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Black Sabbath’s Controversial 1978 Tour with Van Halen
When hoary ol’ headbangers talk about Black Sabbath’s touring history, the inevitable question comes up: “Did Van Halen blow Black Sabbath off the stage on the Never Say Die tour?” That is frankly unanswerable for many logical reasons, although the general consensus is that Van Halen impressed people more often than not, and Sabbath sometimes looked tired. Heck, you can get into all sorts of mind games, such as how can all four guys in one band be upstaged by all four guys in the other band, all at once? It’s like a hockey team sayin’ “We stunk and they played great. That’s why we lost.” Really? What are the odds that all of you had a bad game and all of them had a good game? At the same time? Shift to shift? Astronomically low. I mean, Van Halen were by nature/in general/usually more animated than the Sabbath guys, although Ozzy could compete. So…did Michael upstage Ozzy? Did Alex upstage Geezer? Every night? Every song? And by the way, what songs are being compared to each other and why are we doing this?!
And then there’s the case of Sabbath being the headliner, meaning that the fans were there for Sabbath, those were the songs they knew etc., the concept here being that even if Van Halen were amazing, sparkling, long talked about deep into the night on walks away from the hockey barn at hand, one would conjecture that most fans got more out of the Sabbath experience, in sum total, than out of that of Van Halen, simply because that was the material they came to hear. Van Halen had their selections and Sabbath had theirs, many of them monster hits that could always get a roar of approval. In other words, each set is a significantly different experience, and the two should be compared to each other less than they are.
Lastly, I’ve always thought this idea of blowing someone off the stage, logically, had a subconscious whiff of the ridiculous: How can you blow someone off the stage when they aren’t on the stage but still backstage or at the hotel? More pointedly, while and after seeing the first band, you still have nothing to compare it to. Now the headliner’s got to go on, and you’ve already been there for an hour, so what are you bringing to the experience? One answer is fatigue and impatience. As well, extrapolating it to multiple concerts, how fresh is your experience of the backup band and how many times have you already seen the headliner and witnessed all their moves? How much harder is it for you to become impressed when it’s your fourth or fifth time seeing this band?
In other words, it’s silly and who cares. Yes, there’s a story line, to be sure, in our case study, Black Sabbath touring on the track record of two less-than-acclaimed albums and Van Halen eagerly ripping it up on the strength of a white-hot debut. In essence, this is the tale of contrasts I wish to examine.
Black Sabbath’s “ten-year anniversary” Never Say Die tour kicked off on May 16, 1978, in Sheffield, UK, but in typical hapless Sabbath fashion, there was no record yet, the album not being issued until September 28 of that year. The guys notched their first Top of the Pops performance (mimed) on May 25, presenting the strangely punky yet melodic title track to the forthcoming album. Van Halen, also a Warner Bros. act, would be support for the band, as it turns out, more consistently and for more dates than any other band for the Sabs in their entire touring history. The first leg was an intensive UK swing, with Van Halen dropping off for the last handful of dates, late June, replaced by Tanz Der Youth, and, at the Birmingham Odeon, the Damned!
O’er to the U.S., where approximately thirty dates would be logged, all of them with Van Halen. As mentioned, September 28, the album was issued in the U.S., with a mere three dates remaining, two in Seattle and one in Spokane, Washington, followed by the UK release date for the album three days later. So as you can see, the boys were already at a disadvantage, essentially touring for no reason, with their last album having limped out of the gate on September 25, 1976, almost two years earlier to the day.
Black Sabbath face further hardship on their fateful pairing with Van Halen, playing Diamond Dave and company’s hometown.
The set list reflected this anticlimactic conundrum. All the hits were there, along with Technical Ecstasy titles like “Dirty Women,” “Rock ’n’ Roll Doctor” and “Gypsy.” From the new—or next—album, there was the accessible title track, some level of recognition reinforced by the Top of the Pops performance, and then only once or twice, “Shock Waves” and “Swinging the Chain,” both bruising, grinding numbers among this writer’s favorites from Never Say Die, but possibly not the best proposals to be unleashed on a crowd who’d never heard of them.
Conversely, Van Halen’s scorching self-titled debut was issued to much fanfare on February 10, three incubating months before the start of the tour. The band had roots back to 1972, had played a thousand shows, and had already had their first taste of big stages through a tear-it-up backup slot to Journey earlier in the year. The album quickly garnered airplay, DJs with big Geezer and Tony mustaches going crazy for songs like “Jamie’s Crying,” “Runnin’ with the Devil,” “Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love,” and the band’s molten cover of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me,” usually including free of charge Eddie Van Halen’s groundbreaking guitar solo showcase, “Eruption,” which had essentially established Sir Edward as the first bona fide guitar hero since Hendrix fully a rock ’n’ roll generation ago. A typical set list for Van Halen on this tour comprised, unsurprisingly, most of the first album, however also more solos than one might expect, as well as, daringly, a couple originals in “D.O.A.” and “Bottoms Up!” that wouldn’t surface until Van Halen—II.
Underscoring the frenzy around this band, Van Halen was certified gold on May 24, barely a week into the tour, and then platinum on October 10, a week after Sabbath’s album saw the light of day and right after the break between the end of the U.S. leg and the start of the German dates. By contrast, Never Say Die took nearly twenty years to go gold and has never been certified platinum.
So yeah, meanwhile, Sabbath were drinking too much, both burnt-out and frostbitten from the experience of recording Never Say Die in Toronto in the winter, already during that fraught time (with no material) the band being on the verge of Ozzy leaving or being kicked out or a drunken combination of the two. The record wound up costing half a million bucks to make and Ozzy soon after started slagging it as “horseshit.” His descent into booze and drugs after his sacking in ’79 would rival Bill’s barely a year later, Bill falling hard off the tour for the band’s first post-Ozzy album, Heaven and Hell.
And that was the backdrop for the ’78 tour, as the old hags and the platinum blonde upstarts finished with the U.S. before decamping for more of the same through Germany in October, just after the album’s release, plus one London date (the two were joined by Lucifer’s Friend), and then back to the states for more grinding punishment. The second U.S. leg comprised another intensive thirty-odd dates, winding up in mid-December ’78. The second of two Tingley Coliseum shows in Albuquerque, New Mexico, turned out to be Ozzy’s last appearance with the band up until Live Aid in ’85, with Ozzy officially banished by May ’79.
So how bad was it? Most reports of this legendary tour pairing suggest the standard story line is overblown. In fact more fans seem to vehemently disagree, citing the leaden, doomful, godliness of Sabbath against the tacky party rock of Van Halen, in general terms, Van Halen being seen more favorably in America, Sabbath more so in Europe. Still, the guys were quite painfully aware that they weren’t at their peak, and there are anecdotes about the crowd letting them know it, namely by chanting “Van Halen” clear through to the start of Black Sabbath’s set. Nonetheless, Sabbath were legends, and they came with an eight-record catalogue revered by this point, and the crowds reacted accordingly. Van Halen were (in the press, anyway) respectful and complimentary of Sabbath and their charms over a crowd. In turn, Ozzy, ever the one to speak honestly, was wont to remark that Van Halen were so good, they should be the headliners.
And as discussed, Van Halen were far from unknowns—and this is rare for a band on their first record—with many fans well aware that they should get there early so they could witness America’s new guitar god in the making, the suddenly turned-on crowd getting David Lee Roth as a chewy bonus, not to mention a drummer pounding away atop four bass drums. Additionally, Alex had a bit where he’d light his drums on fire. Conversely, Bill had begun the habit of huffing oxygen just to keep up with Sabbath’s much less demanding collection of dirges. So yes, Van Halen were incredibly animated and athletic and yes, Eddie didn’t disappoint, his two-handed tapping technique being the highlight of his pyrotechnic display. Sabbath attempted to make up for the showiness of Van Halen with volume, many fans pointing out that Sabbath on this tour was one of the loudest shows they’d ever attended.
“It was an interesting pairing to say the very least,” recalls Ben Upham, the photographer who took the shots for this chapter, at the band’s last show of the first U.S. leg—coincidentally, the day Never Say Die hit the shelves stateside. “One band was just breaking big and the other apparently ready to end. I was working at Eucalyptus Records at the time, and there was a buzz going on about who was going to be the better band at this show. The Van Halen album was blowing out the door at an amazing pace and getting lots of radio attention with ‘Jamie’s Crying’ and ‘Runnin’ with the Devil.’ The show was a real volume fest, with both bands trying their best to be louder than the other. I was very impressed with Van Halen’s energetic and fresh sound. Eddie was making his guitar scream like a horse enduring a cattle prod! Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen were a solid backbone full of intensity and bombastic volume. I enjoyed David Lee Roth’s singing but wasn’t impressed with his gyrating pelvis so close to me. I was a little put off by David Lee Roth’s ego, but Eddie was searing! The band did at least one, if not two, encores. After their set the whole place was abuzz and ready for Sabbath to come out and finish the job!
A UK-generated ad for the explosive first Van Halen album. This juggernaut of a band was not content with conquering America alone, unlike a number of hard rock bands before them.
“The lights went down and the roar went up as the sounds of ‘Supertzar’ blasted throughout the coliseum. By the way, I have a copy of the Sabbath set list that a friend had jotted down, so my memory was made more accurate by that. So yeah, the band came out rocking and we got blitzed by ‘Symptom of the Universe’ and ‘Snowblind’ to massive applause. Ozzy grinned and flashed the peace sign, uttering something like, ‘Do any of you remember a song called “War Pigs?”’ I remember seeing some big grins around me as the air raid sirens sounded and the classic tune was unveiled full throttle.
“At this point it really appeared that Sabbath were in fine form and ready to kick some serious ass. Time for the title cut from Never Say Die, and it was spot-on to the studio version, a little on the polished side, not as gritty, but not bad. I knew the album well, by the way, because we typically got promos to play a couple of weeks before street date. At this point the headliners took over and bombarded the crowd with the best three songs of the night: ‘Black Sabbath,’ ‘Shock Wave,’ and ‘Dirty Women.’ ‘Black Sabbath,’ with its drama and heavy riffing, came off really good and I noticed that odd skunky smell emitting from all around me—must’ve been some ‘Sweet Leaf’(s) burning. ‘Shock Wave’ was the heaviest song off of the new album, and it was the one point in the show where the band really proved that they still had their crap together and weren’t just washed-up old geezers. As ‘Shock Wave’ ended, you didn’t have time to catch your breath before the band erupted into ‘Dirty Women.’ This was the highlight of the evening for me personally as they played a hyped-up, smoking version that kept building in power. Tony was flashing his evil grin as he was shooting rapid-fire notes out onto our heads. This masterpiece was followed by a short drum break, which led into a medley of ‘Rock ’n’ Roll Doctor’ and ‘Electric Funeral,’ interspersed with Iommi’s guitargasm. The band didn’t leave the stage until they played ‘Iron Man’ and then walked off and waved goodbye.
“At this point it got a little strange. I blame it on the Spokane audience being ‘drained’ at this point, because they really didn’t do much to attempt to bring the band back out. As I recall, the houselights came on surprisingly quick and the evening was over—no encore for Sabbath!
B markets such as Spokane, Washington, were often crucial to the touring success of hard rock bands in the ’70s. It’s a wide generality, but the feeling was that the major media centers on either coast didn’t understand metal as much as “middle America” did.
Photo by Ben Upham
“In the weeks following the show, I spoke with many record store customers who had attended the show, and it was odd how evenly split it was between people who were certain that Van Halen had kicked Sabbath’s ass to the ground and others who said the opposite and that Sabbath had dominated the evening and that Van Halen had a lot to learn. My own feelings were that it was a good pairing. Van Halen did kick some serious ass and really heated the place up for Sabbath. Sabbath played hard and heavy and appeared to be having lots of fun. Their sound was thick and very over-the-top, loud and fuzzed, as you would come to expect at a Sabbath show. I do feel that something caused them to end their show so abruptly and not be invited for an encore. Maybe they could feel the crowd losing it after ‘Dirty Women’ clobbered them upside the head! If I had to rate their performances that night, I’d give ’em both a nine.”
Industry veteran (and music encyclopedia!) David Tedds chimes in with his own memories.…“September 14, 1978, at Cobo Hall in Detroit. I love early Van Halen, but Sabbath are like a well that I go back to time and time again to drink from. I’d already seen Van Halen by this point, when they opened the Ronnie Montrose/Journey show at Masonic Auditorium earlier in the year. I’d seen every Sabbath tour from Paranoid onward.
“There’s a myth that Sabbath audiences only wanted to hear opening acts that they could relate to while they were starting to feel the effects of the downers they’d just taken—not so. I saw acts as diverse as Yes, Edgar Winter, Gentle Giant, Spooky Tooth, Leslie West, and Black Oak Arkansas open for Sabbath, and they all went down a storm. Basic rule of thumb in Detroit—if you were really good and could get the crowd off, then you were okay with us.
“Van Halen came out at Cobo Hall like four Muppets who’d just been shot up with massive amounts of steroids. Then again, coke will do that to you. Say what you want about this form of music versus that, but it all comes down to one thing: A great song is a great song, and VH had an entire set of them. Sure, you may prefer heavier, doomier stuff (like me), but if that same doomy, stoner band hasn’t got any memorable tunes, then they don’t rate. Apart from a short drum solo from Alex, and ‘Eruption,’ the whole VH set was short, compact songs with hooks that could land a shark. Add in a front man that knew how to work an audience and a virtuoso guitarist who was doing stuff that no one had seen at that point and you’ve got one hell of a lethal combination. Cobo Hall, including yours truly, went batshit!
“Now, like I said earlier, I’d already seen Sabbath numerous times at this point. After about ten, fifteen minutes, it was clear that something had changed for the worse in the band. Quite simply put, they were going through the motions. The jams and solos had always been long and lumbering, but on that night they were long, lumbering, aimless, and devoid of spirit. The crowd got amped up when they did the usual staples like ‘War Pigs,’ ‘Iron Man,’ and ‘Children of the Grave,’ but otherwise just sat there and watched the band because they’d paid their hard-earned $8.50 to do so and were gonna get their money’s worth. To be honest (and semi-sacrilegious), it was almost a relief when Sabbath finished their set. Besides, I had an airplane to catch and still had a good buzz from the hash oil I’d smoked as I headed off over the Atlantic.
“Two years later and Ronnie Dio pumps life back into the Great Beast. Was it merely through that amazing voice of his? No—it was also because Heaven and Hell featured the best songs they’d written in years, such as ‘Neon Knights,’ ‘Children of the Sea,’ ‘Heaven and Hell,’ and ‘Die Young.’ Van Halen (and David Lee Roth solo) eventually ran out of compositional gas (due to transitioning from ‘musicians who dabbled in drugs’ to ‘drug addicts who dabbled in music,’ just like the original Sabbath had done) and we got ‘treated’ to such fine performances as their versions of ‘Dancing in the Streets’ and ‘Where Have All the Good Times Gone,’ along with ‘classic’ originals like ‘Secrets’ and ‘Little Guitars,’ after we’d got tanked up initially on high-octane material like ‘Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love’ and ‘Runnin’ with the Devil.’ The moral of the story? It’s all about the songs.”
Back to our analysis, over the course of the Never Say Die tour, Ozzy and David Lee Roth actually became fast friends, bonding over white powder, Ozzy even inviting Dave home one night to Birmingham to meet the family. In fact, a coke binge with Diamond Dave had caused a cancellation for Sabbath in Nashville on November 16, with only Van Halen playing that night. Incredibly, Roth was asked to sing the show in place of Ozzy, who had summarily disappeared, but Roth said no, ’cos he didn’t know the words. Ozzy, as it turned out, had arrived at the hotel, fished a key out of his pocket, made note of the room number on it, stumbled up to that room, kicked out the hotel maid who happened to be there, and passed out, missing his call. Turns out it was a key from the previous night’s stay, different town, different hotel. Meanwhile, back at the Municipal Auditorium, a minor riot ensued, but the long and short of it is, Van Halen got to play a solo show to a sold-out hockey barn.
Whether they upstaged Black Sabbath or not, Van Halen definitely won crowds over with their fun personalities and effortless sense of showmanship.
Photo by Ben Upham
Nonetheless, it wasn’t all fun and games. There was an uncomfortable undercurrent of competition between these two diametrically opposed solitudes, Tony telling me that Van Halen, essentially, would adopt characteristics from Sabbath’s show as the dates piled up, incorporating them into their set, things like the long guitar solo (indeed we got solos from Alex and Michael Anthony as well, Michael with Eddie on “You Really Got Me,” and Eddie soloing repeatedly on his own as segue between songs), bigger drum risers, excessive talk out of Dave, and even the adoption of Ozzy’s peace signs. At one point, Geezer intimated that Tony had it in mind to thump Eddie for ripping off his show, but reason prevailed and Eddie toned it down, although this was emphatically not the case with David Lee Roth.
A couple of curious closing notes: If anybody has seemed to fuel this story, or reinforce its contours over the years, it’s actually been Geezer, Tony, Bill, and Ozzy themselves. To their credit, they’ve been unfailingly candid about the situation. And of course, given their soapbox as stars, their views carry weight and distance. Straightforward Birmingham lads that they are, they just seem to be telling it like it is. On the obverse, a guy who you might think would crow about it, namely David, or Ed…they’ve always downplayed any sense of victory people would ascribe to Van Halen on this front. As Tony indicated to me, Eddie made it known that the Van Halen guys were big fans. In fact, the band was once called Rat Salad, and the boys were known to cover “War Pigs”…with Eddie on vocals! But suffice to say, Van Halen became headliners directly after this tour and never looked back. Also instructively, it’s been said that they never brought on a backup act that had any hopes of upstaging Van Halen.
Sandy Pearlman, who within a matter of months became Black Sabbath’s manager, understands what Sabbath was going through all too well.
“The only time the Blue Öyster Cult really got deep-sixed by anybody was having to follow Van Halen at the Superdome, and my opinion is, in the early ’80s, nobody could follow Van Halen—it was just impossible. And you know, Tony never talked to me about it, but the guys he had been with forever said there was a deep reservoir of resentment over how well Van Halen had done. And also, I think, as was the case when Blue Öyster Cult opened for them in 1972, because I was there for all those Cult gigs. From what I hear, Van Halen, BÖC…it wasn’t just that these bands went on to become extremely successful, but it’s that the bands played so well that Sabbath did not follow them very well. I mean, it’s hard to believe, really, but I know. I was at the Cult shows and I saw what happened. And what I heard about Van Halen was just like Blue Öyster Cult. You just can’t follow them. Then, not now, as much as I admire Eddie—he is the Paganini of the guitar, which I mean as a huge compliment.”
In the end, whether or not a headlining Black Sabbath were embarrassed on a regular basis, night after night, by their firecracker backup act, one could plausibly put forth that watching the wrecking crew that was Van Halen kill it live, town to town, had consequences so grave that it in fact the pairing single-handedly destroyed Sabbath. The result, as discussed, is right there for all to see: Ozzy was gone out of the band, and it was never going to be a given that Black Sabbath would return as a band, let alone excel as they did through the Ronnie James Dio era.