Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello participated in the latest episode of SiriusXM and discussed finding his guitar style and the inspirations that led him to discover his technique.
Morello also stated that he thinks there’s only one famous guitarist he knows of that started playing as late as he did.
Here is his statement (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):
“I started at 17, and I had never heard of a guitar player that had ever made a record that began playing that late, with one exception, and that was Robert Johnson, who started at 18.
And he had to sell his soul to do it. [Chuckles] I didn’t want to have to go down that route, but it did feel like there was no obvious path to being a grear guitar player starting at age 17.
Fortunately, I relied on my obsessive-compulsive disorder of practicing eight hours a day for years to catch up and amass the technique that I coveted in players like Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen.
And on the onset of Rage Against the Machine, I recognized that I was the DJ in the band, and began looking at the instrument in an entirely deconstructive way to use unconventional sounds as the building blocks for songs.”
You can listen to the entire podcast below:
Click here for the source.
