When Black Sabbath and Van Halen toured together in 1978, the veteran metal pioneers found themselves sharing the bill with a young band led by a guitar phenomenon named Eddie Van Halen.
The tour came at a pivotal moment for both groups. Black Sabbath were on the road behind Never Say Die!, the final album to feature Ozzy Osbourne before his dismissal the following year. Van Halen, meanwhile, were riding high on their blockbuster self-titled debut, with Eddie’s revolutionary electric guitar playing — showcased most famously on “Eruption” — turning the band into rock’s hottest new attraction.
Osbourne would later admit the upstarts were blowing Sabbath off the stage. But according to David Lee Roth, one unforgettable night in Tennessee nearly landed him in even bigger trouble, after Tony Iommi accused him of making the Black Sabbath frontman disappear.
Recalling the incident in a new YouTube video, Roth says he and Osbourne spent the evening partying together before the bands headed to their next stop.
“Ozzy and I are partying. We’re partying like demon buccaneers,” Roth recalls. “I was a ball of muscle in those days, man. If somebody said, ‘We’ve got to get up at 6:00 in the morning because we get on the bus,’ we’d stay up.”
After leaving Nashville, Van Halen checked into its hotel in Memphis and played that night’s show. But Osbourne never turned up.
“Then they burst through the door,” Roth says. “Tony Iommi is screaming at me: ‘What did you do to Ozzy?!’ I’m not in charge of Ozzy, but Ozzy’s disappeared.”
With Osbourne missing and tensions already running high within Black Sabbath, the situation quickly escalated. Roth says he was even asked whether he could replace Osbourne for the evening’s show.
“When I said I couldn’t learn the lyrics, they canceled the show,” he recalls.
The situation quickly became surreal.
“Now the FBI and everybody are back at the hotel because Oz has disappeared,” Roth says. “We think he’s been kidnapped. They’re sitting on the floors. The press is there. They have the cameras. The police are combing the airport all night long. Still no Ozzy, and I’m getting blamed for the entire thing. It’s getting scary.”
Then the elevator doors opened.
“He’s in his fucking pajamas,” Roth laughs. “He walks out of the elevator into a lobby full of FBI, CIA, local police, news media, and television cameras. Finally, everybody stops looking at me.”
The explanation, Roth says, was pure Ozzy.
Still carrying the room key from the band’s previous hotel in Nashville, Osbourne mistakenly assumed it belonged to his room in Memphis. He found the matching room number, walked in while housekeeping was cleaning, threw the maid out, climbed into bed and slept for nearly 18 hours.
“He throws her out,” Roth says. “He slams the door, falls face down on the Sealy Posturepedic mattress, and sleeps for almost the next 18 hours.”
For anyone who thinks Roth is exaggerating, his anecdote is supported by Greg Renoff, author of Van Halen Rising
Roth freely admits he played a part in Osbourne’s “stone stupor,” but the misunderstanding ultimately became another classic chapter in the singer’s long history of outrageous tour stories. It also remains one of the most memorable tales from the infamous 1978 trek that paired Black Sabbath’s fading original lineup with the young Van Halen, a band on the verge of becoming rock’s next superstars.
