The Nightwatchman Tom Morello opens up his Hollywood Hills home office

Tools “Nylon-string classical acoustic guitar, harmonica, a little pick, and the capo—that gets it done. Actually, quite a few of my rock riffs through the years have been written primarily on acoustic guitar.”

First editions “Marx’s Das Kapital and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: That’s sort of the Morello vibe right there, in about 10,000 pages!”

Military medals “A member of Iraq Veterans Against the War gave me his medals after I played a Nightwatchman show at the Winter Soldier conference. He gave a moving speech, saying, ‘ The real battle for freedom and democracy is not overseas; it’s here. And you’re a soldier in it.’”

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Kenyatta photo “Jomo Kenyatta was my great uncle. He was the first president of Kenya. He led the Kenyan independence struggle. That was the photo that was up in my mom’s home during my growing up, and I just thought everyone had a Kenyan independence leader in their family!”

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Lenin banner “I got this during Rage Against the Machine’s first trip to Moscow. There was sort of a fire sale on Lenin memorabilia in the streets. This says, WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE.”

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Football helmet “I’ve been a Rams fans since I was a wee lad. [Quarterback] Kurt Warner signed SUPER BOWL MVP on this helmet. I actually had to cancel a Rage Against the Machine show in Belgium to fly back for the game. Don’t tell the Belgians!”

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Hippo photo “When I was a little kid, I donated $5 a year to partially adopt Hansel the Hippopotamus at the Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago. Thirty-five years later, I returned to the zoo and the same hippopotamus was there! The zookeepers happened to be fans of my band, and I regularly visited during the last eight years of his life, fed him chocolate cake and hamburger buns.”

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Flyswatter “One of my Kenyan grandparents is from the Kikuyu tribe; the other is from the Maasai tribe. Jomo Kenyatta carried a fly whisk—it’s a symbol of authority among the Maasai in Kenya. I like to wield my authority with it.”

Iron Man helmet “That is the real helmet from the movie, in which I play a dashingly handsome terrorist. I am the first guy killed in the movie. Iron Man is wearing that helmet when he kills me.”

Horse hair “This was cut from the mane of Secretariat, the Triple Crown winner from 1973. It is my belief that the greatest athlete of the 20th century was a horse. Shooter Jennings came over to my house and saw all my Secretariat stuff and said, ‘I think back at my mom’s house, we might have something.’ At some later birthday, this very lovely present showed up.”

BY GREGG LAGAMBINA PHOTOGRAPH BY TURE LILLEGRAVEN

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

34 JANUAR Y 2009 / WAN T DOWNLOADS? GO TO SPIN.COM