Tom Morello: Former Exotic Dancer

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 18, 2011 6:20PM

Rage Against the Machine guitarist and Libertyville native Tom Morello is one of the creators behind a new comic book miniseries called Orchid, which he described at the San Diego Comic-Con as the story of "a 16-year-old street prostitute who becomes the Spartacus of whores." So it's not light-hearted fare.

Morello was interviewed by Think Progress' Alyssa Rosenberg about Orchid, the Occupy protests and other subjects. On the subject of the comic book, Morello is asked about his research. Here's what he had to say. (Emphasis ours.)

The research I did was first-hand. I also, not that that I need to trumpet it, but I used to be an exotic dancer myself, but that’s not exactly the sex trade, but it borders on it. I would not say I drew on that experience writing Orchid, just to be perfectly clear, but full disclosure. It was a long time ago.

Let's slow the roll for a moment. Tom Morello past as a male stripper was news to us. Turned out he's talked about wiggling it (just a little bit) before. (Again, emphasis ours.)

"When I graduated from Harvard and moved to Hollywood, I was unemployable," Morello admitted. "I was literally starving, so I had to work menial labor and, at one point, I even worked as an exotic dancer. 'Brick House' [by the Commodores] was my jam! I did bachelorette parties and I'd go down to my boxer shorts. Would I go further? All I can say is thank god it was in the time before YouTube! You could make decent money doing that job -- people do what they have to do."

Now excuse us while we try to get the image of Morello shaking his little Nightwatchman to a roomful of bachelorettes out of our mind.

(Do you think he had a security guard?)