Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello receives key to family’s ancestral Italian hometown

Tom Morello has been honored in his family’s ancestral hometown of Pratiglione, Italy.

In an Instagram post, the Rage Against the Machine guitarist shares that he’d become an “honorary Italian citizen” and received the key to Pratiglione.

“Bands played! Children frolicked! Dozens of Morello cousins partied!” Morello writes of the festivities. “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!”

Morello traces his Italian roots through his mother, Mary Morello. In an interview with Rolling Stone talking about his collaboration with Italian rockers Måneskin, Morello said, “I’m very proud of my Italian heritage … I’ve always felt a very strong connection with that country.”