Corey Taylor and Geezer Butler’s “War Pigs”: A Benefit Worth Revisiting
The March 2 benefit paired Taylor and Butler with Steve Stevens, Nuno Bettencourt and Matt Sorum in support of music education.
Corey Taylor on vocals, Geezer Butler on bass, and a Black Sabbath classic at the center of it all. Their “War Pigs” performance at the Sound & Vision Awards brought a formidable five-piece lineup together for a purpose beyond the stage: supporting music education through Adopt the Arts.
This is a look back at the benefit held on March 2, 2026, at the Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs, not a newly announced concert. The official performance video followed on August 26, giving the collaboration a life beyond that one evening.
The five musicians behind this version
Taylor and Butler were joined by Steve Stevens and Nuno Bettencourt on guitars, with Matt Sorum on drums. Sorum also served as the evening’s musical director. That specific lineup matters: the wider event featured many guests, but these are the five players credited for “War Pigs.”
For guitar readers, Stevens and Bettencourt sharing the guitar duties is a compelling reason to revisit the performance. The pairing puts two distinctive guitar personalities alongside Sabbath’s original bassist, rather than treating the song as a showcase for a lone guest vocalist.
A Sabbath finale with a wider purpose
The awards honored Butler and Paul Rodgers. The program celebrated Rodgers’s music before turning to Black Sabbath, with Taylor leading “Paranoid” and the closing “War Pigs.” According to Adopt the Arts, the participating musicians donated their time and talent, and the event had raised more than $350,000 when the organization reported its results on March 6.
The concert also became the basis for Sound & Vision Live, an all-star double-vinyl release and companion concert film. The lasting thread is the charity’s work to sustain music education in public elementary schools: established players helping make room for the next generation.
Want to dig deeper into one of the guitarists in this lineup? Read our Nuno Bettencourt guide.
Image credit: AI-assisted editorial illustration for GuitarGangsters; not a photograph of the benefit performance.