Meltdown: Brush With Greatness – RATM/Audioslave Guitarist Tom Morello
Last week, I told about a chance encounter with Billy Gibbons. This week’s encounter wasn’t by chance, it was set up a month in advance. I had met and interviewed…
Last week, I told about a chance encounter with Billy Gibbons. This week's encounter wasn't by chance, it was set up a month in advance.
I had met and interviewed Tom a few times. I interviewed him in person for the first time when he came through town with Audioslave around 2002. Since, I'd talked to him on the phone a few times for my Talkin' Rock podcast. He's always a very good, engaging interview. Tom can be very political, but no matter where you stand, I can tell you this for sure, he's a very nice guy.
It was the fall of 2018 and I received an email from Tom's publicist asking if I would be interested in hosting a type of "evening with" in early December. Of course I jumped at the chance. I was told it was going to be about 45 minutes on stage, talking about Tom's life/career. As it got closer to the event they said it would be about an hour. It turned out to be an hour and a half, but felt like 20 minutes. It was so much fun!
I got to the El Club in southwest Detroit around 6:45 for the 8pm show. Tom strolled in about an hour later. We talked for a few minutes and then everyone left the green-room area to stage for the show. That left Tom and I all alone for a few moments. I took this selfie in a mirror in the room.
The show was awesome! They gave me a script to loosely follow as Tom told stories of growing up with Adam Jones from Tool, college, Rage Against The Machine, and so on, with pictures to accompany his stories on the screen behind us. About 5 or 6 times he would leave our seated area of the stage and walk about 12 feet to our left and jam a song riff, or guitar solo. We did the whole show drinking his favorite booze, Jamesons. Near the end he thanked me, then jammed for another half hour, with the finale where he invited anyone who wanted to join him onstage. 
Afterwards we hung for a little while with some friends and family, including John 5's sister Mary and her husband, Calvin.
Backstage I did ask him why Rage wouldn't reform.....he said it was all about one member. I guess that member figured it out, now I just hope we can see them on stage this year.
-Meltdown-
