Tony Iommi reveals why Geezer Butler was absent at Black Sabbath reunion
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Credit: Alan Light
Tony Iommi remembers the “inventor” Eddie Van Halen
Tony Iommi and Eddie Van Halen are two of the finest guitar players of all time. The former gave metal pioneers Black Sabbath their power, and was the band’s only constant member between their formation in 1968 and their definitive breakup in 2017. A genius songwriter as well as a stellar guitarist, without Iommi, the metal behemoth of Black Sabbath would not have reached such stratospheric levels, and his additions to popular culture speak for themselves.
As for Eddie Van Halen, as well as being one of the most technically proficient guitarists of all time, he was also one of the most influential, with his work in Van Halen representing the very heights that guitarists can achieve.
He is credited with developing techniques on the guitar that we now see ubiquitous in the more visceral forms of rock music, and everywhere from metallic hardcore to black metal you hear his work alive and well. It’s a testament to his work that his influence can be found even in pop music, reflecting just how profound his impact was.
Famously, Van Halen pioneered the two-handed string tapping, taking the raw materials set out by progenitors Steve Hackett of Genesis and Harvey Mandel and making it more high-octane and unique. He repackaged virtuosity for the masses, a masterstroke both artistically and commercially.
So, when Van Halen passed away in October 2020, a wound was opened that will never heal, and it prompted many of those who knew him best to share their accounts of him, and one of the most candid came from his good friend Tony Iommi.
Speaking to Rolling Stone shortly after Van Halen’s passing, Iommi looked back at the time Van Halen joined Black Sabbath on tour in 1978, which not only crystallised the respect he had for the American guitarist but also a long friendship. “I just don’t know how he could play like that,” he opined. “Nobody can play like him.”
He then recalled spending a lot of time with Van Halen on tour, and how close they got in their moments of downtime. “We really got to know each other well on that tour,” Iommi continued. “He [Van Halen] used to come around to my room most nights after the show. Or I’d go around to his room and we’d sit there talking.”
“We used to have such a great time together. We really spilt our hearts out with each other,” he then revealed. “What I like about Eddie, he was always an inventor. He’d always want to come up with something new. He worked hard to develop his own amplifiers. And he’d work on his own guitars as best he could to make them feel comfortable to him. He was always very much an innovator with a bunch of things.”
