Black Sabbath’s best opening act, according to Tony Iommi
Due to how much of a distinct and different prospect they were to the rest of the rock scene at the time, it didn’t take Black Sabbath long to establish themselves as part of a new rock vanguard in the early 1970s. With albums such as their self-titled debut, Paranoid and Master of Reality, the Birmingham group cemented themselves as the kings of a new movement dubbed as heavy metal, and rapidly became a major touchstone for other bands who wanted to establish a much harder edge to their rock sound.
Several other heavy metal acts emerged in the years after Sabbath’s rise to the top, all of them looking to some degree to emulate the success that they had had with this abrasive new mutation of rock. While some acts were able to match their levels of brilliance and ingenuity, there were, of course, plenty that failed to offer anything new and were essentially carbon copies that were left languishing behind.
Their success as a group meant that they were able to tour across the globe, and their world tours saw them playing alongside plenty of acts who had formed as a result of Black Sabbath’s influence. However, it wouldn’t be long until they reached a point where their proteges were reaching a level of ability that was capable of outshining them in every aspect. Sabbath’s reign as kings of metal was not exactly threatened, but there was a band that they encountered on their travels that they immediately knew would give them a run for their money.
As much as guitarist Tony Iommi was considered an innovator for having helped birth an entirely new genre, he couldn’t help but be floored by the technical mastery of the instrument that Eddie Van Halen demonstrated when he and his band supported Sabbath in 1978. Van Halen, despite not having existed for as long as the band they were supporting, had seemingly perfected their craft in an alarmingly rapid fashion, and the way in which they helped elevate the genre to the next level was something that Iommi simply had to admire.
While Iommi acknowledged the differences between his own band and Van Halen, most notably their more extravagant and cartoonish stage appearance, he recalled to Rolling Stone in 2020 that this 1978 tour left him at a loss for words. “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.”
“The way they’d run around the stage, of course, it was the complete opposite to us,” Iommi continued. “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.” Much like Sabbath managed to achieve at the start of the 1970s, Van Halen shot to stardom in a similarly speedy fashion in the latter half of the decade, and Iommi’s prediction that they would become world-renowned inevitably came to fruition.
Iommi’s respect for Van Halen wasn’t unidirectional either, as the late Eddie Van Halen also expressed his admiration for what Black Sabbath had brought to the world in a variety of ways. Van Halen would later work alongside the band upon Iommi’s request, and helped them write their 1994 track ‘Evil Eye’, but the fact that the progenitor of heavy metal was blown away by the supreme talents of the younger Van Halen only goes to show just how extraordinary they were as performers.
