Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello has revisited an early connection with Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan, recalling how Keenan introduced him to Drop D tuning—and how the resulting guitar session helped inspire two pivotal songs from their respective bands.
Morello recently appeared on the Lipps Service podcast and looked back on the period before Rage Against The Machine had fully taken shape. During that time, Morello, drummer Brad Wilk, Keenan and another musician spent time jamming together, with some of the ideas from those sessions eventually finding their way into future material.
Morello specifically remembered Keenan showing him how to use Drop D tuning while playing a riff that would eventually become Tool’s “Sober.”
“Maynard’s the dude who taught me how to do drop D tuning. He did. Quick sidebar: this is like for fans of Tool and Rage Against The Machine.”
According to Morello, Keenan was utilizing the tuning at a time when the Seattle sound was heavily influencing musicians, while Morello himself had not yet learned the technique.
“So Maynard, you know the Seattle sound was the thing, they were doing drop tuning, I didn’t know how to do it. So I was over at his place, and he showed me, and he was playing a riff that would become Tool’s ‘Sober.’”
The first riff Morello played after learning the tuning would have an equally significant future, eventually becoming the basis for Rage Against The Machine’s “Freedom.”
“And the first riff that came out of my fingers when he showed me Drop D tuning was the riff from ‘Freedom,’ Rage’s song ‘Freedom,’ and those two were sort of a song one afternoon.”
Morello later joked that when Rage Against The Machine was getting started, he reminded Keenan that he wanted his “half” of the musical idea back.
“And then later when Rage became a band I said, you know, ‘I don’t know if you remember, but we were jamming on that thing one time and like I’d like my half back please.’”
Keenan would ultimately contribute vocals to Rage Against The Machine’s self-titled 1992 debut, appearing on “Know Your Enemy.” Meanwhile, Morello and Tool guitarist Adam Jones have maintained a friendship dating back even further, having played together in their teenage band The Electric Sheep.
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