As soon as Van Halen released their debut album in 1978, the band was invited to open for Black Sabbath .
From there, a great friendship was born between Tony Iommi and Eddie Van Halen . 16 years later, while Black Sabbath was recording Cross Purposes in 1994, Van Halen was in Sabbath's hometown of Birmingham, England, to perform a show.
In an interview with Rolling Stone , Tony Iommi recounts visiting Van Halen and saying, "You can come to the studio and play with us if you want," to which Eddie replied, "Oh, can I?"
"I'll pick you up at the hotel and we'll go get a guitar for you."
The two went to a music store in Birmingham and Iommi asked the salesman, "Can you lend Eddie a guitar?"
Completely speechless and astonished, the shop staff lent them one of their own Van Halen model guitars, and so the two went to the studio.
Iommi recalls that they played some Sabbath songs and one of Eddie's favorites was "Into The Void."
Subsequently, they continued composing songs for the album, and in the middle of "Evil Eye," Iommi asked Eddie to do a solo.
"And he played a wonderful solo that, when we went to record, I tried to do the same. Of course, I couldn't," Tony Iommi says, laughing.
The Sabbath guitarist also confirmed that he has the original recording with Eddie Van Halen's solo: "I don't know where it is among all my things, but I know it exists. I know I have it somewhere, that diamond."
At another point in the interview, Tony Iommi says that Van Halen was a humble man and a really good person.
“He was possibly one of the biggest influences of his generation onward. He invented something totally new and different. How difficult is that, to invent something new on the guitar? I think he inspired a lot of people. There are millions of people tapping with their hands and playing like Eddie and playing his solos. I think he left a huge mark on millions and millions of guitarists.”
Listen to “Evil Eye”:
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