Tony Iommi says he had the chance to talk with Van Halen before his passing

The Black Sabbath guitarist and co-founder Tony Iommi first met Eddie Van Halen, when the American band was the band’s opening act in the late 70s and after that they remained really good friends. Eddie was a huge Black Sabbath and back in the 90s when the band was recording their 17th studio album “Cross Purposes”, he was in town and ended up going in the studio and recording with them.

He composed a guitar solo for the track “Evil Eye” and Tony Iommi recalled that story in an interview (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar) to promote the new box-set Anno Domini, which is a collection of the albums the band made with Tony Martin on vocals. Iommi also recalled that he had the chance to speak with Van Halen shortly before his passing in 2020 at the age of 65.

Tony Iommi says he had the chance to talk with Van Halen before his passing

“He (Eddie Van Halen) had a day off (In the 90s). I said, ‘We’re having a rehearsal, do you want to come?’ He said, ‘Oh yeah,’. That’s what he’d done, really. I picked him up in Birmingham, at the hotel. Then we drove by a music shop. I said, ‘Do you want to pick a guitar up’, and we did — one of his Eddie Van Halen ones, they had got one in. Then we went down to the rehearsal.”

“I said, ‘We’re working on this song’, and we started playing it. He started playing a solo. We played a couple of old Sabbath songs first, and I said, ‘You’re playing that wrong’ [laughs]. ‘Cause they used to play Sabbath stuff, before they were known. It was ‘Into the Void’ or something, I can’t remember.”

“But anyway, that’s the sort of relationship we had. We stayed friends until he passed away; I spoke to him just before,” Tony Iommi said.