In a new interview with Ultimate Guitar, Jay Jay French talked about the famous Black Sabbath & Van Halen Tour.
Many people, who attended Van Halen’s supporting act for Black Sabbath on May 16, 1978, including Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French, admitted that Van Halendrew the greater attention and stated that Van Halen ‘blew Black Sabbath off the stage.’
Here’s what Jay Jay French said:
“I saw Van Halen open for Sabbath with Ozzy and I thought they blew Sabbath off the stage. Completely blew them off the stage – I mean, I like Black Sabbath a lot, but Van Halen was hungrier that night – they were out there to prove themselves.”
Earlier Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen said the same about the tour, saying:
“I remember over a year ago now losing Neil Peart [of Rush], so it was obvious. My way of paying homage to one of the greatest drummers of all time was to paint him, and that’s exactly what I did. And then the same with [Van Halen guitarist] Eddie Van Halen more recently.”
“My best friend, he calls me and he says, ‘I want you to come and listen to this record. So I go to his house and listen to ‘Van Halen I’ for the first time and was completely blown away. A couple of months later, they’re coming through town with Black Sabbath — they’re opening for BS. And quite honestly, Van Halen owned that show. The BS camp, you could see the wheels kind of coming off. But, yeah, VH, they should have been the headliner.