Tom Morello discussed reuniting Audioslave with Chris Cornell at the Anti-Inaugural Ball in January to protest President Donald Trump in a new Guardian interview.
“I would suggest that the struggle for human liberation, both at home and abroad, preceded Trump and will be going on after Trump,” Morello says. “There’s plenty of fodder for Prophets to rage against.”
Nonetheless, the President is their lightning rod. On January 20th, the band played an Anti-Inaugural Ball in Los Angeles, where Chris Cornell joined them to perform some Audioslave songs for the first time in 12 years. It was the last time they saw each other before Cornell’s suicide in May.
“There’s no silver lining to his passing but I feel better that we were able to share the stage again,” Morello says. “He was a good friend: ‘If it’s important to you to play Cuba, let’s go and play Cuba. If you’re playing a show to raise the minimum wage, I’d love to play some songs with you.’ He responded to the call.”
He later discussed ‘disinformation’ in news.
“There’s an important lesson to be learned from this rainbow of disinformation,” Morello says. “It was always there but now it’s more obvious. No story tells the whole truth. Nothing is fair and balanced. Nothing is the full picture. The advantage music has is it’s a language that predates speech. When you get the right combination of rhythm and rhyme, it feels like the truth the way that nothing else does.” That’s where Prophets of Rage come in. “The resistance needs a soundtrack. That’s the job we’re auditioning for.”
