Over the decades, Tony Iommi has written riffs forever etched in rock history. On the latest episode of , he was asked to name his favorite riff he wrote and pick those he instinctively knew were special – and he also revealed which was Eddie Van Halen's favorite. “Well, without sounding big-headed, [there were] a few,” he says (as transcribed by ).
“When we'd first done the riff, straight away I knew – it just had this vibe and a feeling and it was something so different in them days that you'd never heard that sort of thing before. And I don't know how it all happened. It'd just sort of come out.
And that was the benchmark for that album.” Iommi mentions that once they'd done and , the rest of the songs on the band's debut album “flowed along.” “And the same with .
And also ,” he adds. “That was a riff that I really liked, and that was Eddie Van Halen's favorite, to be honest, . He'd always say, 'Oh, play .
' So it was great to hear that. “So there's a few that sort of – for me, . Oh, there's a lot that really meant something.
Well, they've all meant something, but they're the ones that sort of stood out initially.” In a 2010 interview with , Eddie Van Halen called Iommi “the master of riffs.” “I’m not knocking Ozzy or his singing, but listen to ” he said.
“That riff is some badass shit. It was beyond surf music and jazz. It was beyond anything else I had ever heard.
It was so fuckin’ heavy. “I put it right up there with [sings the.
