Tom Morello Preps For His First-Ever Solo Rock Album

On Wednesday (Aug. 19), Tom Morello joined Loudwire Nights to dive into the news of his debut solo rock album, Everyone Gets Everything They Want, as well as pay tribute to his late mother, the great Mary Morello.

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

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"I've made Rage [Against the Machine] records, I've made Audioslave, I've made pop records, Bruce Springsteen records and then the records that have had my name on it have always been predominantly collaborative affairs," Morello shared with Loudwire Nights' Chuck Armstrong.

"This is the first fastball down the middle, huge riff rock Tom Morello solo album [and] the 22nd record of my career. But it really feels very much to me like the feeling I had with the first Rage record, like the feeling I had with the first Audiosoave record, where you're kind of on the dawn of some big ass rock that is rising to meet the day — and something that's so artistically satisfying."

The latest taste of Everyone Gets Everything They Want is the powerful "Date Night," a song built around a massive, historic story.

"This is a story that I always thought should have been made into a movie and eventually, I'm at this point, I'm not waiting around for somebody to make the movie, I'm going to write the song and put it out as a single," he said.

"'Date Night' is a story of three Dutch teenage girls during World War II who lured Nazi officers into the woods and killed them. They were part of the partisan resistance against the Nazi occupation. They bombed bridges and trains. They helped Jewish children escape persecution and they were a thorn in the Nazi side. Two of them survived the ward, lived to a ripe old age. The youngest one, Hannie Schaft, was captured, tortured and murdered by the Nazis, but never snitched on her girls. And I wanted to write a song for them."

Morello said the song is an homage to all of those who stand up against fascist authority — and he had a little help with the riff behind the track.

"[My son Roman] wrote the riff," Morello said, with an obvious smile on his face.

"He's got enough of that Morellian DNA that sometimes I go, 'I wish I wrote that one.'"

While Morello prepares for the release of his new album, he also continues to pay tribute to his mother Mary, who passed away at the age of 102 years old on July 12, 2026. Fortunately, he had the chance to play her Everyone Gets Everything They Want.

"I'm glad I got to play the full record for my mom before she passed," he confided.

"She was always very unfiltered in her comments about my music through the years. I said, 'What do you think, Mom?' She goes, 'It's good.' And I'm like, I'll take it. I'll take it."

What Else Did Tom Morello Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

His Power to the People festival in the Washington, D.C., area on Oct. 3: "The Power to the People show is a show to try to save a sinking democracy, but in the process, to try to create a day, on that day and that night, a little bit of the world we'd like to one day see. A joyful day of rock and roll and hip hop and unity and a celebration of resistance and [to] celebrate mosh pits, for both the pit and for your mind."
A memory he'll always hold close from Back to the Beginning: "Everybody's going to soundcheck. As we're just getting ready to go back to the hotel, someone says, 'Black Sabbath is soundchecking. Would you like to go watch?' I'm like, 'Yes, I would like to go watch.' So it's me, Steven Tyler, Nuno Bettencourt, my son Roman and like five or six other people, maybe Scott Ian, in Birmingham, as the sun is setting and they're playing 'War Pigs.' It's like a private 'War Pigs concert, the second to last time they will ever play that song. At the end of it we were just screaming and going crazy. I thought they must have thought we were like nutty janitors in the back."
How he approaches his music: "I've spent a lot of time with Bruce Springsteen. Something that we share is I always think tonight's show is going to be the best show, you know? And then you try to top that one tomorrow. And same with each guitar solo, same with each record. There are a lot of great records in my catalog, but when I go and listen to them, I'm not intimidated by that. I'm like, 'Okay, well, let's try to top those jams,' you know what I mean, and make music that is, [well,] I think the North Star that's always guided that music is it's authentic."