A few days ago, a 1979 recording of a song called "Slapback" – purportedly made by Black Sabbath – surfaced on YouTube.
Uploaded by Gary Rees – the stepson and executor of the estate of former Black Sabbath keyboardist Geoff Nicholls, who passed away in 2017 – the song purportedly features Sabbath with their then-new singer, Ronnie James Dio.
Questions, however, quickly arose about the authenticity of the recording, which led Eddie Trunk to ask Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler – during the latter's appearance on his radio show, SiriusXM's Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk – about the song.
Butler confirmed the provenance of the recording, saying "Yeah, that was one of the songs that we did before I left.
"It's probably the reason I did leave," Butler joked. "It was just one of those songs that didn't make the grade."
Though Butler left Black Sabbath for four months in late 1979 (during which time Nicholls replaced him on bass), he added that the recording – made during the writing sessions for what would become the band's 1980 debut with Dio, Heaven and Hell – does indeed feature him on bass.
"Yeah, that was right before I left,” he said. “It was just a one-off thing. We just jammed it and didn't think anything more of it. It didn't really work."
Heaven and Hell and its follow-up, 1981’s Mob Rules, were reissued on March 5 in remastered/expanded editions.
“I once asked Jeff Beck if he used Vox AC30s, and he said, ‘What? Those old Beatle bashers?’ Then he realized what he'd said”: Paul McCartney talks Vox amps, and his love of dirty tones
“I was 17 years old and found it in this local paper. It said, ‘Gretsch guitar, 100 bucks.’ I called the guy up and asked, ‘Is it like Eddie Cochran’s?’ He was like, ‘Who?’”: How Brian Setzer forged his trademark twanging tone
