It’s safe to say that there are a few busy months ahead for Tom Morello and the Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave guitarist has recently broken cover to talk to Guitar Player about his excitement regarding working with his heroes and what’s coming up at this summer’s triumphant and star-studded Black Sabbath Back To The Beginning live event.
Cutting to the quick of what makes his style tick, Morello explained to Guitar Player that: “I'm a riff writer and Ground Zero for riff writing is Jimmy Page and Tony Iommi. They're the two pillars, and they're a big part of how I built my sound.
"Iron Man was one of the first riffs I learned on guitar, and Tony Iommi has another two or three hundred of the greatest electric guitar riffs of all time in his catalog.
"The big lesson you can draw from the music of Black Sabbath as a musician is: Don't be afraid to be simple and awesome."
However, fellow guitarists that Morello has encountered on his road to glory haven’t, it seems, felt the same way. Including, most specifically an old guitar teacher…
"I remember taking a guitar lesson to learn Sweet Leaf, and the guitar instructor was a bit snobby – like sort of scoffing about how easy it was,” Morello remembers.
“I was thinking, 'That doesn't seem to be the criteria for greatness. That's a fucking song that rocks me like I've never been rocked before.' Who cares if it has four notes or 40,000 notes in it? It's great!"
And the experience only ever reinforced Morello’s Iommi love. "It made me see music in a different way than other people, which was helped by bands like Black Sabbath,” Morello explained. “And that's one of the things that I've certainly integrated into my own music and riffs through the years."
“Every one of those great Tony Iommi riffs is made great by that rhythm section of Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. That's really what elevates those riffs from being not just great riffs but Black Sabbath riffs."
Master of Reality
And fans – Morello included – won’t have to wait too long to see Iommi back in action – alongside his Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne Black Sabbath bandmates, as the band reunites one last time for this summer’s Back to the Beginning UK megafest.
In fact, Morello is the event’s musical director, hand-picked for the job by Ozzy Osbourne himself, and helping to put together Sabbath’s final gig alongside a solo set from Osbourne plus appearances from Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Anthrax, Mastodon and ‘special guests’ that read like the who’s who of rock.
Get set for Slash, Duff McKaggan, Fred Durst, Sammy Hagar, Wolfgang Van Halen and – of course – Morello himself, all making appearances throughout the day.
“We’re celebrating Black Sabbath, but it’s Ozzy Osbourne’s final show, too,” Morello teases. “It is, in some ways, also a tribute to the great Randy Rhoads, who was on a poster on my wall when I was practicing eight hours a day.
Regular Ozzy guitarist Rhoads tragically died in a plane crash in 1982.
“I take the job of curating this day very, very seriously,” said Morello. “Not just to honour the living members of Black Sabbath but also Randy Rhoads, who is so important to me personally, and to the genre. To have that be a part of the day, too, is pretty special.”
And, in good news for fans, Morello revealed that his direct replacement Jake E. Lee WILL be in attendance for the gig. “Yes! Jake E. Lee is going to be there, too, dude!” Morello confirmed. “It’s historic on a lot of levels for someone who is a big fan of the Ozzy records.”
Back to the Beginning – which is now entirely sold out – is set to take place at Villa Park, Birmingham, UK, on Saturday 5 July 2025.
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