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• The Nightwatchman official site
• Article on Mr. Morello
• Axis of Justice official site

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Musician-activist performs "House Gone Up In Flames" from his debut CD, The Nightwatchman. (3:34)
 

Tavis: Tom Morello is the co-founder of two acclaimed bands. First came Rage Against the Machine, a band that fused punk and hip-hop to create a groundbreaking new sound. When Rage disbanded back in 2000, he formed Audioslave. Next month, for the first time in seven years - it's about time - Rage comes back together, reunited to close out to Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. More on that in a moment.

Also in April, he's out with his first-ever solo album, recorded under the alias The Nightwatchman. The CD is called "One Man Revolution." Later on, for the first time on network television, Tom will perform a track off the new CD. But first, Tom Morello, nice to have you here.

Tom Morello: Pleasure, sir.

Tavis: Pleasure to meet you, how you doing, man?

Morello: Very well.

Tavis: Seven years later, Rage finally back together again.

Morello: That's right. That's right.

Tavis: And as I quoted you earlier, to deliver a knock-out punch to the Bush administration? I gotta get you to come out of your shell about how you feel.

Morello: Sure. (Laughs) Well, do you think it's - is it just merely coincidence that in the seven years that Rage Against the Machine has been away that the country has slid into a fascist wormhole? I don't think so. (Laughs) I don't think so. I think it's time for all good people who oppose what's going on now with this administration, both domestically and internationally, to step up and to let their voices be heard.

And one of the loudest voices for social justice during the nineties was Rage Against the Machine. So I think it's high time that we return, play a couple shows, and stir up the people.

Tavis: What's your sense, Tom, of what's happened - as you put your Harvard hat on here - what's your sense of what's happened in the country over the last seven, eight years that has precipitated this, or allowed this decline to happen?

Morello: Well, I think the Bush administration has definitely hijacked the American apparatus. And the people and the media have stood on the sidelines and let it happen. There are many sort of in my camp who believe that George W. Bush should be impeached. I'm not among them. I think impeaching's too good for him, frankly.

This is a person who's guilty of war crimes. First strike wars of aggression, torture, secret prisons. There's plenty of evidence to get the man impeached, from the Katrina debacle to spying on American citizens. But we really have a war criminal in the White House right now, and what is most surprising to me is sure, in the last elections, Democrats were elected instead of Republicans.

But the White House should be ringed with pitchforks and torches, if we were really doing what we felt in our hearts.

Tavis: How do you respond to people who say that it's one thing to have a difference of opinion about whoever the occupant of the White House might be, versus your coming on the show and calling the president names, and really going beyond the pale, calling him a war criminal?

Morello: Well, I'm not calling him names. If the Geneva Convention or if the Nuremberg standards were applied to this president, he would be convicted and hung as a war criminal. There's no doubt about that. That's what the people at Nuremberg were put on trial for. First strike wars of aggression and torture. And he's guilty of both those things. His administration's guilty of both those things.

And I'd throw Cheney and Rumsfeld and the whole lot of them in with that. So that's just calling it what it is. But what we're trying - culture has always played an important role in this country in helping things to change, whether it was with the civil rights movement or even in times before, with the labor struggles of the early twentieth century.

And my vocation is that of a musician. While I did work for U.S. Senator Alan Cranston for a couple of years, I'm a musician first and foremost. And I wanna raise my voice doing what I do in the sphere of influence that I have to help turn the tide. As the great progressive history Howard Zinn said, "You can't be neutral on a moving train."

And this train is definitely moving in the wrong direction. So we can either sit in the dining car sipping cocktails, or we can throw something in the gears to try to stop it and turn it around.

Tavis: I'll come back to your music in just a second, but since you mentioned Alan Cranston, of course former U.S. Senator from California, it's a funny story I read about how you actually got to work for him when you left Harvard. Even with that Harvard degree you couldn’t find a job right away. So what happens?

Morello: That's right. Well, I moved out here - I learned a lot at Harvard, but one thing I didn’t learn was that if you have a thousand dollars in your bank account and you move to Hollywood, you're gonna be homeless pretty quickly. (Laughs) And so, my resume up until that time was I didn’t have a lot of retail, I worked at a renaissance faire for five summers.

So I didn’t really have a lot on my resume to - I couldn’t get a job at the local Sears, I couldn’t do - I was trying to sell heavy metal t-shirts on Hollywood Boulevard, they would not have me. So, I was kind of down to my last jar of peanut butter and package of Ramen when I just was literally going through the White Pages and saw U.S. Senator Alan Cranston.

And I was familiar with his work as a very progressive senator, so I just called up and said, "Do you have any openings?" And sure enough they did, and I was his scheduling secretary for a couple of years.

Tavis: And what'd you learn from that experience in working on the inside? What you do now is clearly as a musician on the outside, letting your voice be heard. But I've had the experience as well with being on the inside, now on the outside in media. What'd you learn from the inside?

Morello: It was very instructive. Even though Senator Cranston was as far to the left on social issues and environmental issues as almost anyone who's ever inhabited the U.S. Senate, most of the time that I spent with him, he was on the phone asking rich guys for money. And that money doesn’t come for free. And whether it was conservative, liberal, if they had cash, you need it for your campaign.

And that's electoral - the way that electoral politics are run in this country, it is beholden to cash, and I got to see that first hand. And it made me realize - it confirmed my convictions that progressive change in this country does not come from above. Whether it's been women's right to vote, workers getting an eight-hour day, desegregation of lunch counters, all of those major events have happened because people whose names we don't read about in the history books organized and stood up for their rights where they live, where they go to school, where they go to work, in their communities. And that's how I think change happens.

Tavis: I couldn’t agree more. In the Black church tradition, I'd say amen on that point. That said, though, I wonder whether or not the escalating cost of getting in these races to let your voice be heard on the inside makes it forever impossible - at the very least, more difficult, that those kinds of progressive voices will ever rise to the White House, rise to the House, rise to the Senate.

Morello: Well, I think that that's not unintentional. I think that barrier is there to keep those progressive voices out. You have to raise millions and millions of dollars that come from people who have millions and millions of dollars, and those people are not apolitical in their intent. And I think that in this country, we basically have a one-party system with two right wings.

And one of them may be more honest about their political opinions and their - but that's why I think the pressure always has to come from below. But it's not insurmountable. I was talking with a friend the other day who was, like, throwing her hands up there and saying "I can't stand what this administration's doing, but I just feel completely helpless."

Well, there was a time where the Berlin Wall was up. There was a time where Apartheid seemed like it would never go away. There was a time when it never seemed like it would never go away. There was a time when it never seemed like women would be able to vote in this country. All of those things which seemed very insurmountable, seemed etched in stone at the time, were overcome. And that changed happened because people like you and me stood up for their rights where they lived.

Tavis: There are a lot of folk who are starting to place their hopes or place their bets on a guy named Barack Obama. We are hopeful that Barack will be that progressive voice. I love Barack, and I'm waiting to see what he has to say about the - right now, it's a lot of hype. We're gonna get to the point where he's got to speak up and say something, as will Hillary and all the rest of them.

But a lot of people are putting their money on Barack, that he is that progressive voice that we've been looking for and waiting for. I raise that with you specifically because there are a number of similarities between you and Barack Obama. I'll let you run the list, but starting with the Kenyan father. Take it from there.

Morello: That's correct. Recently, someone came up to me and said, "Dude, you're the Barack Obama of music." And I was, like, "No, he's the Tom Morello of politics." (Laughs)

Tavis: Exactly. I like that. You were there first.

Morello: We both have Kenyan - well actually, he's a couple of years older, I think. But we both have Kenyan fathers, White American mothers. Both have a history, and I'm from Illinois, as well. Both Harvard graduates. And it's pretty eerie. I've yet to meet him, but I look forward to it one day.

Tavis: What do you make, though, of the hype - not just the hype, with respect to Barack - the hype and the hope at the moment centered around his candidacy?

Morello: Yeah, and I think that I have high expectations for someone like him, who comes from that similar background to my own. 'Cause I've seen the same kind of - a very similar upbringing, have seen the same kind of prejudice, and have pushed through it in ways that - our paths are similar in some ways. So I hope that he can transform that experience into one that really is a populist and truly democratic and egalitarian version for a different America.

I think it's very difficult. It's much like my experience with Senator Cranston, whose ideals were as high as anyone could be in higher office, but at the end of the day was really beholden to money. And I hope that that chain of money does not keep Barack's hopes and ideals to the ground.

Tavis: To your point, I'm not a cynic, but if I were a cynic, I would argue that Barack - anyone else, any candidate notwithstanding, it is going to be, again, increasingly difficult to find persons in public office who can be truth-tellers because of the money, number one. And because to really tell the truth means you offend too many people. Part of the hype around Barack right now is that he ain't said nothing to offend nobody.

Morello: Right, right. (Laughs)

Tavis: So I wonder whether or not - I say that, again, not to cast aspersion or anybody else in the system. I think politics and public service is a noble profession, when engaged in the right way. The question though is whether or not we are looking to the wrong institution to deliver the answers, to solve the problems, given that you can't really rise to the top if you're going to be, in earnest, a truth-teller.

Morello: That's right. I think that you're absolutely correct. And I think that whether the administration is Republican or whether it's Democrat, it is still your and my responsibility to exert not just that pressure, but make demands. This is our country. This is our country. And to make demands for what we need to see happen, both domestically and around the world.

And while certainly someone like Barack Obama is - I have greater hope in his candidacy than just about anyone else's, we'll have to see. And if he's elected president, we will have to pressure him, just as we would have to pressure anyone else in that office.

Tavis: So that said, people, I think, are more open to hearing political discourse from elected officials than they are from musicians, with all due respect to the power that exists in music. How do you navigate this journey that you’ve been on as a musician with you saying stuff that people don't really wanna hear from you?

Morello: I think that one, that's very amusing 'cause everyone - elected officials, their degree of truth-telling is - there's a long, sordid history. (Laughs) But when I picked up a guitar, I did not put down my right to free speech. Nor did a carpenter when he picked up his hammer, or a teacher when she picks up the lectern. And so I think it's everyone's responsibility, and I think that normally that criticism very simply comes from people who disagree with me.

It's not that complicated. For example, when actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is running for office, the conservative chorus rallies behind him. Actor Ronald Reagan runs for president, the conservative chorus rallies behind him. But then you’ve got the Dixie Chicks saying "Man, it really sucks that our president's from our state," everyone goes crazy. And I think it has more to do with the shade of political opinion than it does with the fact that someone comes from the world of entertainment.

Tavis: Could it be that their moving from acting into politics rather than staying in acting and lecturing us about politics? That is to say that when we hear your music, or music, period, we tend to view music as something that entertains us, not lectures us.

Morello: I'm not sure if I entirely agree with that. Music has been, from field hollers to Bob Dylan to System of a Down, has been a way to engage, inform, and inspire people to fight for social change throughout the history of music, certainly in this country. And music quite often is - you're able to tell the truth as you see it.

But like I said, you don't abdicate your First Amendment rights when you pick up an instrument. I would love to - I'm tired of hearing talking heads, retired generals, this one and that one, the tiny shades of difference between the talking heads that you hear on the various corporate-owned newscasts. I would like to hear more of what students or teachers or TV - people like yourself or the cameraman here has to say about world affairs.

And that's one of the reasons why I believe that you see so few people turn up to the polls for elections in the United States. Because they do not believe that they are represented by the people running. It's not just this kind of general apathy. It's like if someone was going to cut the work week down to four days and have the minimum wage be this, and was going to have programs of equality and peace, many of those people who are sitting at home might be able to get behind that candidate. But that candidate can't raise the money to run for higher office in this country.

Tavis: What you just said was a scary thought. I'm looking around at Brian and (laughs) Dave and Mike and wondering what kind of show I might get out of having them as guests, to hear what they had to say about the issues of the day.

Morello: But would any of them be scarier than what comes out of George W. Bush's mouth?

Tavis: (Laughs) I don't know with these guys. With these guys, I'm not--

Morello: In my brief acquaintance with them, I would put a lot of stock in the cast behind the cameras.

Tavis: Yeah, they're a good crew. They're a good crew. You said a moment ago, Tom, that when you picked up a guitar, you did not put down your right to free speech, and I'm glad you do what you do. Let me back up though and ask where that consciousness came from. There are a lot of folk who play guitar, but they don't have the social consciousness that you have. Where'd that come from?

Morello: Part of it, frankly, came from my experience with racism. I literally integrated the town of Libertyville, Illinois. I was the first person of color--

Tavis: Libertyville. (Unintelligible)

Morello: Libertyville (unintelligible) correct. The first person of color.

Tavis: Integrated Libertyville.

Morello: That's correct.

Tavis: I like that.

Morello: The very first person of color. And when my mom, who's White, and myself moved in, the real estate agent had to go door-to-door in the apartment, these kind of tenement buildings, to ask the residents "Is it okay if this multiracial family lives there?" I had a bit of an advantage, because I was African. So I was somewhat exotic, and that's part of what helped us be able to live in that town.

So my experience growing up - people ask, "When did you become politicized? Was it at Harvard?" No, it was on that first playground when somebody name-called me. That's where your political education begins, at a very young age. Also the politics of my home were very different than the politics of the surrounding community. My father, while he didn’t live with us, was part of Kenya's independence struggle. My great uncle is Jomo Kenyatta, the first president (unintelligible) Kenya.

Tavis: The first president, yeah.

Morello: And my mom is very much involved with the NAACP and the Urban League. And so the politics in my home contrasted very starkly with the conservative politics of the town that I grew up in. That manifested itself when I got to high school and had great disagreements with a number of teachers over a wide variety of things.

Some friends and I formed an alternative school newspaper. And at that point, that's where music and politics kind of came together for me. It was groups like Public Enemy; it was punk rock groups like the Clash, that I felt were telling me the truth in a clearer way than talking heads on CNN or on the nightly news. At the time, the issues were Apartheid and were death squads in Central America. And I was really stirred to both pick up the guitar and to try to use it as a vehicle for social change.

Tavis: Tell me how you and Rage successfully fused those sounds, this punk, this rock, this hip-hop. Everything you put together isn't automatically going to work.

Morello: That's right.

Tavis: Just cause you’ve put it together doesn’t mean it's gonna sound right. You guys made it sound right. How'd that happen?

Morello: Well, I was in a band prior to Rage Against the Machine that sort of tried and failed on a major label. And at that point, until then I'd been much more careerist in my goals, and wanted hit songs and hit albums. And it was a very discouraging experience, so when we formed Rage Against the Machine, it was completely - there was no desire to get a record deal, to get a song on the radio.

We were just gonna write music that we believed in, period. And combined our influences from heavy metal to punk rock to hip-hop, and made a band that had a unique sound that we thought was so radical in its politics, was so radical in its sound, and it was a multiracial band at the time - this was in 1991. There was a very stark division between urban radio and sort of White hard rock radio, and there were no bands with Chicano musicians and half-African musicians, and part-Jewish musicians, and big Irish dudes (laughs) playing.

So we were very surprised to find - and I think it was because the music was so pure in its intent that it struck a chord immediately. And I agree with you, it was not the politics of Rage Against the Machine that got the band over. It was the fact that it was a great rock and roll band, and is a great rock and roll band, that then had a political message that it was able to deliver more potently.

Tavis: To your message, and before I finally get to the new CD, which is basically all acoustic, when you - the song that you're about to perform for us in just a minute has a line in it that I know referring to Colin Powell's lies. You ever wrote a lyric that you said, "That's too much, I'd better back off of that?"

Morello: That, to me, doesn’t seem like that's (unintelligible)…

Tavis: No, not that one, not that one.

Morello: Oh, other than that.

Tavis: Yeah, other than that.

Morello: The lyric you're referring to is I believe that Colin Powell stood at a very singular moment in United States history, where he stood before the entire world at the United Nations and said things that he knew were not true, which led the country into a horrible, immoral war that we are paying for, and Iraqi civilians are paying for to this day.

So I think that he deserves to be singled out. He knew better. There's a lot of people in the administration who didn’t know better. He knew better. But I think that your only responsibility as an artist is to tell the truth as you see it, and I think that sometimes, the most - if music can, I think music when it's best is dangerous.

That doesn’t mean that - whether it's John Coltrane, whose music, I believe, was very dangerous, or whether it's the music of Rage Against the Machine, it's music very dangerous. It's music that pushes the boundaries of what is possible in art might make you think what is possible in the world you live in.

Tavis: So the new CD, basically all acoustic except for one track, The Nightwatchman. Tell me about the new record.

Morello: Sure. I began about four years ago performing acoustic songs just at open mike nights. We'd come off these big Audioslave arena tours, these sold-out arena shows playing big, loud rock and roll music, and I would go to, like, the local coffeehouse in Granada Hills out here and with a couple of friends and a latte machine whirring in the background, and (laughs) played these songs.

And some of those early experiences I was having, it was absolutely as fulfilling artistically as anything I had ever done. And I realized that I was on to something. There were a couple of nights where it really felt like in this tiny, dark coffeehouse, that everybody's soul in the room was at stake. And something that was also - while the music of Audioslave was less political, it provided me the opportunity to express my opinions via the vehicle of music.

Over the last six months or so, I decided it's something I really wanna focus on. It's something that I believe in. So as The Nightwatchman, I've made a record called "One Man Revolution," and I'm very much looking forward to touring with it and having it get out there.

Tavis: (unintelligible) these titles. Whoever comes up with them? Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, The Nightwatchman, "One Man Revolution." (Laughs) I promise the next time I get Tom Morello to come on this program, I'll try to get him out of his shell. I know he was holding back a little bit in this conversation tonight. Next time maybe he'll open up a little bit. Up next, a special acoustic performance from Tom's first-ever solo CD. It took a while, though. But you finally got there.

Morello: Yes, absolutely.

Tavis: Yeah. And I love the sound of it.

Morello: Thank you.

Tavis: So Tom Morello's gonna perform for us in just a moment. Stay with us.

Using the name The Nightwatchman and the new CD "One Man Revolution," here is Tom Morello with the network television debut of "House Gone Up In Flames." Enjoy. Good night from Los Angeles, and keep the faith.