Like so many of us, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello was super-impressed by 10-year-old rock prodigy Nandi Bushell’s face-melting cover of the band’s 1999 anthem “Guerrilla Radio.”
The preternaturally talented child drummer had uploaded a minute-long instrumental clip of the song from The Battle of Los Angeles earlier this month, ripping it up on drums as well as electric guitar and bass while shouting out “black lives matter.”
After Morello noticed it, he retweeted the performance and wrote, “Well now we are on the right track.” This week, Morello sent a video message to 10-year-old, telling her, “I’d like you to have this guitar as a gift from me to you because you rock so great.”
With her hands over her mouth in disbelief, Bushell watched the video as she stared at the new hardware in her arsenal, a brand new black Fender Soul Power Stratocaster.
“And to see someone rocking so great who is so young, it really gives me hope for the future,” Morello added. He also noted that he didn’t start shredding until he was 17, so Bushell is “super far ahead” of where he was at her age.
She also got a custom purple Fender Mini Stratocaster from the guitar company to help her continue her fight against racism.
Watch Morello’s video, Bushell’s original performance and some of her recent activism below.
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