“Together, Bruce, the E Street Band, and I are going to turn a spotlight on the current threats to democracy and human rights happening all around us,” says Morello
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be joined by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello at every stop of their upcoming Land of Hope and Dreams U.S. arena tour for “selected songs.”
The news comes just weeks after Springsteen was the surprise guest at Morello’s Defend Minnesota: A Concert of Solidarity and Resistance at First Avenue where they performed “The Ghost of Tom Joad” together.
“I was reminded how important our platform is, and how crucial the resistance work is that our music can do together at this dangerous historical juncture,” Morello said in a statement. “Together, Bruce, the E Street Band, and I are going to turn a spotlight on the current threats to democracy and human rights happening all around us on the ‘Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour’ in the spirit of freedom, justice and rock n roll.”
Rage Against the Machine began playing “The Ghost of Tom Joad” onstage in 1997, and they recorded it three years later for their covers LP Renegades. In 2008, Morello joined Springsteen and the E Street Band to play the song at a show in Anaheim, California. It was the start of a musical bond between Springsteen and Morello that culminated in a 2013 E Street Band tour where Morello filled in for Steve Van Zandt, who was busy filming a new season of his show Lilyhammer.
During the tour, Morello contributed to several tracks on Springsteen’s 2014 album High Hopes. “The E Street Band is a pretty big house,” Springsteen told Rolling Stone in 2014. “But [Morello] builds on another room. He builds on a room that hadn’t existed before … He became a filter that I ran all of that music through, and he would send it back to me with a very current slant on it. I’m not sure if the record would exactly exist without his influence.”
Morello was forced to rebook some solo shows to accommodate the E Street tour. “I have a deep love and respect for all my friends, fans & comrades, and I’m sorry that I must reschedule some of my May solo shows,” Morello added in his statement. “I promise that we will find a way to be together for these shows, in these towns, very soon.”
