Rage Against The Machine, etc. guitarist Tom Morello has pushed back on accusations of his teenage son Roman Morello being a ‘nepo baby.’ Roman has been sharing stages and the studio with his father over the past few years, and has also appeared on and helped write a number of tracks on Tom‘s newly released album “Everyone Gets Everything They Want“. However, there are some critics who have accused Tom of nepotism when it comes to Roman, given that Roman‘s musical career thus far has largely played out in the shadow of his Rock & Roll Hall Of Famer father.
A newly published interview with Guitar World saw Tom push back against those claims. When asked who he felt was the most exciting up-and-coming guitarist, Tom replied:
“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.”
Tom went on to add:
“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]”
