A lost Black Sabbath jam titled "Slapback" recently surfaced online thanks to Gary Rees, the executor of longtime Black Sabbath collaborator Geoff Nicholls' estate. Bassist Geezer Butler confirmed it was a lost Black Sabbath song, adding it was "one of the songs that we did before I left." Except guitarist Tony Iommi remembers things very differently.
In an interview with Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Iommi said he's pissed the song was posted online and that it wasn't even Butler on bass. As for why the song didn't make the album, Iommi said it simply wasn't a good fit.
"I'm not at all happy with [Nicholls's estate releasing the song] — at all. And it's left a really bad taste in my mouth. At that point, when we did that, Geoff wasn't even involved in the band; I hadn't even got Geoff over at that time. That is actually Ronnie playing bass on that… And that was just in the lounge recorded on a cassette."
The cassette with "Slapback" also contained a Heaven & Hell demo.
