Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello has heaped praise on a peer and one-time bandmate, paying tribute to his pal Adam Jones, guitarist in Tool, in a lengthy new Instagram post. Morello and Jones were students and friends at Libertyville High School in Libertyville, Illinois in the 1980s, and even played in a band together at the time.
"Shout out to my old friend Adam Jones!" Morello beams. "Always a tremendously creative and innovative visual artist, Adam was also the bass player and sole talented musician in our high school band, The Electric Sheep. He showed me chords, 'pinch' harmonics, drove us to see Judas Priest at Alpine Valley in his pick up truck for inspiration and was ceaselessly encouraging to me when I was a beginning guitarist.
"Adam was my roommate briefly when he first landed in LA and paid his rent by sharing his extensive (and exotic) VHS collection with us," Morello adds. "He was also responsible for helping jump start my career when he dragged me out of bed on a work night to go all the way downtown to Al’s Bar where a great band called Lock Up was playing. I later joined the band and got a record deal. I was impressed when Adam landed a job at Stan Winston Studios and became a successful prosthetic make up artist, working on Jurassic Park and the Nightmare On Elm Street movies."
Of course, Jones would find his ultimate calling after meeting Maynard James Keenan in the late 80s and forming the band that would become Tool, emerging as one of the most influential metal guitarists of the 90s. Morello would follow a similar path with Rage Against The Machine, and the two bands would play together in LA in their early days.
"I saw his band Tool at their first show and was stunned," says Morello now. "They arrived fully formed and fully great. They also were kind enough to invite Rage Against The Machine to open for them numerous times in Hollywood clubs which greatly helped grow our following and get us attention. I’m proud and pleased that all these years later he and his band are thriving and kicking ass around the world. Cheers buddy!"
See Morello's tribute to his chum - alongside some cute old photos of the two guitar genius together - below.
