During their show in Cologne, Germany on Tuesday (June 25), Jane’s Addiction invited Tom Morello onstage to help them perform Mountain Song.
It was clearly an impromptu performance, though, as Morello arrived onstage following vocalist Perry Farrell’s introduction without his trademark Arm the Homeless custom model or even his Soul Power Fender Stratocaster, and armed instead with a PRS electric guitar.
Specifically, Morello – who has been a Fender player for much of his career – looked to have borrowed a guitar from Jane’s Addiction’s Dave Navarro, who only returned to the stage with the band last month following a three-year long battle with long Covid.
And so, wielding Navarro’s Custom 24 signature guitar – the white finish, matching headstock, black humbuckers and gold bridge give it away – the Rage Against the Machine riffsmith helped hold down the see-sawing power chord progression.
Having dutifully allowed Navarro to take the first lead spot, Morello then got to grips with the unfamiliar terrain of the Custom 24’s fretboard, sizing it up with a solo of his own that was as Morellian as they come.
Open-string lines and some frantic reach-around harmonics looked to be the most exciting elements of the solo, but Morello took things up a notch by seizing Navarro’s guitar to his face and shredding with his teeth.
So, despite the impromptu gear change, it sounded exactly like Tom Morello. After all, tone is in the hands – or, in this case, the teeth.
The moment was captured by fan footage, and a post published on Jane's Addiction's Instagram, which was captioned, "Look what the cat dragged in."
While it is strange to see Morello playing something other than the Soul Power Strat, we don’t imagine he’ll be making the switch to PRS permanent, as his former fellow Fender signature artist John Mayer did back in 2018.
While he is best known for his Arm the Homeless model, Morello has often spoken about his affinity for Fenders, and previously discussed why the Strat is unlike any other electric guitar.
“One of the things that differentiates the Strat from other great electric guitars is the sound of those other guitars leading the player,” Morello explained. “With the Stratocaster, the player leads the sound.”
