Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi was a guest on Eddie’s Sirius/XM show Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk on March 11th, and he discussed the Dio era song Slapback which was recently posted online.
Iommi told Eddie (via blabbermouth.net), “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.”
As for why the song was never released, Iommi said, “We had one or two things that we’d jam around on and play on and stuff, but it [wasn’t] right for the album, so we didn’t put it into shape; we didn’t record it [properly] or anything,” he explained.
Iommi’s recollection of Dio played bass on Slapback is in contrast to Geezer Butler’s claim that he is featured on the track. On Monday, he told Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk that Slapback was one of the songs he and his bandmates worked on before departed the band for a short time in order to deal with some personal issues. “It’s probably the reason I did leave,” he joked. “It was just one of those songs that didn’t make the grade.”
Asked if he in fact played bass on the recording that was uploaded to YouTube, Butler said,”Yeah, that was right before I left. It was just a one-off thing. We just jammed it and didn’t think anything more of it. It didn’t really work.
4 Responses
Well, that’s one way to bring attention to the song and increase views. I need to check this out and see what it’s all about.
Exactly. On my way.
It was interesting hearing the guys being interviewed. It seems like they really don`t remember shit about those days. Of course you here bits and pieces but alot is forgotten . I think Vinnie has the best memory of the guys , he should write a book if he already hasnt started one .
I listened to the song , if it had been recorded properly it could have been a really great tune ~