“I remember being physically frightened”: Tom Morello looks back on the first time he heard Black Sabbath

Tom Morello onstage in 2025, next to a photo of Black Sabbath in 1970.

Ahead of acting as musical director for Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning show, Tom Morello has reflected on the first time he heard the heavy metal godfathers.

Talking exclusively in the new issue of Metal Hammer, the Rage Against The Machine guitarist reckons he was 10 or 11 the first time he encountered the Brits’ music, which was through their fifth album, 1973’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.