Geezer Butler says Black Sabbath album has the 'worst cover ever'
'I still don't know what the cover represents'
Last updated 26th Jan 2026
Black Sabbath bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler says the band’s 1970 album ‘Paranoid’ is adorned with the “worst cover ever.”
In a recently uploaded video of his appearance at Steel City Con in Pennsylvania, Geezer stuck the boot into the ‘Paranoid’ cover from 56 years ago.
"We thought that was a terrible cover,” Geezer told the audience. “(It came from) my manager at the time who we quickly left. I still don't know what the cover represents. Some guy dressed up with a sword. It is the worst cover ever."
The ‘Paranoid’ cover was designed and shot by Keith McMillan when Sabbath’s second studio album still had the working title of ‘War Pigs’.
McMillan’s assistant Roger Brown posed in a dark forest wearing a white helmet, a pink and yellow outfit and holding a red shield and sword. The image was superimposed three times to give the impression of movement.
In a 2020 interview, Tony Iommi said of the ‘Paranoid’ cover: "The album cover on 'Paranoid' has nothing to do with 'Paranoid' (the song)). It was going to be called 'War Pigs,' so we had a bloke with the shield and a sword, which remotely made sense - more so than 'Paranoid.'
"But they banned that, you couldn't use (‘War Pigs’) as a title in them days... It was so awkward for us to move forward with things."