{"id":725201,"date":"2026-06-09T13:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/725201\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T13:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:19:14","slug":"the-band-tom-morello-was-scared-to-perform-with-in-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/725201\/","title":{"rendered":"The band Tom Morello was scared to perform with in 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Credit: Tom Morello<\/p>\n

Meeting your heroes is one thing, but playing alongside them is another altogether. You might be delighted at the prospect of getting to play alongside someone so revered, or you might be quivering in fear. Tom Morello<\/a> knows a fair amount about how to approach this exact situation.<\/p>\n

Having wowed audiences with his novel approach to guitar playing in the 1990s<\/a>, a significant part of what propelled Rage Against the Machine into the spotlight, more opportunities were bound to come his way from the wider world of rock music when the band reached their end in 2000. <\/p>\n

Someone with such an electric playing style was bound to have caught the attention of other musicians, and even if it were with a view to collaborating rather than forming a new project, people would surely have been jumping at the chance to have Morello on board.<\/p>\n

Of course, his main pursuit after Rage Against the Machine\u2019s disbandment was Audioslave, essentially reforming the same lineup he had been working with in his old band, but with Soundgarden\u2019s Chris Cornell on vocals instead of Zack De La Rocha.<\/p>\n

However, that didn\u2019t mean that he wasn\u2019t open to the idea of working with others, and when Audioslave called it a day in 2007, perhaps the biggest opportunity of his career<\/a> would land in his lap, one that he couldn\u2019t possibly turn down.<\/p>\n

As a self-confessed Bruce Springsteen superfan, being asked by The Boss to make a guest appearance at a show in Anaheim in 2008 was arguably a dream come true for Morello. He\u2019d previously made his love for Springsteen known via a cover of \u2018The Ghost of Tom Joad\u2019 on Rage Against the Machine\u2019s final album, Renegades, but being asked to play the song with Springsteen live was another prospect altogether, and one that he would undoubtedly have dreamt about.<\/p>\n

Following this one-off appearance,<\/a> one thing would lead to another, with Morello eventually being called upon to deputise for E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt on a tour of Australia in 2013 when he had other commitments. On top of this, he\u2019d also end up performing on eight songs for Springsteen\u2019s 2014 album, High Hopes, as a result. But the real question is, how did he manage to hold himself together throughout his time working with his idol?<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

In a 2014 interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, he went into greater detail about his time playing alongside Springsteen. \u201cI try not to over-intellectualise it,\u201d he said, humbly discussing his involvement on both the tour and album. \u201cMy number one job is to not mess it up. The E Street Band is one of the greatest live bands of all time without me in it. So don\u2019t fuck it up, first and foremost.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for having Springsteen as a literal boss, Morello said that his instructions were easy to follow and hard to misinterpret, making for a straightforward relationship. \u201cWhen Bruce gives me the nod, blow the roof off the joint,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s the way I look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arguably, he probably didn\u2019t hold himself together at all, but he took the entire experience on face value, and can now look back on it with pride, having achieved something he had always hoped could become a reality.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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