Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello’s Marseilles visit inspires students

Moments after Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello made a special visit Thursday to Marseilles Elementary School to establish a music program, sixth grader Zoey Binion knew what she was going to do when she got home.

“I’m going to pull out my notebooks and write lyrics to a song,” she said.

Binion sings in the school choir, and after a drum kit, guitars, amps and other equipment were unveiled during an assembly in the school’s gym by Morello in partnership with Music Will – a nonprofit group that has supported more than 6,000 schools with donated equipment – there was a new outlet available for her to express herself.

“It’s pretty cool,” Binion said. “I’m excited to try it out.”

Binion was only one of music teacher Ruth Hale’s students excited about the new possibilities.

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Tom Morello sings with students Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, at Marseilles Elementary School. Morello is best known for his tenure with the rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Morello spent summers in Marseilles, where his mother was from, before making it to the major music industry. (Scott Anderson)

Not only did Morello and Music Will’s team come bearing gear, but Morello – who spent summers in Marseilles during his childhood – also engaged with students in a pair of sing-along songs with his acoustic guitar, answered some of their questions and left them with a message: Anyone can become a musician when the barriers are removed.

He said he quit music twice, once during French horn lessons suggested by his mother – and taken right at Marseilles Elementary – and again when a guitar teacher focused on teaching him scales instead of the Kiss and Led Zeppelin songs that inspired him to play.

“I love rock and roll music. I also love hip-hop music. I love punk rock music,” Morello said during the assembly. “What I found in music was being able to play with other people – the friendships and the connection was great.

“When I started practicing on my own – not [because someone] was telling me to do it or making me play some scale I didn’t want to play – and I was playing the songs I wanted to learn or writing songs with my friends, it opens up a connection and creativity and helped me figure out who I am.

“I started playing at 17. I realized at 19 [that] I’m a guitar player and that was what I was meant to be, and that only happened because of that freedom to start playing, playing music. Not working music. Once I started playing music at 17, that made me think I really want to do this today.”

Music Will’s program is designed to be an open door for creating music through donated equipment and training for educators on techniques that welcome students to get into music by playing.

The nonprofit asked Morello to select 10 schools to implement programs, and the first three that came to mind were in Harlem (where he was born), in Los Angeles (where he lives) and in Marseilles (his mother’s hometown, and where he spent summers growing up).

Morello, wearing a Cubs baseball cap and a “Remember Steve Sutton” T-shirt, performed in April 2022 in Marseilles as The Nightwatchman to commemorate a 1932 labor riot that led to the death of Sutton, a Croatian immigrant and father of four children.

Music Will Chief Program Officer Bryan Powell warmed up the student crowd Thursday by showing them how to make a simple beat with their hands and feet. He then asked them to suggest a song for everyone to sing.

One excited student suggested “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift.

Morello, who recently was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Rage Against the Machine, performed Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” on acoustic guitar, but before he sang the final verse, he asked as many students as possible in the gym to come onstage or crowd around it.

“I’m going to sing the last verse of this song, and you’re going to listen with rapt attention,” he said. “Then I’m going to sing ‘This land is your land,’ and we’re all going to jump up and down together. Can you do that, people?”

The students cheered.

“I’m not feeling that. I’m going to play this song, you’re going to listen. Next time I say ‘This land is your land,’ you’re going to jump up and down. Do you feel that, people?”

The students cheered even louder.

Morello sang: “In the squares of the city, in the shadow of the steeple near the relief office, I saw my people. And some are grumblin’, and all are wonderin’ if this land is still made for you and me.”

As he began to recite the chorus, “this land is your land,” he and the students started jumping up and down.

After the Guthrie classic, Morello invited students to shout with him “let’s go Panthers!” (the school mascot) to a song he made up for them. He asked students to say their name in the microphone during an instrumental break.

“It was amazing,” said Liam Ahrens, a sixth grader who sings in the chorus. “That first song he sung (”This Land is Your Land”) I’m going to look up when I get home. I liked it a lot.”

Ahrens said he’d be interested in trying out the guitar, adding that he likes listening to country and rock stations, especially when AC/DC comes on the radio.

Hale said she believes the Music Will program and equipment will open doors for students looking to give music a try, as well as expand on what’s available to those who already express a passion for music.

She said the school offers choir and traditional school band, but that’s nothing like what it now can offer with electrical guitars, a bass guitar and a drum kit.

MES plans to have some after-school programs, providing students with opportunities to form their own bands.

“We just want to thank Music Will,” Principal Shawn Cox said. “This is so cool.”

Sixth grader Juliana Maloney said she is excited to try the drums. She said she likes listening to the band Shinedown on her Spotify playlist.

“Music has made a big impact in my life,” Maloney said. “It gives me something I’m interested in and helps my confidence before [I play] hockey games. ... Before my games, I listen to music to get pumped up.”

She added: “The drums interest me because they are important to everything. Without drums, music wouldn’t be music.”

When Morello was told about the students’ reactions to the new program, including one student citing AC/DC as inspiration, he smiled.

“My work is done here,” he said.