Foo Fighters have covered Black Sabbath classic Paranoid with the heavy metal pioneers’ bassist, Geezer Butler.
The post-grunge band performed the cover at their show in Birmingham, UK, last night (June 27). The city is the hometown of the original Black Sabbath lineup.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath is here,” frontman Dave Grohl says to introduce the bassist, as documented in video footage of the performance.
“Let me just say it one more time: Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath!”
“So, why not? Let’s do a song with Geezer! What do you say Chris [Shiflett, guitars]?”
Watch the footage of the performance below.
Paranoid was one of several covers the band performed last night.
Grohl also did an impromptu solo rendition of Led Zeppelin classic Stairway To Heaven, and later in the night the band performed a medley of Van Halen’s Eruption, Beastie Boys’ Sabotage, the Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop, Devo’s Whip It and Nine Inch Nails’ March Of The Pigs.
The Butler appearance hasn’t been the only guest spot of Foo Fighters’ 2024 UK tour, either.
Last week, at the first of the band’s two shows in London’s Olympic Stadium, the band were joined onstage by Shane Hawkins, son of late drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Taylor passed away in 2022, age 50, while the band were touring in South America.
Josh Freese now plays drums for Foo Fighters.
At the second of the band’s London shows, Grohl angered fans of Taylor Swift, seemingly alleging that the pop superstar, who was performing across town in Wembley Stadium that evening, doesn’t truly play her songs live.
“I tell you, man, you don’t want to suffer the wrath of Taylor Swift,” Grohl told his crowd.
“So we like to call our tour the ‘Errors Tour’ [in reference to Swift’s ongoing Eras tour]. We’ve had more than a few eras and more than a few fucking errors as well. Just a couple.
“That’s because we actually play live. What? Just saying! You guys like raw, live rock ’n’ roll music, right? You came to the right fucking place.”
Swift seemingly responded to Grohl’s comments the next night at her following Wembley show.
“Every one of my band members, every single one of our crew, my band, who’s gonna be playing live for you for 3.5 hours tonight, they deserve this so much,” she said.
“And so does every one of my fellow performers. And you just gave that to us so generously, we will never forget it.”
Foo Fighters will continue their tour of Europe on Sunday (June 30) when they headline Hellfest in Clisson, France.
