Former Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello discussed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a new interview with Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich on Beats 1’s It’s Electric. Alternative Nation transcribed their comments.
Tom Morello: You inducted Deep Purple, I inducted kiss and The Clash.
Lars Ulrich: Are you on the committee?
Tom: I am. I am on the nominating committee. So whenever you see metal bands appear on the ballot, you can blame me.
Lars: The reason I know that is because Cliff Bernstein is also on the committee, he gave the story about you giving one of the most impassionate speeches he has ever seen in his career. When you came in to the committee, and looked every member in the eye and told them why KISS should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Then they were in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Tell me how you ended up on the committee and also what’s that like.
Tom: I was like a long time enemy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a lot of hard rock and metal fans are. Our genre was totally looked over, and nobody knew it or cared about it, or understood it. I spent a lot of time on tour with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and Jon Landau, who is Bruce’s manager, is one of the big guys in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So I would unapologetically tell him in every hotel bar: ‘Your Hall of Fame sucks, until you put these bands in.’
When you are a kid and a baseball player, your dream is to have such a career that you are honored by being in the Baseball Hall of Fame. That is the dream. When you are a rock and roll guitar player or drummer whatever, you could give a shit about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, because your heroes aren’t there. It’s an obvious list at the time of the ten [bands] like: Rush, KISS, Deep Purple. To his credit, he heard my words, and I made the passionate speech in hotel bars around the world. So I got an email and they said: ‘You’re on the committee.’ I’m going to tell them what I think, so I went in there and just let them have it. To their credit, they put KISS on the ballot, and once they were on the ballot, they easily got in.
