Credit: Darren Balch
Former Black Sabbath singer Tony Martin hopes that one day fans will get to hear some rare recordings of Eddie Van Halen writing and rehearsing with Sabbath .
Back in 1993, Black Sabbath were in the studio working on what would become 1994’s Cross Purposes, the band’s fourth with singer Tony Martin. During this time, Van Halen were on tour and played in Birmingham, England when Iommi went to meet up with the band and invite Eddie to join Sabbath for rehearsals. Eddie ended up co-writing the track “Evil Eye” with Geezer Butler, Iommi and Martin. During a recent appearance on “The Rock and Metal Profs: The History and Philosophy of Rock and Metal” podcast, Martin was asked about the recently announced plans to reissue the Sabbath albums he recorded with the band between 1987 and 1995 as part of a box set. He said there is rare audio of Eddie from those Cross Purposes sessions that’s yet to be heard that he hopes will be included.
“I recorded the writing session with… Eddie Van Halen came over and helped us write one of the tracks [for 1994’s Cross Purposes album],” said Martin. “And I had an eight-track recorder at the time in the 1980s, and I used to take it everywhere, this thing. I’ve got all of the writing sessions and rehearsals recorded. So I sent [Iommi] this, and he went, ‘Wow! That’s fucking great.’ And I said, ‘Well, you’re welcome to use it, if you wanna put that on.’ So, I don’t know… Maybe you’ll get that on there. It’s great to hear Eddie play.”
Listen To Black Sabbath’s “Evil Eye”