Tom Morello Recalls His Obsessive-Compulsive Way Of Practicing Guitar Since He Wasn’t Naturally Gifted

During a recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello talked about his guitar playing talent that will surprise you.

In the conversation, Tom recalled the days when he went to Harvard University and mentioned that he had a calling of rock and roll while putting so much on his academic career.

However, Tom was too late to learn the guitar, and he was also caring about the school as well. Because of that, he had to cut off all the social activities in his life besides studies and guitar practices.

While admitting that he wasn’t naturally talented as a guitar player, Tom also pointed out that he practiced guitar for at least four hours per day no matter what and showed how he become such a great musician.

Howard Stern said:

“It’s amazing to me, you took your years at Harvard and you said, ‘You know what, I fucked up, I started guitar late and I’m gonna sit at my dorm room and practice eight hours a day.’ You weren’t a naturally gifted musician.”

Tom Morello replied:

“Not at all. No one from my town had ever applied to Harvard University before, so I was the first one to ever go, and so I didn’t want to let everybody down, you know?

But I had a calling to play rock ‘n’ roll, and I knew it was a call, a full-on zealous passionate calling. But at the same time, I was kind of a standard-bearer and had to – I had to succeed academically there as well.

So it precluded any sort of social life, but I was practicing four-six-eight hours every day without fail, without missing it, I could have a fever of a 102, an exam at eight in the morning, and I’d get my four hours in – not three hours and 58 minutes. So it was obsessive-compulsive in a way that I don’t necessarily recommend.”

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