In a 1992 interview, Geezer Butler states that the title simply refers to Bill Ward's goatee at the time, which the rest of the band thought was shaped like a pen nib; also referred to as nibby.[2] Apparently, Geezer Butler said: "Originally it was Nib, which was Bill's beard. When I wrote N.I.B., I couldn't think of a title for the song, so I just called it Nib, after Bill's beard. To make it more intriguing I put punctuation marks in there to make it N.I.B. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N.I.B.
@ZeppelinRule yeah, i saw the interview or a portion of it in a Sabbath documentary. it sounded so like a stoned band/songwriter thing, it has to be true!
3 Comments (since 27 May 2013)
hsmagnet
In a 1992 interview, Geezer Butler states that the title simply refers to Bill Ward's goatee at the time, which the rest of the band thought was shaped like a pen nib; also referred to as nibby.[2] Apparently, Geezer Butler said: "Originally it was Nib, which was Bill's beard. When I wrote N.I.B., I couldn't think of a title for the song, so I just called it Nib, after Bill's beard. To make it more intriguing I put punctuation marks in there to make it N.I.B. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N.I.B.
ZeppelinRule
@hsmagnet Hahahah, that is absolutely brilliant! Wow, who would have thought. Thank you for sharing :)
hsmagnet
@ZeppelinRule yeah, i saw the interview or a portion of it in a Sabbath documentary. it sounded so like a stoned band/songwriter thing, it has to be true!