Stripping In The Name Of

Do y’all remember “The Most Interesting Man in the World”? You know, that suave-but-insensitive jackass who would implore us to “stay thirty, my friends” while much of the world still didn’t–and doesn’t–have potable water? Yeah. That guy.

I’m pretty sure I heard a few years back that he had passed away. Sad, indeed.

But fear not! For I, your humble servant, have found his real-life replacement: Tom Morello.

If you don’t know who my boy Tom is, you’re in for a real treat.

He’s probably best known as the innovate and super-creative guitarist for two different prolific rock bands, Rage Against The Machine, & Audioslave, the former of which is well-known for their super-woke social activism, and the latter of which might be ironically rethinking their use of the term “slave” in their name.

For the most part, that is about all the more I myself knew about him, until a few weeks ago when I was watching instructional guitar videos on YouTube when an ad for his Masterclass popped up:

If you didn’t take the time to watch it, about halfway through, he starts talking about his background, and mentions being “the only Black kid in an all-white town” and “the only one into heavy metal at Harvard University…”

**Record scratches**

Wait, what? He’s Black?

Call me racist and/or ignorant, but I guess I had just lazily extrapolated the presumably Hispanic heritage of Zach de la Rocha (lead singer of Rage) onto the rest of the band,¹After doing my research, boy was I wrong. The other two band members are a straight-up white dude and Jewish guy. so this information significantly altered my view of Tom.

AND he went to Harvard?!?

I figured this guy was pretty interesting to begin with, but my face was being melted in real time, yo.

I simply had to know more.

Enter his entry on Wikipedia. If you have the chance, click the link and explore the richness that is Tom Morello for yourself.

If you don’t, here are my Top 3 highlights that I believe support my case for him being the new Most Interesting Man in the World (in addition to the previously related facts, of course):

#3: In Junior High he was in a band with a future legend in his own right, Adam Jones of Tool (another immensely successful rock band you probably never heard of):

#2: After graduation, he put his Harvard diploma to real good use:

…and finally, #1: You’ve got to be ----- kidding me:

Oh, in case you were wondering what the “Stripping In The Name Of” is referencing, then please enjoy this video of Rage’s “Killing In The Name”. Seriously, though, if this is not a song for this moment in time, I don’t know what is. These guys were indeed Prophets of Rage²If you did the ----- Wikipedia homework I assigned you, you would know that this was yet another band Tom has been a part of. before their time…

*Boomer discretion is strongly advised.*

Content created on: 16 July 2020 (Thursday)

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