"It was a long day, but a fun one," Tom Morello said in the lobby of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Grammy night. Along with Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Britney Spears, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Fiona Apple, the Audioslave guitarist was out late for Sony/BMG's Grammy after-party.

Audioslave's "Doesn't Remind Me" was a runner-up to System of a Down's "B.Y.O.B." in the Best Hard Rock Performance category, but Morello enjoyed the Grammy festivities anyway, citing Paul McCartney's "Helter Skelter" and U2's "Vertigo" as his favorite performances. "They rocked it pretty hard," he said of the latter.

Morello's long day didn't just consist of event-hopping, as he and Audioslave were also busy at work on their third album. "We're about halfway done," he said of the forthcoming follow-up to last year's chart-topping Out of Exile, which is being produced by Brendan O'Brien, who worked with both Audioslave forebears Rage Against the Machine and Soundgarden. According to Morello, the band is in such a groove that "if we're not done in three weeks, there's a problem."

Does that mean fans will hear the record in May, as has been reported? "It's hard to tell," he says. "It's still rock & roll."