During a recent interview with Guitar World, Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) defended his son Roman Morello against those who refer to him as a “nepo baby.” According to Tom, “it’s not nepotism when your kid’s that fucking good.”
Tom said the following:
“Here’s the thing: it’s not nepotism when your kid’s that fucking good. [Laughs] There’s a lot of great players out there, but I’ll put my kid up against anybody.
He has something that I didn’t have, which is an ear. I had to fight forever because I had zero natural ability, so it took me maybe 10 years to find my voice. But Roman Morello has got an ear and has a natural [internal] jukebox.”
He also added:
“My son Roman was a co-writer of five songs from this record. I always have an ear to his door and poach his best riffs, so there’s a kinship there.
He has the Morello DNA and writes riffs that are familiar to me. But his fingers move in ways I’d never think of. So, the riff from ‘Everyone Gets Everything They Want‘ is really counterintuitive to me.
And then there’s another from ‘Soldier In The Army Of Love‘, where there are these big pentatonic riffs. You might go, ‘That’s a Tom Morello riff,” but it’s not. That’s a Roman riff that Tom had some difficulty learning. [Laughs]”
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