Tom Morello has opened up about what he calls a “tremendous failure” behind the split of Rage Against the Machine. The guitarist explained why he thinks the breakup was a “failure” that opened “a million beautiful windows.”
Morello reflected on his hopes for the band and how he felt when it ended. He first described what he saw as his final crucial failure.
“The final crucial failure was being unable to keep that band together,” Morello said. “And I sort of saw myself as like, I’ll be in one band, for like Jimmy Page or in Led Zeppelin, and that’s the thing.”
He then described how the end of the band felt, given what it had achieved.
“And it just did not happen,” Morello continued. “What felt like a tremendous failure. Like the dream is real. Like you’re able to have the politics that you believe in and the music that you love, you know, on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, and it just goes away.”
Morello went on to say how the split led to new opportunities.
“And it opened the door to, you know, Audioslave, to playing with Bruce Springsteen, to collaborating with everybody from, you know, Joan Baez to Wu-Tang Clan to playing with my son now,” he said. “And the greatest musical experience of my life, where, you know, one door closed and a million beautiful windows opened.”
“I blamed myself for all those failures,” Morello added. “And they were the best thing that could possibly happen to me.”
The comments offer a look at how Morello now views the end of Rage Against the Machine. The history behind the split helps explain why he felt the loss so strongly.
Rage Against the Machine effectively ended in October 2000. Singer Zack de la Rocha announced he was leaving the band after nine years. The group had just released the covers album Renegades. Creative differences had been growing.
De la Rocha’s statement was blunt. “I feel that it is now necessary to leave Rage because our decision-making process has completely failed.”
Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk first said they would carry on as a band. They later teamed up with Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell and formed Audioslave. The group released three albums before it split in 2007.
Morello’s path with Bruce Springsteen has also grown over the years. He has filled in with the E Street Band before. For the 2026 Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour, he is set to join Springsteen and the band on selected songs at every date.
