Foo Fighters brought out metal bass icon Geezer Butler last night (June 27th) to thwack through a cover of eternal Black Sabbath banger “Paranoid” in his hometown of Birmingham, U.K.
The onstage jam took place at Birmingham’s Villa Park stadium, and it marked the final date of the Foos U.K. tour. Midway through the band’s 27-song mega-set, frontman-guitarist Dave Grohl introduced the Sabbath founder, noting that he was stoked to get the Sabbath bass player and lyricist out to Villa Park for the first time.
“He’s never seen a concert here. He’s never played a concert here,” Grohl said. “So, we thought, something special for us and hopefully it’s special for him, too, we’d invite him out to come play a song with us. Ladies and gentleman, Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath!”
As you’ll see up above and down below, Butler indeed donned a Fender four-string and started hammering away at the bass, while Grohl went guitar-less to do his best Ozzy.
This was, however, not the first time Butler and Foo Fighters took on the classic Sabbath single. They’d jammed it onstage back in 2022 during the Taylor Hawkins tribute show, with that performance also including Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach.
“Paranoid” was one of many covers thrown into Foo Fighters’ set last night, with the band also tackling Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” as well as a medley saluting Van Halen, Ramones, Nine Inch Nails, Devo and Beastie Boys. You’ll find the full setlist below (via Setlist.fm).
Foo Fighters setlist 6/27/24:
All My Life
No Son of Mine
Rescued
The Pretender
Stairway to Heaven
Walk
Times Like These
Generator
La Dee Da
Breakout
Eruption / Sabotage / Keyboard Solo / Blitzkrieg Bop / Whip It / March of the Pigs
My Hero
The Sky Is a Neighborhood
Learn to Fly
Arlandria
These Days
Paranoid
Skin and Bones
Big Me
Under You
Nothing at All (with a snippet of the Beatles’ “Blackbird”)
Monkey Wrench
Aurora
Best of You
The Teacher (with a snippet of “Alone + Easy Target”)
This Is a Call (with Oliver Shane Hawkins)
Everlong