Earlier this week, a rehearsal recording of a previously-unreleased Dio-era Black Sabbath song, “Slapback,” was released. It was unearthed by the estate of former Black Sabbath live member/collaborator Geoff Nicholls, and now a surviving/founding Sabbath member has commented on it, bassist Geezer Butler.

In an interview with Sirius XM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk,” Geezer said:

That was one of the songs that we did before I left. It’s probably the reason I did leave. [Laughs] It was just one of those songs that didn’t make the grade. […] It was just a one-off thing. We just jammed it and didn’t think anything more of it. It didn’t really work.

Geezer also said that both “Slapback” and the previously released version of “Heaven and Hell” from the same rehearsal tape have “quite good quality” and that it’s “incredible” that both recordings have now seen the light of day. We agree! If you haven’t heard them yet, listen to both below.

In other Dio news, his autobiography is getting a posthumous release and a couple Dio live albums were recently reissued on vinyl. You can pick up Evil Or Divine: Live in New York City in our shop.