Tom Morello has spent 2026 moving fast. He opened the year with a protest concert in Minneapolis, joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for an anti-Trump tour in March, and released Everyone Gets Everything They Want, his heaviest album in years, shortly before throwing his own all-star festival, Power to the People. At 62, he sounds anything but exhausted.
“This is the record that embraces the totality of what I am as an artist and what I can do as a guitar player.”
The Album and Its Guests
Everyone Gets Everything They Want stretches across genres. Morello leans into his singer-songwriter side while still finding room to rap on “Soldier in the Army of Love.” The track “Adjourn It,” featuring Serj Tankian, carries a distinctly Rage-ish charge. Other guests include Kneecap and Morello’s own son Roman, a 15-year-old guitar virtuoso.
The record arrives as Morello prepares for a festival that doubles as a political statement. The timing is deliberate. “With regards to the record, it’s probably the last record I’ll make before they throw us all in jail,” he told Rolling Stone. “So let’s make the most of it. And then the festival too comes at a historical crossroads in our democracy, doing what we can with what we’ve got.”
On the Blacklist
Morello has spoken openly about being on a blacklist. He frames it as an honor. “It would be an honor to be on a blacklist at this point,” he said. His test for fascism is blunt: “If it looks like fascism, if it talks like fascism, if it acts like fascism, if it lies like fascism, if it kills like fascism, brothers and sisters, it’s fascism.”
He pointed to Trump’s announcement of a state news network that will report the news to his liking as evidence of the moment. “Those of us that aren’t on a blacklist are the ones that aren’t doing enough at this point, I suspect,” he added.
The Ed Sheeran Distraction
The conversation turned to the Ed Sheeran controversy. Morello is clear about where he stands. “In some ways it’s a distraction, and in some ways it’s the whole thing,” he said.
The distraction argument runs like this:
- Ed Sheeran is not a victim.
- Macklemore’s speech brought war crimes to the fore, and those should be the focus.
- Whether Sheeran is crying today or crying tomorrow is not the point.
But Morello also sees the bigger picture. “It’s indicative of the moment that we’re in,” he said. “Who decides what the truth is? Who decides who gets to say what? There’s a handful of extraordinarily super rich people who believe it should be them in every instance.”
His conclusion is direct: “History is not something that happens, it is something that we make, and there is absolutely no neutrality in this particular moment.”
The Festival’s Purpose
Power to the People is not just a concert. It is a statement. Morello describes it as a festival of peace, love, justice, and music. “In a time where war is celebrated, this is a festival of peace,” he said. “In a time where hatred and division are rife, this is a festival of love.”
The festival’s most essential purpose, in his own words, is fourfold: peace, love, justice, and great music. “We’re going for four for four,” he promised.
Fighting Every Which Way
Morello’s mother, Mary Morello, passed away at 102. She was a political person, and she left her son with advice about the fight ahead. “‘You’ve got to fight the fascists every which way you can,'” he recalled her saying.
One of those ways is at the ballot box. But Morello warns against treating voting as the only weapon. “Voting is a piece on the chessboard,” he said, “and that you try to create an environment where in between the voting you can fight for a more just, a more peaceful, a more equal world.”
The festival lands three weeks before the midterms. The money raised goes to voting rights organizations, but Morello insists the event is about more than that. “The festival is about something much bigger than that,” he said.
What We Make of It
Morello’s approach to the Sheeran controversy is the clearest signal of his priorities. He acknowledges the attention but redirects it. The shame aimed at Sheeran is justified, he says, but the focus belongs elsewhere.
The real crimes, in his view, are the rise of authoritarianism, the erosion of freedoms, and the looming environmental disaster. At each show, he deputizes the audience as anti-fascist crime fighters. That framing — what are the real crimes, and what can you and I do to stop them — is the core of his current project.
The festival itself is a practical extension of that thinking. Morello’s willingness to call the moment what it is — fascist — without hedging is consistent with how he has described the record and the wider fight.
This is a musician who has spent decades building a platform and using it for political work. The album and the festival are the latest chapter in that story. Morello is not waiting for permission to speak. He is making history, and he wants everyone else to join him.
Source material: “Tom Morello: ‘If It Kills Like Fascism, Brothers and Sisters, It’s Fascism’,” Rolling Stone.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.