Tom Morello’s 14-year-old son, Roman, has continued to prove himself a chip off the old block by shredding Steve Vai’s finger-burning For the Love of God in Mumbai.
The Rage Against the Machine guitarist and political activist has been championing his son’s talents for a few years now. There have been videos of him shredding at a RATM soundcheck and jamming with Jack Black, and last year, the father-son pair put a song out together as part of Morello Sr.’s first rock-leaning solo album.
Playing a customized Stratocaster, complete with a chrome pickguard and 'Full Power' scrawled on the body above the strings, Roman Morello makes pretty light work of Vai's endurance- and talent-testing track, in a video posted to Instagram by his dad. The post also includes the hashtag #thereishope, with Morello clearly putting his offspring in the same bracket as the two bands he deems the future of rock n' roll.
“For the Love of God, written by Steve Vai and performed by my 14-year-old son Roman in Mumbai, India,” Tom's caption reads. “Happy New Year.”
Cynical viewers might say it isn’t the cleanest performance, but that’s forgetting he’s only 14, less than half the age the already-vastly-experienced Vai was when he wrote the song. I know I couldn’t do that at his age.
The Morellos have been out on tour together, with Tom eager to prove why he once said his son could “shred circles around me.”
Their setlists have pulled from across Tom Morello’s career, spanning Rage Against the Machine cuts to Audioslave’s Like a Stone, alongside a host of well-chosen covers. Mr. Crowley has seen the pair pay tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, while John Lennon’s Power to the People underscores the family’s political values, and Bruce Springsteen’s The Ghost of Tom Joad nods to Morello’s unlikely stint as The Boss’s onstage foil.
It’s not clear at what point on the night Roman took on Vai’s now-35-year-old shredathon – perhaps as a warm-up act – but what’s clear is that his dad’s praise wasn’t just hyperbole. The kid has chops; he’s likely to make news headlines plenty more yet and surely, given time, branch out to stand up on his own two virtuosic feet.
Roman Morello, though, isn't the only youthful shredder to have mastered the song. One Hungarian guitarist nailed a performance of it at his prom, a feat that even got the approval of Mr. Vai. There is hope indeed.
