Becoming a temporary member of Bruce Springsteen”s E Street Band has so inspired Tom Morello that he now intends to make his first solo rock record.
Though Morello certainly let his rock god out with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, his four solo sets have been gentler, folkier outings under the moniker The Nightwatchman.
After touring with Springsteen in Australia this past summer as the replacement for Steven Van Zandt, who was filming “Lilyhammer,” Morello tells Billboard he was inspired to rock out. “The first time I ever sang with an electric guitar in my hands was ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ [with Springsteen] at the Anaheim (Calif.) Pond in 2008. Until then I’d kept my folk singing career and my electric guitar shredding career completely separate,” Morello told Billboard. “It was on that (Anaheim) 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 a number of songs already written but he”ll have to wait to hit the studio until he returns from playing South Africa, New Zealand and Australia (again) with the E Street Band. “I want to make the craziest guitar record that anyone”s ever heard,” he says.
Morello can be heard on Springsteen’s new album, “High Hopes,” out Jan. 14. The guitarist is on eight of the tracks.