When you pick up a guitar, you don't put down your First Amendment rights. Tom Morello More Quotes by Tom Morello More Quotes From Tom Morello I've always been on a personal mission to save the guitar. Tom Morello personal-mission missions guitar Unity and resistance is a strong American trait. Tom Morello unity resistance strong In my own way, I was a rebellious kid. Tom Morello rebellious kids way There are many fans of hard rock music that have been wrongly pigeonholed as apathetic. This music is not music for the elitist coffeehouse culture in SoHo. It' s rock 'n' roll music for kids across the land, and I think that makes it much more subversive in a way, in that it has the form and the function of a powerful, populist music, but it can carry very incendiary messages. Tom Morello powerful kids thinking Of course, music is an art form, and it's not all that competitive. But we don't ever intend to be the second-best band on a stage at any show. Tom Morello second-best band art I didn't grow up with my Kenyan family. I grew up in a small, conservative suburb of Chicago. Tom Morello conservative growing-up chicago I myself am a very, very peaceful person. Throughout our history, from our own American revolution to the resistance against apartheid in South Africa, to labor strikes in the US, people have resorted to violence to achieve a more progressive society, from time to time. Tom Morello progressive-society peaceful people Poverty is not an accident of, sort of, an economic spreadsheet. Poverty is a crime. There are criminals involved. And those criminals walk the streets as free men. What my music is about, and what - this from the riots in the streets of Greece and Spain to the people's uprisings in Egypt and Libya and Madison is about is holding those people accountable, those who are responsible for subverting the entire global economy and causing so much misery and then laughing about it with their, you know, clinking their champagne glasses on their yachts. Tom Morello laughing men people In America, we have freedom of choice. But some are free to choose between Lamborghini and Rolls Royce while others are free to choose which dumpster they're going to have their meal out of next. Some are free to choose which, you know, homes and farms to foreclosed on, while others choose which bridge they're going to sleep under tonight. Tom Morello choices home sleep Every story has a point of view and whether it's by what one chooses to include or exclude from a story or whether it's a very specific agenda that is pushed, there is no such thing as objective media. Once you realize that it's more than just a marketplace of ideas, it's a battleground of ideas that are suppressed and the ideas that are pushed forward in the mainstream media are the ones that independent media has a chance to address. I think that the democratization of media in that way can be very helpful in allowing the truth to come out in a way that it might not on CNN or FOX. Tom Morello independent chance thinking There's a unique component of music that is different from, the written pamphlet or a speech. There's something, when you get the right combination of rhythm, melody and the right lyrical couplet, that feels like truth in the reptilian brain. There's something hardwired in our D.N.A.. And when you get a large group of people singing together in solidarity, it's something that, in my experience, and I've played countless demonstrations and protests through the years, it's something that can really help a struggle. Tom Morello unique struggle people I didn't choose to be a guitar player. That was something that felt like it was chosen for me. And with that blessing and curse, I, throughout my entire career, it's been my job to weave my convictions into my vocation. And whether I'm standing in the streets of Chicago or the Occupy Wall Street or in Madison, Wisconsin, my job is to steel the backbone of people on the frontlines of social justice struggles, and to put wind in sails of those struggles. And people who are fighting on a, on a daily basis, at a grass roots level, for the things that I believe in. Tom Morello wall struggle believe If Trump is going to govern in a fascist way, then we need to make America ungovernable. Tom Morello america way needs The reason why many young people in the Vietnam War era were active was their lives were threatened by the draft and they were going to perhaps be forced to go overseas and fight in an immoral war. Tom Morello fighting war people Trump's ignorance in environmental science is a threat to the entire planet. Tom Morello environmental trump ignorance Poverty is curable, but it’s just not done, because it's not profitable. And that is the kind of violence that's perpetuated on humanity. Tom Morello poverty done humanity I came late to the genre of folk music. Tom Morello genre folks late 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 cash three years I literally integrated the small town of Libertyville, Illinois. I was the first person of color to reside within its borders. Tom Morello illinois borders color Bashing the elite is what I'm all about in my music because they absolutely don't deserve the privileged position that they're in, and we're seeing this around the globe right now. Tom Morello globes position music-is
