Van Halen opened for Black Sabbath on their ‘Never Say Die!’ tour in 1978. Geezer Butler recently talked about the experience in an interview with BraveWords and revealed how David Lee Roth annoyed Ozzy Osbourne:
“But then, as the tour went on, Dave Lee Roth started copying, became like an Ozzy clone. It was really upsetting Ozzy at the time, because, whatever Ozzy did one night, Dave Lee Roth had said the same thing the next night. It was upsetting Ozzy, and then, Eddie was doing these extended solos, so Tony had to have a word with him about that.”
He added:
“But it was good, because they brought in this whole new younger audience for us. They actually brought in some women and girls [laughs] that we never really had at our gigs.”
Black Sabbath Didn’t Like Van Halen’s Popularity
Black Sabbath was dealing with substance abuse and a legal battle against their managers at the time. Meanwhile, their label was eyeing Van Halen as a new priority.
Butler said this was what upset them during the tour:
“But what pissed us off is that Warner Bros. completely concentrated on Van Halen, and it was almost like we were the support band. Warner Bros. were like, ‘You’re an old hat,’ kind of stuff. ‘This is Van Halen of the future.’ So they did everything for Van Halen, nothing for us. There was no promotion for us whatsoever. But they were great guys, a great band, and we [enjoyed] long-lasting friendships, especially Tony and Eddie.”
Osbourne’s Band Was Going Through A Tough Period
Osbourne also reflected on Van Halen’s popularity back then in Paul Brannigan’s ‘Eruption: The Eddie Van Halen Story’ as follows:
“When a band goes onstage before you and goes down better than you, you either say, ‘Right, we’re going to go out there and f**king show them how to do it,’ or you just fold up.”
He continued:
“[Van Halen] had years on us, and we’d been fighting this lawsuit with our old manager for f**king years, and I was just f**king tired of fighting. We never joined a band to become lawyers or f**king accountants, and that’s how it ended up. We didn’t have a clue.”
Van Halen broke up following Eddie Van Halen’s death in 2020. Alex Van Halen recently quit music for good and sold his drumming items in an auction.