Tom Morello’s Career Path Logically Proceeds From “Stripper” to “Guitarist for Rage Against the Machine”

Tom Morello, legendary Rage Against the Machine axe man, was once a young musician out there trying to get the paper as best he could.  And as it happens, they hand out quite a bit of paper at your friendly local Scores VIP Lounge.  Says he:

When I graduated from Harvard and moved to Hollywood, I was unemployable [ed: uh?]. I was literally starving, so I had to work menial labour and, at one point, I even worked as an exotic dancer. ‘Brick House’ [by The Commodores] was my jam! I did bachelorette parties and I’d go down to my boxer shorts. Would I go further? All I can say is thank god it was in the time before YouTube! You could make decent money doing that job – people do what they have to do.

A Harvard degree, guitar virtuosity, and an azz like a model?  ”Literally starving.”  Psh.  Tom Morello could make money on the moon.  More hilarity, ATJ.  

Morello put his man-stripper skills to use for a cause, eventually.  He recounts a protest against censorship that the band held during Lollapalooza of ‘93:

The day that Rage Against The Machine appeared naked at Lollapalooza [in 1993] to protest about the PMRC was one of the more harrowing things we did.

The crowd were throwing quarters at us! We figured out that we had about 15 minutes until the police came. So I went to the one place where a running, naked black man wouldn’t seem out of place – and that was the tourbus of [ska-punkers] Fishbone. I settled in and watched Star Wars while the police were outside.

Stripping: skills for LIFE.

Source: NME via The Awl.