Tom Morello shares more insights about his role in the “Back to the Beginning” event

Tom Morello, guitarist for Rage Against The Machine, discussed his role as the “curator” of Black Sabbath’s all-star “Back To The Beginning” farewell gig, which also featured Ozzy Osbourne‘s last performance, during a recent interview on “Whiplash,” the KLOS radio show presented by Full Metal Jackie. When planning the event, he was asked what the “biggest challenge” was.

Well, I suppose the biggest challenge was just doing it justice. Heavy metal is the music that made me love music and Black Sabbath invented heavy metal. So when I was tapped by Ozzy and Sharon to be the musical director, I took it really, really seriously and used all of my love of the genre and curatorial abilities to try to make something that was… The goal was very, very simple from the beginning, is to make it the greatest and most important day in the history of heavy metal, and all reports are that we did pretty well.

He was also asked whether he had a chance to speak to the uncontested heavy metal pioneers, Ozzy and the rest of Sabbath, about his thoughts.

Yeah. The good, nice news is throughout this process I’ve been able to be in communication with Ozzy and with Tony Iommi and those guys, and it’s really pretty mind-blowing. I’ve never stopped being a fan from day one, and realizing how important Tony Iommi’s riffs are, how important Ozzy Osbourne is, and Ozzy bringing Randy Rhoads to the world, that was the poster that was on my wall when I was practicing eight hours a day. So, I got to be able to tell them and be able to really do my best and, over the course of the last year plus, give everything I had to try to make this show an important day for them in their hometown, but also an important day for all of the bands, all of the fans who have been touched by their music over the course of more than 50 years.

He had lots of favorite moments.

Oh, wow. There were a lot. The Steven Tyler moment of doing ‘The Train Kept-A-Rollin” with Ronnie Wood into ‘Walk This Way’ into ‘Whole Lotta Love’ was pretty excellent. Yungblud’s version of ‘Changes’ was a real showstopper. One of the ideas I had early on was that each of the bands would play at least one Sabbath or Ozzy song, and it was basically like watching 14 of the greatest Sabbath and Ozzy tribute bands of all time play with some of my favorite singers and guitar players in them,” Morello continued. “While the day itself, honestly, was a little stressful for me, ’cause I was still working throughout the 10-hour day, it was really, really pretty fantastic. I’ll tell you, for me personally, ’cause I got to play as well, playing a Judas Priest song with K.K. Downing, playing ‘Breaking The Law’ with K.K. Downing, as well as with Adam Jones from TOOL, my longtime friend from Libertyville, Illinois, and Billy Corgan, also a Chicago-area native, the three of us grew up on Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, and to be reunited in a stadium a long way from our hometown playing Sabbath and Judas Priest songs, where those songs were made, was pretty mind blowing.