Geezer Butler recalls his first impression of Eddie Van Halen

The legendary Black Sabbath bassist and main lyricist Geezer Butler is currently promoting his autobiography “Into The Void – From Birth to Black Sabbath” and he recalled in an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock what was the first impression he had when he watched Eddie Van Halen playing for the first time.

Right after they released their self-titled debut album in 1978, the Hard Rock band had the chance to tour with Black Sabbath as their opening act. That was when the two members had the chance to meet each other for the first time.

Geezer Butler recalls his first impression of Eddie Van Halen

Nobody played guitar like that until Eddie did it. At first, I thought they were just a normal rock band. You don’t go out and watch them the first night or anything like that. Then, this one night we were in a bigger venue. So I had the chance to go out and watch their set properly.”

“I was amazed at what he was doing, all of the stuff that nobody else was doing at the time. Tony is very hard to impress [when it comes to] other guitarists. He was going, “God, have you seen what Eddie Van Halen can do?” I was like, “Bloody hell, if Tony likes him, he’s got to be a genius!” Geezer Butler said.

Eddie Van Halen was considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time and influenced countless generations of musicians worldwide over the decades. He passed away back in 2020 at the age of 65 after years battling cancer.

Eddie and his brother Alex were the only members of Van Halen who were part of all the albums the band released on their career. They recorded 12 studio albums, 2 live records and released 56 singles.

They also are one of the best-selling bands of all time with an estimated amount of more than 80 million records sold worldwide.