LONDON – 27th MAY: Van Halen perform live on stage at Lewisham Odeon in London on 27th May 1978. Left to Right: Michael Anthony, David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen. (Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns).
This is truly funny. During their 1978 tour together, Black Sabbath and Van Halen had some ups and downs. Maybe call it a friendly competition, as described in the forthcoming Eddie Van Halen biography, Eruption.
But somewhere along the tour, Black Sabbath guitarist Tommy Lommi told Van Halen guitarist, Eddie Van Halen, to “behave yourself” and not to disrespect his elders. Okay. Sure. Iommi says, “They watched us almost every night from the side of the stage, and obviously they’d pick things up from us, seeing what worked, and what got the crowd going. But it was just a bit awkward when we’d come onstage and it felt like we were just doing what they were doing. One night I said to Eddie, ‘Hey, Eddie, are you gonna play a couple of tracks off our new album tomorrow?’” Sounds like a tour we wish we could’ve been hiding on the tour bus for. You can read the full story from LouderSound.com here.
