Tom Morello discussed Chris Cornell in a new interview on KLOS’ Whiplash with Full Metal Jackie.
“It was the first time in twelve years that Audioslave had played, and I’m so glad that we did that. It was great to play with him again. He was just shining. We had talked about playing more shows, and were enthusiastic about figuring that out. It’s such a tragedy that Chris passed. He was obviously one of the great rock vocalists of all time, and a really great dude. He’ll be sorely missed, but I’m so glad that we got to bask in his rock god presence one more time and play some of those Audioslave jams.”
He also discussed Prophets of Rage.
“I find myself sometimes surprised, you know, walking down the street, [and] people who are fans of my music still don’t really know what Prophets of Rage is. It’s a band that came together during the tumultuous election season of 2016 to kind of inject our musical voice into the debate. Then we found we loved playing together — we found the chemistry we had on stage was fantastic, and we’re a unique band in that we played in front of two and a half million people before we put out our first record, so we had this incredible… experience before we went into the studio. Prophets of Rage is a band that’s here to stay; this is just the beginning. We’re psyched about this record and think that it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with our best work.
“A lot of the lyrics for the band revolve around social justice issues, but first and foremost, we’re musicians, and when we play a show, when we’re writing a song, when we’re recording a song, it has to be kick-ass. No one wants to hear a college lecture put to a beat. The posters on my wall growing up were KISS and Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith. The guitar players that I loved were Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. There’s an element of substance to our lyrics that are different from KISS songs and Led Zeppelin songs, but first and foremost, the music has to connect. The jams have to be devastating, and the stage show, you have to destroy an audience in order for the message to get through.”
