Tom Morello Credits Jane’s Addiction with Redeeming Hard Rock

Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello says hard rock was in serious trouble — until one heroic band saved it from certain extinction. The band he’s talking about? Jane’s Addiction.

Morello says he first heard Perry Ferrell and the rest of the band when he sneaked into a Jane’s Addiction rehearsal in the early 1980’s — and he immediately knew he was onto something special.

“They were it,” he says. “Because what they did is they redeemed hard rock and metal music. All of us who loved hard rock music but were somewhat embarrassed by the devil stuff and the groupie stuff and that, all of a sudden there were bands that were kicking my a** just as hard, just as hard as Sabbath and AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. And so I was all in on Jane’s.”

Do you find Jane’s Addiction to be as groundbreaking as Morello does?