During a recent appearance on Whiplash, the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie, Tom Morello shared that he was an activist before becoming a guitarist.
“I was an activist before I was a guitar player. I didn’t start playing guitar until I was 17, and I was already getting in trouble for my student activism at 16,” the RATM guitarist said.
Morello continued, “Really, my political education did not begin with any books. It began with being the only black kid in an all-white town and some of the racial injustice I felt on the playground from a very, very early age. But also my mom, Mary Morello, who is a 101 years old and is a co-host on my own radio show, we have very different politics…”
“I grew up in a very conservative, homogenous conservative suburb in northern Illinois, and the politics in my home were very different from the politics in the community. It really helped me sort of get a juxtaposition,” the rocker compared political views at home and in his conservative community.
He went on to talk about his mother’s experiences, “My mom had lived in many places around the world, and as a single mom, public high school teacher, we had very humble means, but from her kind of coal-mining ancestors in Illinois to the African liberation struggles she had seen and been a part of on the African continent, it was a very different set of like rules and regulations in my house.”
Tom added, “And I’ve always thought that standing up for the poor, standing up for the oppressed — also from my Catholic upbringing, too, there was also a strong liberation theology elements of always standing up for those that are most in need has always kind of been a part of my DNA and I’ve tried to work it into my vocation… I didn’t choose to be a guitar player; that chose me. So I was stuck with that. I had to find a way to weave my convictions into my vocation.”
Still, some fans criticize his political posts on social media and suggest he should avoid politics. Morello previously responded by saying they misunderstand the band’s message and that his right to share opinions remains unchanged.
