In rock history, few stories have circulated longer — or with more mystery — than the rumor of a secret studio jam between members of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. It has lived in message boards, fan circles, and whispered conversations for nearly five decades.
But now, thanks to a new interview tied to the updated 2025 edition of Get the Led Out, this legend suddenly has something it’s never had before:
Firsthand confirmation from one of the musicians who was actually in the room.
When rock historian and producer Denny Somak joined us to promote the expanded re-release of his 2012 Led Zeppelin book, he revealed that he had recently conducted new interviews with rock heavyweights including Joe Perry, Simon Kirke, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler.
And it was Butler — Black Sabbath’s founding bassist — who confirmed that the long-rumored jam session did in fact happen.
According to Geezer, the session involved:
- Robert Plant
- John Bonham
- Tony Iommi
- Geezer Butler
A true collision of Zeppelin and Sabbath at full power.
Hearing this from Geezer instantly moves the story out of the realm of speculation. The jam wasn’t a myth. It wasn’t exaggerated fan lore. It was real — and remembered clearly by one of the players.
But while the jam is no longer in question, what happened after remains the mystery that fuels the legend.
Over the years, some Sabbath fans have repeated a claim that Tony Iommi instructed the engineer not to record the session.
But as Denny pointed out, in those days studios often recorded everything anyway, whether artists requested it or not. Machines were left rolling. Assistants saved personal copies. Reels were mislabeled or thrown in boxes. Anything was possible — and still is.
Importantly, Geezer did not claim a tape exists.
He simply confirmed the jam happened.
From there, it’s Denny who raises the question many fans have wondered for decades:
Could something have been captured anyway?
Could a reel be sitting in a vault, mislabeled or forgotten?
Could a tape — intentionally or accidentally recorded — still be out there?
Denny doesn’t assert that a recording survives. But he does acknowledge that in the music world, “people record everything.”
And that the absence of evidence doesn’t mean the absence of a tape.
That’s where the intrigue lies.
Because now we know the jam itself is not up for debate.
Geezer Butler has confirmed it happened.
The only lingering question — the one that keeps this story alive — is whether any audio survived.
To hear Denny Somak explain how Geezer revealed the session, what details surfaced during the book research, and why the mystery of a potential tape still lingers, watch the full interview embedded below.
The jam was real.
The tape is unknown.
And the legend of “Black Zeppelin” is now more compelling than ever.
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