Tom Morello quotes

Tom Morello is an American guitarist, songwriter, and political activist, best known for his work with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. His innovative guitar techniques and outspoken views have made a significant impact on rock music and social activism. He continues to inspire artists and fans through his music and advocacy for social justice. Here are 19 of his quotes:

Sacrifice and neon lights slave ships don't wait. Love many, trust few, and don't be late.

Tom Morello

The real estate agent had to go door-to-door in the apartment building we wanted to rent, asking if it was OK for this interracial family - my mom is white and I was a 1-year-old half-African kid - to live in the apartment building.

Tom Morello

Then about 12 years ago it dawned on me that folk music - the music of Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs, early Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger - could be as heavy as anything that comes through a Marshall stack. The combination of three chords and the right lyrical couplet can be as heavy as anything in the Metallica catalogue.

Tom Morello

When you live in a capitalistic society, the currency of the dissemination of information goes through capitalistic channels. Would Noam Chomsky object to his works being sold at Barnes & Noble? No, because that's where people buy their books. We're not interested in preaching to just the converted. It's great to play abandoned squats run by anarchists, but it's also great to be able to reach people with a revolutionary message, people from Granada Hills to Stuttgart.

Tom Morello

Can you explain to the mothers And the fathers of those Who come riding home in coffins In their military clothes?

Tom Morello

In my nightmares the streets are aflame, and in my dreams it's much the same.

Tom Morello

Thought hard about this next line Pretty sure it's true. If you take a step towards freedom It'll take two steps towards you.

Tom Morello

Yeah, I support my troops They wave black flags They wear black masks All the roads are closed Smoke is rising from the fields The monsters left their cages An angel set them free.

Tom Morello

Music, I think, is best when it honestly explores personal demons, and it stirs around in the silt of the psyche to find out what's really there.

Tom Morello

It'll start with a spark, and a great fire will grow.

Tom Morello

My parents met in Kenya. My father is African, is Kenyan. The Kenyan side of my family was involved in the anticolonial movement.

Tom Morello

I was a fan of heavy music - first metal, then punk, then hip hop.

Tom Morello

I came late to the genre of folk music.

Tom Morello

I literally integrated the small town of Libertyville, Illinois. I was the first person of color to reside within its borders.

Tom Morello

Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades.

Tom Morello

Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn't understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn't understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine.

Tom Morello

I didn't grow up with my Kenyan family. I grew up in a small, conservative suburb of Chicago.

Tom Morello