If you ask Tom Morello where the first punk artist was born, the answer won't be New York or London — it'll be Oklahoma.
“Woody was a fearless agitator, a six-string instigator, and a poetic truth-teller. He was the original punk rocker whose life, music, art and lyrics were beacons of justice, liberation and respite for the downtrodden and the oppressed,” Morello said Wednesday night in Tulsa.
He's referring to Woody Guthrie.
The Rage Against the Machine guitarist received the Woody Guthrie Prize Sept. 25 at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa. The prize is given annually by the Woody Guthrie Center to artists who embody the Oklahoma songwriter’s ethos by speaking for the less fortunate through art. Past recipients include Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Chuck D. and Pussy Riot.
For more than three decades, Morello has been known for his brash, unapologetic advocacy against issues like war and racism. He's supported causes like workers’ rights.
He's played guitar on political anthems like “Guerilla Radio” and “Bulls on Parade” with Rage Against the Machine. He also writes solo songs for his project The Nightwatchman.
Morello says if it weren’t for Guthrie, political music like the songs he writes wouldn’t exist.
“Woody’s songs look an unjust world square in the eye, slice it apart with satire, dismantle it with rage, and then drop a mighty sing-along chorus meant to raise the roof of a union hall or a holding cell,” he said, calling Guthrie the "chief architect" of the modern protest song.
Born in Okemah in 1912, Guthrie wrote nearly 3,000 songs and played a guitar with the words “This Machine Kills Fascists” scrawled on the front. His songs spoke against abuses of power and for the plight of everyday Americans.
He influenced the careers of other prize recipients as well as Bob Dylan.
Guthrie’s granddaughter Anna Canoni led the crowd in her grandfather’s most famous song — “This Land Is Your Land” — to greet Morello at the ceremony. Guthrie wrote the song in response to "God Bless America." It's entered in the Library of Congress.
Canoni also says Morello has sang the song on his own accord before.
“At my grandfather’s centennial concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Tom led us all in the singing of 'This Land is Your Land,’ but with clear instructions,” she said. “He said, ‘This is an activist song, so you need to get up out of your seats, because it is time to jump the f*** up as we sing that this land was made for you and me.’”
Morello has his own opinions on the song, as well.
“If that song came out today and was understood, it would have the same polarizing effect as Macklemore,” he said, referencing the rapper’s song “Hind’s Hall.” The song criticizes how the Biden Administration has responded to Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Morello has joined college demonstrations against the war in Gaza this year, but Woody Guthrie Center Director Cady Shaw said Morello was selected for the award even before his more recent activism. She mentioned how he joined the Writers Guild of America strike in 2023.
Morello has the stories to go with the award, too. After receiving the prize, he participated in a Q&A session and shared how he joined a coal miners’ strike in Alabama in 2022.
"I was playing in some different union things in California, and someone from the Alabama Coal Miners’ Union tweeted at me, they’re like, ‘Hey Mr. Labor Union, you’re so labor union. Why don’t you come down to Alabama where were we’ve been on strike for two f****** years and come down here with your fancy self?' I said, ‘I’ll be there Tuesday, you son of a b****.’… I was happy to do it,” he said.
Morello says he uses his fame as a musician as a way to bring exposure to causes.
He also has a response to people who think he’s too outspoken.
“The number one most common thing I’ve heard people say about my career is, 'Tom, just shut up and play the guitar.' To which I invariably answer in what feels very much like the spirit of Woody Guthrie, 'F*** you, I won’t do what you tell me,’” he said, quoting the Rage Against the Machine song “Killing In The Name.”
Ultimately, Morello said Guthrie has been an inspiration to “tell it like I see it without compromise or apology.”
Shaw said he was an obvious choice for the award.
“In the past three decades — gosh, I don’t even think I can list everything that he’s done," Shaw said. "He really is a vocal and wonderful proponent of social justice."
