According to Tom Morello, Public Enemy is more rock ‘n’ roll than most hair metal bands.
“One thing that people get wrong is that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should be just for rock and roll bands,” the guitarist told Guitar World in a new interview. “That’s not what it’s for.”
Morello continued, “Public Enemy is more rock ‘n’ roll than 95 percent of all the hair metal bands that ever picked up an instrument, you know? It’s music that has spirit to it… I think rock ‘n’ roll should have a very, very broad sense. I think there’s room for a lot of different genres.”
Public Enemy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. “Public Enemy is certainly a first-ballot inductee,” Morello shared backstage at the induction ceremony. “I would say skip all 25 years for them. They go straight in the chute.”
“[Their work] was both revolutionary sounds and revolutionary lyrics. One thing I’ve always taken to heart is there’s a Chuck D lyric, ‘The rhythm, the rebel.’ I always took that to mean that the music you’re playing can be as revolutionary as any words that you sing on top of it,” Tom added.
Three members of Rage Against the Machine, Morello, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, and drummer Brad Wilk teamed up with two members of Public Enemy, DJ Lord and rapper Chuck D, in 2016 to form rap-rock supergroup Prophets of Rage.
Morello said of the band, “[Chuck D. and B-Real] were the two primary hip-hop inspirations for Rage Against the Machine. And so it wasn’t a matter of looking on YouTube for someone who could do a Rage Against the Machine impression — we went to the people who first inspired us and our favorite emcees to build a band.”
Prophets of Rage broke up in 2019 after Rage Against the Machine reunited. In three years, Prophets of Rage released one EP and one studio album.
