Black Sabbath was formed in Birmingham, England back in 1968 by the guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, drummer Bill Ward and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. In 1970 they released their groundbreaking self-titled debut album that simply created Heavy Metal music, changing the course of Rock and Roll forever.
Over the decades, they had the chance to tour around the world and also to help many bands that were starting to reach a new audience. Sabbath had many incredible opening acts but there was one in particular that Tony Iommi said was excellent.
The Black Sabbath opening act Tony Iommi said was excellent
Back in the late 70s when Black Sabbath already was one of the biggest bands in the world, they had as their opening act a band that had just released their debut record. It was the American group Van Halen, formed in Pasadena, California.
The band really impressed Tony Iommi at the time and he recalled that in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2020, saying they were excellent. “They were very good. They were very energetic. You’ve got David Lee Roth there, jumping up in the air and doing somersaults, and God knows what else.”
“And the way they’d run around the stage, of course, it was the complete opposite to us. We, like, stood there when we went on [laughs]. But they were just a very, very excellent band. You knew then that they were gonna make it. There’s no two ways about it. They just got something that nobody else was doing at that time,” Tony Iommi said.
That was when his friendship with the late legendary Eddie Van Halen started. They used to hang out together after the shows and even play guitar sometimes. “We all got on very well. Bill (Ward) used to chat with Alex, and I’d be with Eddie. It was always a very close thing with Van Halen,” Tony Iommi said.
The guitarist also noted that Eddie’s playing was really unique and he had a style Iommi had never seen before. He also said that the Dutch guitarist never stopped improving and only got better over the decades, even calling him an inventor.
Eddie Van Halen helped to write a Sabbath song
Van Halen was a big fan of Black Sabbath and Van Halen used to cover many songs of the British band when they still haven’t got a record deal. Eddie himself would be the vocalist on those tracks sometimes. He even said once that the guitar riff of “Into The Void” was one of his favorites of all time.
Back in 1994, when Black Sabbath was recording the album “Cross Purposes” Eddie was in England. Iommi invited him to visit the band in the studio. That day he helped them in the composition of the song “Evil Eye”. Besides him, the song is also credited to Iommi, Geezer Butler, Tony Martin and Geoff Nicholls. At the time the band had as their drummer the American Bobby Rondinelli.
Eddie continued to be a huge fan of Black Sabbath over the decades and even went to see them playing in Los Angeles during their final reunion in the 2010s.