10 Most Outspoken Men In Rock And Metal History
4. Tom Morello
In terms of politics, you'll be hard pressed to find a more crowd splitting act than Rage Against the Machine. For most, it's quite evident that RATM are a highly political left-wing band who have aspirations of taking on the establishment, as the name of their band suggests. However, there is still an active debate amongst rock fans on what the 'machine' is, which sometimes provokes hostile discussions between the bands followers. Guitarist Tom Morello is not afraid to express his views away from music, and doubles down on RATM's messages wherever possible.
Fans have branded Morello as 'another successful musician' who instantly became 'a political expert'. In response to this, Morello is happy to remind people that he has a degree in political sciences from Harvard University, and that RATM have always been a political band. After being informed that fans were only just realising his band were political, Morello defended Rage's music in a Q&A with Metal Hammer, by saying people who were angered by the bands politics “weren’t intelligent enough to know what the music was about”.
Morello has also been active in his opposition to former US president, Donald Trump, yet is friends with Ted Nugent. Nugent seemingly represents everything Morello hates from a political perspective, and Morello has had to defend their friendship when fans have called him out for it. Morello said "I reserve the right to be friends with anybody" when addressing the friendship in an NME interview, even if some of his fans disagree.