Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello has compared his as-yet-unnamed solo album to the work of guitar-legend Jimi Hendrix.
The perennial guitar-god has told Billboard that he’s in the midst of making his “first solo big rock record” and that he already has “a big batch of songs written”.
Morello said that he wants to “make the craziest guitar record that anyone’s ever heard”. Exciting right? He even goes on to posit that, “The idea is that this is the Hendrix of now.”
He has also explained that his renewed desire to record was inspired by playing with Bruce Springsteen. Discussing his first experience of singing with a guitar in his hands, Morello revealed how Springsteen opened him up to even more creative possibilities:
“The first time I ever sang with an electric guitar in my hands was The Ghost of Tom Joad (with Springsteen) at the Anaheim Pond in 2008. Until then I’d kept my folk singing career and my electric guitar shredding career completely separate…
“It was on that stage that I realized there might be a way to combine all the things I do as a songwriter and a guitar player, and this record is going to be that.”
Morello has also contributed significantly to Springsteen’s forthcoming 18th studio album High Hopes, even sharing lead vocals with Springsteen on a new, electrified version of The Ghost of Tom Joad.
Morello revealed back in August that he was already working on the new record, which won’t be published under Morello’s folk-singing pseudonym The Nightwatchman.
“I’ve written a batch of songs with huge riffs and huge grooves,” he said at the time. “I’m working it out with my band now…but we’re taking our time with it.”
The last release from Tom Morello (as The Nightwatchman) was 2011’s World Wide Rebel Songs.
Watch: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (Featuring Tom Morello) – The Ghost Of Tom Joad
(Via NME)
