true story of three teenage Dutch girls in World War II who seduced Nazi soldiers and murdered them in the woods. And I think that energy is the kind of energy we could feel a little bit more of today.
The legacy of his mom, Mary Morello
Morello: My mom was 102 years old and lived a life of both humility and powerful purpose. She fed hobos in the 1930s during the Great Depression, and she marched against wars for oil. For her 100th birthday, she did the two things she wanted to do: one was to pass out food at the Midnight Mission in downtown Los Angeles, the other was to walk a striking hotel workers’ picket line in her wheelchair. And she remains, to this day, the most popular and the most radical member of the Morello family. God bless her, we’re gonna play for her today.
The Mary Morello Memorial Project — she always did service for others. There were a lot of organizations that she supported throughout her life. If you donate to the Mary Morello Memorial Project, we will distribute that among the organizations that she stood alongside during her life. But importantly, you don’t need to spend a dime to support the project. What we’re asking people to do is to do as Mary did. Sometime between now and October 1st, which would’ve been her 103rd birthday, commit an act of service: walk a picket line, throw a brick, create a work of political art, and let us know about it. There’s going to be a community that shares in her legacy and carries one more link in the chain forward.
The Power to the People Festival
Morello: Power to the People Festival, October 3rd in the DC area. It’s basically a day of resistance and joyful rebellion, and a lot of great music. Springsteen’s playing, Foo Fighters are playing, Dave Matthews is playing, Public Enemy’s playing, I’m playing — it goes on and on. Shepard Fairey’s DJing. The idea is to create a festival — festivals have different themes, as you may have noticed through the years — and this one is about stopping the ship from sinking and trying to create, on that day, a little bit of the world that we’d like to one day see. I think that’s very important — to see it. Here is unity, here is solidarity, here is joy, here are people who are standing up for a more healthy, humane, peaceful, free planet. And hopefully we’ll establish it and do it in years forward.