Chapter 2: That Album

I thought you might want to know this before you start reading, I am a big RATM fan and a big Tom Morello fan if you could not tell from my name. So I am sorry if it seems like I am obsessing over them in this chapter.

During the next few weeks, Ron got into a certain routine for his day. He would wake up, do his morning chores, eat lunch, and then go into Ottery St Catchpole where he would hang out with Mitch and listen and talk about records. He would then return home before sundown and have dinner with his family, he would share his new found tastes in music with the rest of his family but not many seemed interested. Mr. Weasley seemed to be the only one who cared due to his fascination with Muggle things. He made sure to keep up writing letters to Harry and Hermione, but decided to leave out his new found interest in muggle music as there always seemed to be something more important to talk about. Harry lettered him one day telling how the Dursleys were going on a diet, horrified that Harry would starve, Ron came back from Ottery St Catchpole with small cakes that he would have Pig send to Harry. He bought them at the pastry shops across from Mitch's store with the spare money he had that he converted into muggle money.

Mitch made it his mission to educate Ron on the history of rock music as much as possible. He spent the first week of Ron being at the store educating him on famous bands. Occasionally, some customers would come in and purchase something, but most of the time it was just him and Mitch. Ron learned that the base instruments for a regular band were 1-2 guitars, a bass, drums, and a singer. He showed Ron all different types of genres. They spent a whole day on bands that were called the British invasion, the big 3 bands that he had him listen too were The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Beatles. Ron especially liked the beatles due to the upbeat playing, but also loved the slow trippy music of songs from Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour.

Mitch then had Ron listen to what was considered popular currently which was the genre called Grunge. He started Ron out of a band called Nirvana by playing him Nevermind and In Utero. Ron thought that the vocals were incredible and the fast paced playing made him want to jump around.

When they were done, Ron asked when the next album would be coming out. Mitch suddenly stopped and gave Ron a pained look. Mitch then told Ron the sad news that last year, the frontman and Guitarist Kurt Cobain took his own life at age 27. Ron felt sick, "How could someone take their life" he thought to himself. Mitch then played Ron the bands Soungarden, Alice in chains, and Pearljam and they were also really good. But Ron left the store that day feeling sick in his stomach.

One of Ron's favorite days was when Mitch decided to show Ron 80s classic metal bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden. Ron loved the fast paced playing and the hard vocals. But Ron was completely taken aback by the insane drum solo on Painkiller and the awesome guitar playing on One. Mitch laughed every time Ron's eyes opened wide or his mouth hung open in shock. Everytime the day ended, Mitch would hand him an album to take home and everytime Ron tried paying him, but Mitch refused the Money stating that the copies that he was giving for him were gifts. Ron would take the records home and put them in his room, after dinner. He would take the record player that was in the living room up to his room and listen to the albums. Ginny would occasionally come in and sit with him and listen to the music, she said it was really good and then leave. Fred and George only came in once to laugh at some of the album covers and joke that they were gonna play catch with the records. To which Ron pushed them out of his room and slammed the door shut.

But the day that changed everything was one of the days in the 3rd week of this routine. It was nearing the evening and Ron was just browsing the Metal section when he spotted an album in the R section that caught his eye. He picked it up and looked at it, it was a man on fire and he was sitting calmly as the flames gathered around him. He looked at the bottom which read rage against the machine. Ron brought it up to the counter.

"Hey Mitch what's this".

"That is the self titled album by Rage Against the Machine. It is a mixture between hard rock and rap, they became really popular with the song killing in the name. You gotta pay for this one though."

Intrigued, Ron spent the last of his muggle money on the record as he wished Mitch goodnight and headed home. After dinner, Ron put on the record and immediately understood why this band was so popular. The music was awesome, the thick bass combined with awesome guitar made him wanna jump around. The vocals which were done by Zach de la Rocha as he read it off the back, were also great as the rapping fit really well into the music. The popular song Killing in the Name was really cool and the ending which had a ton of swearing caused Ron to have to turn down the volume. But throughout the entire album, he could not stop focusing on the guitar. Mitch examplied to him the idea of pedals and how it changes the sound of instruments, but the guitar at times felt almost alien. Once the album ended, Ron looked at the back of the album to look for the guitarist's name. His name was Tom Morello and Ron knew that he had to learn more about this guy.

The next day in Mitch's store, Ron found a magazine that talked about Tom Morello, he immediately read up on his history and how he grew up dealing with racism and how it inspired him and the other members of Rage to create the band. Ron had decided that he had officially found his guitar idol. Ron had gathered other guitar guys that he really liked, Eddie Van Halen, David Gilmour, Dave mustaine, but Tom stuck out to him because of his unique playing and attitude. In the interviews that he read, Tom had so much passion for playing guitar and for his beliefs and Ron felt like he could look up to him. With a sudden interest, Ron walked over to where Mitch was sitting behind the cash register.

"Hey Mitch, can you teach me guitar."

Hello Readers, thanks for reading this latest chapter. Just a heads up, for those who are worried that this fic will only focus on Rage, don't be, Ron will play and experience a lot of different genres. Tom Morello is a big idol for me and I wanted Ron to have him as an idol as well. This will matter later on but not a lot.