Tony Iommi recalls fond memories with Black Sabbath late guitarist Eddie Van Halen

Tony Iommi recently recalled co-writing a Black Sabbath song with Eddie Van Halen for the band’s 1994 album Cross Purposes.

Van, who had helped compose the track Evil Eye, was later blocked from getting honored with a writer’s credit on the record by Warner Bros.

Rehashing the hysterics, Iommi told Guitar.com, “[Eddie Van Halen] had a day off, and I said, ‘We’re rehearsing, do you want to come?’”

To which Van responded: “Oh yeah.”

The guitarist continued to share his experience with Halen, recalling: “I picked him up in Birmingham, at the hotel, and then we drove via a music shop, and I said, ‘Do you want to pick a guitar up’, and we did – one of his Eddie Van Halen ones, they had got one in. Then we went down to the rehearsal.”

He then claimed: “I said, ‘We’re working on this song, and we started playing it. He started playing a solo.

“We played a couple of old Sabbath songs first, and I said, ‘You’re playing that wrong’ [laughs]. 

"’Cause they used to play Sabbath stuff, before they [Van Halen] were known. It was Into The Void or something, I can’t remember,” he added.

Concluding his statement, Iommi expanded his thoughts on their relationship: “But anyway, that’s the sort of relationship we had. We stayed friends until he passed away; I spoke to him just before.”

For the unversed, Black Sabbath started out as a English rock band in 1968 and were later cited as pioneers of heavy metal music.