Tour Guide Assumed Tom Morello Was a ‘Jersey Shore’ Cast Member
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello said a Hollywood tour guide mistook him for a cast member from MTV's Jersey Shore while he was hiking in Southern California this week.
Now, sightseers from the tour have photos of Morello they might assume show not a musician, but one of the co-stars of the reality TV franchise that continues today with Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, such as DJ Pauly D or Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino.
How did the situation come about? The Rage Against the Machine rocker, who last month released the collaborative album The Atlas Underground Flood, explained the story on Tuesday (Jan. 18).
Morello said, "I was hiking today when one of those 'Hollywood Tours Of The Stars Homes' vans pulled up."
He continued, "The driver says on the bullhorn 'Hey I recognize you from somewhere! Are you one of those Jersey Shore guys??' I reply, 'Absolutely.' And everyone in the van took a photo."
That's certainly one way to get a candid shot of a guitarist on a hike. But one has to wonder if patrons took the tour guide at face value, or if some guessed Morello wasn't, in fact, from Jersey Shore. Was no one onboard a Rage Against the Machine fan?
Or it could be the guide was just having some fun with Morello, and didn't actually assume he was a Jersey Shore star. Regardless, it's a pretty funny story.
The Atlas Underground Flood features Morello's collaborations with musicians including Rush's Alex Lifeson and Metallica's Kirk Hammett. It follows the Rage guitarist's second collab album, The Atlas Underground Fire, also released in 2021.
This year, the reunited Rage have a massive concert tour plotted across North America, but they won't be performing at Coachella 2022.
Jersey Shore originally aired on MTV from 2009 until 2012. A 2017 special, Reunion Road Trip: Return to the Jersey Shore, preceded the 2018 premiere of the current series, Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.