In a new interview with Chicago’s Q101 (WKQX), Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello has addressed the decision to cancel tour dates in 2022 and the future of the band.
The band were initially forced to cancel the European and UK leg of their 2022 tour after frontman Zack De La Rocha severed his Achilles tendon. In October that same year, they also cancelled the following year’s North American tour.
“The irony was, leading up to that tour, I ruptured my Achilles,” Morello tells Q101. “So I was in rehearsal on crutches. I was, like, I would have open-heart surgery on stage and not cancel a show. The show must go on. So then Zack — he was in such good shape. Everybody was doing their best to make this thing happen. And sometimes it just happens. And he popped the Achilles and he had sort of seen my journey with it. And we finished the U.S. tour and then sadly canceled all the other stuff after that.”
Further into the interview, Morello also addressed the possible future of the band after drummer Brad Wilk posted that they would “not be touring or playing live again” on social media in January 2024.
“Rage Against The Machine was always sort of a volatile situation,” Morello admits. “The fact that we got four great records, the fact that we played shows in 2022 and a new generation got to… Even when [Zack] was sitting down at those shows, those were some of the best RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE shows that we ever did and really connect to people.”
“We finished with five sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden. So if there’s never another show, then that’s quite a way to go out. But in the meantime, I cross my heart and hope to die, I am carrying the torch for every one of those riffs and all of the meaning in those songs as well as the other things that I’ve been in. That music matters so much to me, and what it’s about matters so much.”
Since the Rage “split”, Morello has certainly kept busy. In 2023, he featured on the Babymetal single METALI!! that was ultimately released on this year’s collab-heavy Metal Forth album. Then, the following year, he performed as a solo artist at Download Festival in the UK, before serving as the “musical director” for the massive Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath farewell concert at Birmingham’s Villa Park in July 2025.
Speaking about Ozzy’s passing just weeks after that final performance, Morello admits to Q101 he was honoured to be involved in the “legendary” gig.
“Ozzy Osbourne lived a pretty on-the-edge for such a long time and the fact he lived as long as he did was a miracle,” he says. “To play and feel that love one more time, to do Paranoid, to do Crazy Train… If you’ve gotta go – and I wish Ozzy lived another 30 years – if you’ve gotta go… it felt like he knew.”
“He came to the after party,” he continues. “I was actually playing pinball with my son Roman and somebody’s tapping me on the shoulder so I’m like, ‘Get off me!’ It was Jack Osbourne like, ‘Ozzy wants to say hi!’ I got to thank him, tell him I love him and kiss his head. He’s one of the all-time greats and it was quite a day.”
Morello will be touring North America for the remainder of 2025. It was also announced he will be co-directing a documentary on British heavy metal legends Judas Priest titled The Ballad Of Judas Priest, though no release date has been announced as yet.
Watch the full Tom Morello interview with Q101 below.
