What Eddie Van Halen’s Favorite Black Sabbath Riff Was
Picking your one favourite Black Sabbath riffs looks like an unattainable process, however Eddie Van Halen had one absolute favourite by metallic’s founding fathers.
On a 2023 episode of The Power Hour (on AXS TV), hosts Matt Pinfield, Caity Babs and Josh Bernstein have been joined by Mammoth WVH’s Wolfgang Van Halen and Sabbath’s Geezer Butler.
In a social media clip shared this week (seen beneath) Pinfield encourages Wolfgang to inform Butler what his father Eddie’s favourite Black Sabbath riff was. “‘Into the Void’ is one of the best riffs ever. It was always my dad’s favorite riff from you guys. I know he was really close with Tony [Iommi],” Wolfgang says from the studio desk to Butler, who appeared by way of video chat.
“We used to love your dad. He was a great guy,” Butler responds. “That tour, when we did it with Van Halen, was one of the best tours ever,” he provides, though Black Sabbath have been famously blown off the stage on that run, Van Halen ascending because the Brits have been amid a downward spiral.
With a little bit of amusing, Butler recollects one of many extra favorable parts of that tour. “It was fantastic because they were like the first sort of metal band with an image that the girls liked,” the bassist explains, “Bikers used to come and see us and you would look out and it would be like 99 percent blokes in the audience. But then when you toured with Van Halen it was like 50 percent women!” Watch the clip immediately beneath.
READ MORE: Black Sabbath Songs Ranked (Ozzy Osbourne Era)
In an interview with Loudwire Nights radio host Chuck Armstrong in June, Iommi additionally confirmed that “Into the Void” was the legendary Eddie Van Halen’s favourite by Black Sabbath.
Into the Void additionally occurs to be the title of Butler’s new memoir and, in a separate Loudwire Nights interview, he talked in regards to the following generations of metallic bands. Commenting on Metallica’s self-titled album, also called ‘The Black Album,’ Butler stated, “I thought the riffs were great, great riffs. I always thought, ‘God, I wish I had written that.’ It’s just really good riffs and something I could relate to. I couldn’t really relate to their earlier stuff. I mean, a lot of people think the earlier stuff is the true Metallica, but it didn’t really appeal much to me. But when the “Black Album” came out, it felt more appealing to my taste.”
Butler admitted the report is “one of the few metal albums I could listen to from beginning to end. I really enjoyed listening to it. There are very few albums of any genre that I can listen to from track one to the end. It’s one of those albums that I could listen to the whole thing and I’m really impressed with it.”
Black Sabbath Albums Ranked
All 19 studio albums, from worst to finest,
Gallery Credit: Joe DiVita