Tom Morello is in Minneapolis on Friday, Jan. 30, to lead A Concert of Solidarity and Resistance to Defend Minnesota. Announced earlier this week, the show is a benefit for the families of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two Minnesotans killed by federal agents since ICE’s operations expanded in the Twin Cities. Joining them on the bill for the afternoon show are Chicago punk band Rise Against, Al Di Meola, Ike Reilly, and a special guest.

For more up-to-the-minute news on what’s happening in Minnesota right now, visit MPR News.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Jill Riley: It's The Current. I'm Jill Riley, and I am really pleased that I'm able to connect with a special guest on The Current. A concert, a benefit concert, an event was announced this week, and we looked at the date for it, we went, "Wow." It's coming at the right time for Minneapolis. You know him for his work with Rage Against the Machine, with Audioslave, with Prophets of Rage, the Nightwatchman. Six years with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. I know that there's a new song, a new collaboration that we're going to talk about. This is a guy that is a lifelong activist, and this is somebody who really knows how music has the power to inspire, to change, and to uplift communities. And that could only mean one person. Tom Morello is on The Current. Tom, how are you?

Tom Morello: I'm well, thank you so much for having me.

Jill Riley: Yeah, thank you. I do want to really jump in and talk about the Concert of Solidarity and Resistance to Defend Minnesota with the proceeds going to the families of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two members of the Minneapolis community who were killed by federal ICE agents. I want to talk about the lineup as well. But if we could first start by talking about how this came together. It really was a quick turnaround of the announcement and that this was happening at First Avenue. You are on the bill along with Rise Against and Al Di Meola and Ike Reilly. Ike Reilly is someone that we know well here in the Twin Cities. So I wonder if you could just start by talking about the event and the inspiration and how it came together.

Tom Morello: For quite some time, it has felt like democracy and justice have been under siege in our country. We've experienced that in Los Angeles, in my hometown of Chicago as well, where I've participated in shows and protests. And right now, the world's attention is on Minneapolis. We are so inspired by the way that the people of Minneapolis have stood up to tyranny and stood up to injustice. I have a vocation, I'm a guitar player and I have thoughts and feelings about what's right and what's wrong in the world. I just gotta do anything I can to try to express my solidarity, to try to raise some money for the victims of state terror, and to enter the fray. If it looks like fascism, if it talks like fascism, if it kills like fascism, and if it lies like fascism, it's mother flipping fascism, brothers and sisters. It is on our doorstep. That's the bad news. The good news is that the counterweight to that has been people's resistance to oppression, resistance to injustice, resistance to ICE, resistance to Trump. We want to come not just to raise some money for the families, but to be in the streets at your march on Friday, to provide a place of a tribal gathering of unity and rock 'n; roll and resistance, and a celebration of resistance. Both a tip of the cap to Minneapolis and also putting boots on the ground to show our solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are really making a fight of it.

Jill Riley: It was a week ago when tens of thousands of community members, of protesters, marched through the streets of Minneapolis and on one of the coldest days of the year. I think the wind chill reading was something like 35 below zero in the morning. There was something about, as I was at the radio station and as I was watching everything to come together, just really feeling as a lifelong Minnesotan as a member of the Twin Cities community, thinking, "Wow, this is how people come together." No one was going to stay indoors because it was too cold. It makes me wonder, did folks not know what they were up against in Minnesota? Thinking like, did they not think that Minnesotans weren't going to protect their neighbors and communities? And that's just something I've been thinking about in the last week.

Tom Morello: Yeah, well, it's a it's a common mistake the fascists have made throughout history. Is attacking a winter people in the winter. It turned it turned back Napoleon, it turned back Hitler, and maybe it'll turn back Trump, too.

Jill Riley: I'm on the line with Tom Morello, by the way, and a Concert of Solidarity and Resistance to Defend Minnesota at First Avenue. Let's talk about the lineup: Rise Against, let's talk about who's going to be there.

Tom Morello: One of the things that I really have to give props to is throughout my career of playing hundreds of benefit shows and charity shows and barricades and protest marches, is artists who show up. You know what I mean? There's a lot of artists who are sympathetic, and that is fantastic. There's artists who write songs and donate money, also fantastic. Artists who have the courage to post on social media and to be forward with their thoughts that may alienate elements of their fan base, and I am wholly supportive of all that. And then there's a much smaller segment of artists who show the f up when it's time to be there for the people. And the people on this bill all fit that description. Rise Against Tim McIlrath and Zach from Rise Against, we've been friends for a long time. Good Chicago brothers who will stand up for social justice. We played on many, many stages, many freezing cold stages before. So that's nothing new for them.

Ike Reilly, of course, you know my hometown, homie from Libertyville, Illinois. He has a longtime relationship with Minnesota, and he's one at the drop of a hat will be there when I ask him.

Al Di Meola, the legendary flamenco virtuoso. He and I become acquainted the last couple years and learned about one another's politics. He's the first person that reached out to me. He reached out to me. We've never played. We've only played like at his house before. We've never played on a stage before. He reached out said, "We've got to do something in either D.C. or Minneapolis." I'm like, "Al, have I got a gig for you."

Kudos to the members of our crew and the venue, who made a way for us to do this. I'm going to pre-guarantee that this is going to be the greatest brunch time rock 'n' roll concert that Minneapolis has ever seen.

Jill Riley: So I noticed that the, you know, the door time is 10:30. The show starts at noon. And you were really intentional with that timing, weren't you?

Tom Morello: Yes, of course, yeah, we wanted the show to be over by two o'clock, because that's when the rally and march starts. So hopefully, you know, with a roused audience, will head straight out into the streets to continue trying to protect democracy.

Jill Riley: I'm talking with Tom Morello on The Current, and we've just been talking about the lineup for the big show at First Avenue, a Concert of Solidarity and Resistance to Defend Minnesota. Now there also is a line on this announcement saying a very special guest. Now, I don't know if you're able to drop any hints or if this is purely going to be a surprise for the people that are in the room, but when I read the word "very" I start to get very creative in my mind.

Tom Morello: Well, the only clue I'll give you is it's not all four Beatles. So take that off the board, take that off the board, and then beyond that, you'll have to just wait and see.

Jill Riley: In the moment in this time, January 2026, in the just in the time that we're living, I have felt really inspired. I know a number of Minnesotans have to see the outpouring of support. Not just within our state, but from outside of the state. And maybe that's something that we're not exactly used to feeling as Minnesotans. I have seen new songs pop up from Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, I think he's got a good connection to the Twin Cities as well. There was a post from Joan Baez sending support. From someone who is outside of Minnesota, what has kind of been, the way in which you have been keeping an eye on what's going on here? Because it's not just happening here. I think there's something though, that has had this real tipping point in Minnesota.

Tom Morello: Tipping point is the right word. We've felt besieged for some time, and and it really does feel like the normalcy of a country with rule of law and people being able to go about their lives is greatly imperiled. In some ways, it has come to a head, or at least this stage of it has come to a head in Minnesota, where we are seeing the naked brutality of state terror. While this is the kind of behavior that for a long time, police have enacted on African American communities, communities of color, this is not there's nothing new about any of this. There's nothing new about it. But the fact that it is mass federal agents murdering white U.S. citizens, that's something that's new on the news. This sort of terror has happened in other countries, in our imperialist endeavors. This is something that has happened in minority neighborhoods from time immemorial. The attitude of the slave catcher is one that we're now seeing visited in suburban neighborhoods, in preschools, in Home Depots, and that's where it's really sort of coming home. What we've seen with Minneapolis is there's a recognition that it's now dangerous for all of us, that the things that we have held dear and we took for granted about raising our families in relative peace is imperiled. There is dark cruelty at the core of this. It is something that feels like it could go either way. While I'm sometimes prone to hyperbole, I'll say this. I believe that the future of democracy in the United States of America will not be decided in the courts. It will not be decided in the halls of Congress. It will not be decided on social media, but it may be decided on the streets of Minneapolis.

Jill Riley: The streets of Minneapolis and everything that has been going on with communities coming together on that real basic grassroots level. Seeing people come together with their neighbors, and watching the communities connecting with each other. It seems as though there may have been some question of "Is this real? Who's coming to fix this? Who's coming to save us?" Once it was realized that, "Well, no, you can't sit and wait around," that there needs to be action. I think that's when it really felt like something was changing.

Tom Morello: That's right. Ain't nobody coming to save us except us. You know what I mean? And from someone who's from Chicago, lives in California, I'm on your side. Me being there is very, very important. You're not alone. The whole world's eyes are in Minneapolis. But on that stage, there's going to be some people that really care as well. The greatest counterweight to this sort of tyrannical cruelty is solidarity. That's it. We can't out shoot them, but we can general strike them into submission, into abolishing ICE. It's not enough I think to "Oh, let's roll back funding for ICE." That needs to be abolished. That president needs to go. This is not a joke. I believe it's all at stake. I'm a guitar player. I didn't choose to be a guitar player. It chose me. I'm both blessed and cursed. So I'm stuck doing what I can do in my vocation, but what I can do with my friends tomorrow morning is make a lot of noise in your hometown.

Jill Riley: Well, Tom I wonder if a moment like this, if there are going to be opportunities for the division to maybe like come together more. There's a lot that whatever side of the political spectrum people are on that there has to be some sort of basic agreement of what's happening. When it comes to just like, very basic human rights. Even if that feels a little too liberal for people, just like the Constitution, just like the very basic, like document.

Tom Morello: Well, I would caution you there. You have seen that now when the president is explicitly coming out against the Second Amendment, that's something that has ruffled some feathers. But the one thing that I think it's hard for us to keep in mind is that, when you boil it down, there's two founding principles of this country that has been in the DNA of every of every event. One is demanding liberty, and the other is embracing white supremacy. Those things are in the founding fathers. They're in they're in at every stage of our history. And those two impulses we see in the streets of Minneapolis right now. Those are the contending forces, and each one is just as American as the other. Each one is and that is sort of the fatal flaw in the heart of this nation, is its inability to reconcile those two things.

Jill Riley: With Tom Morello on The Current. Again, the Defend Minnesota, the Concert of Solidarity and Resistance. The doors at 10:30 a.m. First Avenue show starts at noon. And this is one of many benefits and these pop up concerts that are being organized by Minnesota musicians, but also musicians from across the nation, with this one popping up this week. So Tom I thank you for the work you do. Thank you for supporting Minnesota. Thank you for having your eye on Minneapolis. Really appreciate it.

Tom Morello: Yeah, well, thank you Minneapolis for being a shining beacon in a dark world right now. We're very much looking forward to rocking that joint to pieces tomorrow morning and then see in the streets later in the afternoon.

Jill Riley: Yeah, well, and I know that there is a new collaborative song that you have called "Everything Burns." And I was just reading. We get the press release for these things, and then there's a description of the song, and the artists talk about it, and all that good stuff. And something really jumped off the paper that you described it as you use the the line, "it sounds like it's rising from the streets." And I thought, okay, yeah,

Tom Morello: The new song that is a collaboration with the artist Beartooth. We were originally approached by the video game Final Fantasy, which I'm not a gamer, but I understand that matters very much to gamers.

And I don't write songs for video games. I couldn't, couldn't do that, but the composer of the music for that video game is a big fan of my work in Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, etc. And I said, "Well, I'm going to try to make a great song, and then, if you like that, that might work in your game." As it turned out, we made the song "Everything Burns." And it was very important to me that in a song that you know, in some ways, it's a big rocking, it's an action rock song in a lot of ways. It was important to me that it have a lyrical content that was tethered to the moment. The double entendre of "Everything Burns," one, we are in a time where much that we thought safe may be going up in flames. But also it's a warning that in the past, people have stood up against injustice in a myriad of different ways, and I'm a big proponent of peaceful protest, but sometimes people come to the end of their rope. It's a song that is both trying to be reflective of the times, but also recognizing that we're at the end of our tether.

Credits:

Host - Jill Riley

Producer - Derrick Stevens

Technical Director - Evan Clark

Digital Producer - Reed Fischer

External links:

A Concert of Solidarity and Resistance to Defend Minnesota