MusicThe band that “swept” Black Sabbath from the stage in the 70s, according to Ozzy

At the end of the 70s, the Black Sabbath I was already creatively exhausted and had internal problems. The situation did not improve when the tour of Never Say Die! (1978) brought as a special guest a young and energetic band: Van Halen.

Ozzy Osbourne recalled the difference between the two groups during the excursion in a new episode of the program Ozzy Speaksfrom the radio SiriusXM (via Blabbermouth). The vocalist of Black Sabbath said that the presentations of the Van Halen they surpassed the British quartet quite visibly.

He comments:

I couldn’t believe that. Eddie Van Halen made it seem so easy (playing guitar). They overshadowed us. They swept us off the stage.”

The coexistence, in general, was good. Ozzy praised the brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halensomething he did in 2022 for the magazine Revolver. However, he pointed out that one of the members of the American group was not that friendly.

They came to our local pub and it was great fun. But David Lee Roth (vocalist of Van Halen), it has a few screws missing. When you meet him, you think: ‘What’s wrong with him?’. He seems to be somewhere else.”

It was the last tour of Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne until the reunion of the original formation, in the 1990s. Madman was sent away in 1979 and began to dedicate himself to a solo career. Meanwhile, the Van Halen he had just released his debut album, the same name, in 1978, and was about to emerge to the world.

Black Sabbath and Van Halen behind the scenes

Not everything was rosy on the tour Black Sabbath with the Van Halen. Ozzy seems more polished when remembering those times, but Geezer Butler I don’t have such good memories.

The English bassist recalled to the podcast Rock Experiencefrom Mike Brunn (via Igor Miranda), in 2023:

We were also fans of Van Halen. We were great to each other and we used to party every night [risos]. Tony (Iommiguitarist of Black Sabbath) and Eddie they got along very well. In the beginning, Tony I was a little upset with Eddie making these guitar solos longer and longer. Ozzy I was angry because David Lee Roth was using all his stuff. I think that really started to bring us down towards the end.”

Butler said in the book Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halenthat the Americans began to copy some elements of Sabbath throughout the tour. An example would be the bass player michael anthonywho started using a wah-wah effect pedal on his instrument, something that only Geezer did at the time.

The Brit also pointed out the fact that the two bands belonged to the same record label, Warner, which prioritized the promotion of the Van Halen at that moment. And it worked: the group of brothers Eddie and Alex became a phenomenon in the coming years, while the Black Sabbathalready a veteran, faced line-up changes and a drop in popularity in the following decade.

Collaborated: André Luiz Fernandes.