This song was written about bassist Geezer Butler, how he felt depressed, when he was a teenager, and thought that he was going insane.
It reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart and number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Paranoid" was the first single Black Sabbath wrote themselves. The title of this song gave the title to the entire album. Bassist Geezer Butler told in interview for Guitar World magazine in March 2004, It was supposed to be called "War Pigs", and the song should have been just a filler song, but the single had become very popular, and the record label decided to name the album "Paranoid". "Paranoid" was the first single Black Sabbath wrote themselves. Paranoid was not only Black Sabbath's most popular record (it was a number one smash in the U.K., and "Paranoid" and "Iron Man" both scraped the U.S. charts despite virtually nonexistent radio play), it also stands as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. Maybe the biggest hit of Ozzy’s group, along with “Iron Man.”. This song by Black Sabbath is consistently ranked as one of the greatest heavy metal songs of all time. This song was written about bassist Geezer Butler, how he felt depressed, when he was a teenager, and thought that he was going insane. "Paranoid" is a song by the British heavy metal band Black Sabbath, featured on their second album Paranoid (1970). And "paranoid" sounded less offensive that "war pigs" though the cover of the album depicts a pig. It is the first single from the album, while the B-side is the song "The Wizard".