Eddie Van Halen was famously generous with praise, but he was also discerning. As a guitarist who redefined what the instrument could do, Eddie didn’t hand out superlatives lightly. Yet when the conversation turned to Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, his tone shifted from admiration to something closer to reverence. In Eddie’s eyes, Iommi wasn’t just great, he was beyond everybody else.
For Eddie, Tony Iommi was quite simply “the master of riffs.”
A Guitarist Who Changed The Language Of Rock
Tony Iommi’s influence on rock and metal is so deep that it’s almost invisible — woven into the DNA of the genre itself. From the moment Black Sabbath emerged in the late ’60s, Iommi’s downtuned, ominous riffs rewrote the rulebook. Songs like “Iron Man,” “Paranoid,” “War Pigs,” and “Children of the Grave” weren’t just heavy; they were architectural. Each riff was a foundation upon which entire songs, albums, and ultimately genres were built.
Eddie Van Halen recognized that immediately. While many guitarists dazzled with speed or technical complexity, Iommi did something arguably harder: he created riffs so powerful they carried the entire emotional weight of a song. To Eddie, that kind of authority on the instrument set Iommi apart from everyone else.
“Beyond Everybody Else”
Eddie often spoke about innovation — not playing faster for the sake of speed, but saying something new. That’s exactly what he heard in Iommi’s playing. Tony wasn’t chasing trends; he was inventing them. His use of darker tonalities, blues-based heaviness, and relentless groove laid the groundwork for hard rock, doom metal, stoner rock, and countless offshoots that followed.
What made this even more remarkable was Iommi’s story. After losing the tips of two fingers in a factory accident, he redesigned his technique, detuned his guitar, and adapted his approach entirely. Instead of limitation, he found identity, and in doing so, forged a sound no one else had.
Eddie deeply respected that resilience. As someone who valued individuality above all else, he saw Iommi as proof that true greatness comes from turning adversity into originality.
Riffs Over Flash
Though Eddie Van Halen was known for jaw-dropping solos and revolutionary techniques, he never believed flash alone made a guitarist great. In interviews, he often emphasized feel, groove, and songwriting. That’s why Iommi resonated so strongly with him.
Tony Iommi didn’t need elaborate solos to dominate a track. One riff, slow, heavy, perfectly placed, could define an entire generation of music. To Eddie, that ability was the ultimate form of mastery.
A Giant Among Giants
When Eddie Van Halen called Tony Iommi “beyond” everybody else, it wasn’t hyperbole. It was acknowledgment from one revolutionary guitarist to another. Eddie changed how the guitar was played. Tony Iommi changed what the guitar could mean.
In a world full of virtuosos, Iommi stood apart as the architect, the master of riffs whose shadow stretches across decades of rock and metal. And when Eddie Van Halen spoke his name with awe, it cemented what fans had long known: some legends don’t just influence music, they define it.
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