Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello Becomes Honorary Italian Citizen

Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello has become an honorary Italian citizen.

At a ceremony held in Morello’s family’s ancestral Italian hometown of Pratiglione, city mayor Giovanni Trucano presented the honorary citizenship and a key to the city to the musician.

Morello’s Pratiglione heritage dates back to his great-great-grandfather, Carlo, who migrated to the United States in the 19th century.

“I just became an honorary Italian citizen & received the key to the city of the Morello ancestral hometown of Pratiglione, Italy!” Morello wrote on Instagram. “Bands played! Children frolicked! Dozens of Morello cousins partied! The mayor wore blue ! Awesome guitar statue erected in town square next to the memorial for local partisans who died fighting the Nazis! Grazie, Pratiglione!”

59-year-old Thomas Baptist Morello is the son of an American mother of Italian and Irish descent and a Kenyan Kikuyu father.

A political activist, Morello co-founded Axis of Justice, which airs a monthly program on Pacifica Radio station KPFK (90.7 FM) in Los Angeles.

(Photo: Raphael Pour-Hashemi)