Legendary Rock Musician, Named One of the Greatest Guitarists of All Time, Turns 62
Tom Morello, who was named one of the greatest guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone, turns 62 today. He posted to his social media saying, "This is…62! Grateful and much love to family, friends, fans, fellow musicians, & comrades for this ongoing crazy, rocking adventure."
Although Morello is most well known for playing in Rage Against the Machine, he is also a part of the band Audioslave and performs under the name the Nightwatchman. In 2023, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he gave a speech about musicchanging the world. "Can music change the world?" he asked. "The whole aim is to change the world or at a bare minimum, to stir up a s--- load of trouble."
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In a 2005 interview withThe Aquariuan, Morello was asked about one of the most outstanding times in his career. He said, "Probably the Redding Festival with Rage Against The Machine, that was the first time we knew that the brushfire was spreading. Up until then we were basically a club band in the States, they had accidentally played the song ‘Killing In The Name' on the commercial radio station in London. They played the unedited ‘F--- you, I won't do what you tell me' 16 times in a row."
Morello continued, "It caused kind of like a Sex Pistols scandal there, but we were a club band and opening for bigger bands in small theaters, and the Redding Festival we played... seventy-thousand people and the place exploded. It was like Queen at Live Aid. We were looking at each other like, ‘What is happening?' That was our first window of just how hard we could rock the world. That was one big event. Also the first Audioslave show we played was the Dave Letterman show on the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater. Literally the first live show we ever played was in front of a television audience of millions, just jumping on the deep end."
Morello is currently working on more music and performing at events like the upcoming Power To The People Festival in October.
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This story was originally published May 30, 2026 at 7:41 AM.