BLACK SABBATH BASSIST GEEZER BUTLER SAYS HE DOES NOT SPEAK WITH OZZY, NEW MEMOIR, “INTO THE VOID: FROM BIRTH TO BLACK SABBATH―AND BEYOND,” OUT NOW

Matt Wardlaw of Ultimate Classic Rock spoke with Black Sabbath bassist, Geezer Butler, about his new memoir, Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath―And Beyond, out now. Highlights from the interview appear below.

Ultimate Classic Rock: I loved reading near the end of the book, when you mentioned [Black Sabbath bandmate] Tony Iommi in the acknowledgments, you added, “who actually still keeps in touch.” It’s great that you still have a friendship like that. That means a lot.

Geezer Butler: Yeah, he’s always been there for me. You know, he’s a good friend. We can slag each other to death. It’s like marriage, really. You have terrible arguments, you fall out and you come back together. But he’s always there. He always is. I hope he is after this book, as well. I still love [Black Sabbath drummer] Bill [Ward], but he’s not on the internet. If you want to talk to Bill, you have to email his wife and she has to tell him. It’s really awkward. [Laughs] Ozzy [Osbourne] I don’t speak to at all.

Ultimate Classic Rock: In the book, you say that you and Ozzy Osbourne are good, even though you don’t talk. Do you think there’s a chance those lines of communication will open back up at some point?

Geezer Butler: I very much doubt it. We didn’t fall out, it was the wives.

Ultimate Classic Rock: So many bands disown their first album. Yet the first Black Sabbath album is rightfully regarded as a classic. What do you hear when you listen to it now?

Geezer Butler: I didn’t realize how naive it was until we did the 13 album. Rick Rubin took us down to his house in Malibu, he put the first album on and he says, “Listen to this, this isn’t metal. This is before the word ‘heavy metal’ or anything. This is Sabbath.” We listened, and I was blown away at how much we got accomplished in two days on that album. How raw it was and how it still stands up over all of the years. Because it was just a recording purely of us. There are hardly any overdubs, no technical tricks or anything like that. I think that’s why it stands the test of time.

Ultimate Classic Rock: Some of the best songs are the ones that come along at the last minute, and Paranoid seems to be in that camp.

Geezer Butler: It came together really fast. Literally, [producer] Rodger Bain said to us, “You’ve got three or four minutes to fill, otherwise it’s not going to be counted as an album.” An album had to be a certain length back then. Otherwise, it would have been called an EP. To be called a LP, a long-player, you had to have so many minutes on the disc. Rodger said, “Come up with something three or four minutes long.” We said, “Well, we’ll go out and have a think about it.” We came back in and Tony was there, and he just played Paranoid to us and we went, “Oh, that’s great!” I thought it was too commercial at the time. It just goes to show how much I know about things. Rodger Bain said, “Yeah, that’s good. Three or four minutes, just record it!” Ozzy came up with the vocal line and I quickly wrote down the lyrics, and that was it.

Ultimate Classic Rock: That demonstrates how much benefit there is in not having time to overthink something.

Geezer Butler: Well, that’s what I liked about those early albums. If we’d had a lot more time, we’d have ruined them, because there would have been tons of overdubs and I’d be thinking, “Oh, no, that bass part, I think I can do better than that kind of thing.” Ozzy would have done different vocal things. You’re right, it’s just like, the more time you get, the more you try and overdo it. I think that was the great thing about those first three albums. We didn’t have any time to overthink it.

Read more at Ultimate Classic Rock, here.

Order Butler’s, Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath―And Beyond, here.














24 Responses

  1. Just got the book today in the mail. Can’t wait to sit down and read it. Read Tony’s book and loved it, really looking forward to see what Geezer has to say.

  2. So strange to me that grown men in their 70s who have spent years together making classic timeless music can’t speak because wives don’t get along …it’s bizarre- I have come to realize the music business apparently keeps you emotionally immature a perpetual teenager ~

    1. Robert,

      Most entertainment careers keep one in a perpetual state of arrested development. Nepobabies, reality show “stars,” and online “influencers/models,” are some of the worst.

  3. Here comes another one for the collection!!

    I’ve got Ozzy’s (Personally signed by the man), I’ve got Tony’s (My all time guitar hero and influence), so there’s no way I’m not going get this one. Almost a year ago I bought a Bass to go along side the guitars, and who did I look towards for influence and inspiration? You’ve guessed it.

    In truth, although everybody immediately thinks of the riffs with Sabbath, without Geezer they would have been lost as he was the lyricist – and quite a deep thinker when it came to his content.

    A legend in his own right.

    2. I will be getting Geezer’s book tomorrow. If you don’t mind, can you tell me which Ozzy and Tony books you bought? There are so many out there and it’s hard for me to tell what is legit. Thank you!

    3. Real Paul Stanley

      Both books were their official autobiographies; “I am Ozzy” and “Iron Man”.

      I hope that helps!!

  4. I love Geezer. Grew up on these guys myself and have that collection they issued on 1970-9178 LP collection back in 1988 with that killer Sabbath Blood Sabbath poster that freaked me out when I had dosed once in high school. Bough it at a Camelot Music, if anyone recalls them.

    I’d imagine Ozzman has difficulty speaking on the phone the last decade. Look forward to reading this one.

  5. Hi Dana

    Yes I did meet Ozzy!! Saturday 3rd October 2009 at the Bluewater Shopping Centre which is about twenty minutes outside of London and I believe that it’s the biggest shopping centre in Europe.

    He began signing at 1.00pm, so I started queuing up at just after 8.30am (The first people got there at 5.00am would you believe!!)

    I got talking to some of the people in line and one lady I was speaking to, almost a year later, I went to the o2 in London for an indoor OzzFest which had Skindred, Steel Panther and Korn on the under card before Ozzy came on as headliner (Gus G on guitar) and I saw her sitting several rows back from me – although I didn’t get to speak to her again (didn’t know if she’d remember me, and year is a long time and some of us can’t remember last week!)

    All the while I was waiting, I kept going over in my head as to what I was going to say to him, which, I suppose, was the same thing he’s heard a million times about how his and Sabbath’s music have got me through really horrible and difficult times and that he’s a major hero to me alongside Mr Iommi.

    Anyway, the time comes and I’m now standing face to face with the Prince of Darkness himself, head to toe in black wearing his blue glasses and all the jewellery. He takes my book and has a look at who to sign it to, looks up at me and just like he’s known me for years goes:

    “You alright mate?”

    I froze……!!!!!

    Everything I wanted to say just didn’t come out!! He finishes signing my book and hands it to me: “There you go” he says. I just held out my hand and said:

    “Thank you for everything.”

    He shook my hand and said: “You’re very welcome; God bless you sir.”

    I then walk off in a daze – “Oh my God, I’ve just met Ozzy Osbourne!!!” You couldn’t get the smile off of my face. Tony Dennis, Ozzy’s then personal assistant, see’s me and smiles and thanked me for coming. Later on I wondered why I never asked Tony if it would be possible to get a photo after Ozzy was done signing, but it is what it is – but I’ve got the book signed.

    As I continued walking out the shop, one of the girls that worked there could see by the look on my face what meeting Ozzy had done for me. I couldn’t help it – I gave out a very Ozzy inspired “YEAHHHHHH!”, to which she laughed and said: “I take it you’re happy to have met him?”

    “Just a little bit.” I replied.

    As you can tell, I can still remember everything quite clearly nearly 14 years later and hopefully will for many years to come. One downside to it is that I was 30 going on 31 at the time and this year I turn 45!!

    3. Wow !! What a great story….you are one lucky man!!….I was at the Des Moines Iowa Concert in 1981 when he bit the head off the bat It was crazy….actually watching thru binoculars….and Mr. Randy Rhodes was unbelievable !!!!

    6. Taskerofpuppets

      I can’t say that I took much notice of his scent to be honest with you!

      I’m sure it was a nice £500 bottle of something he was wearing.

    7. That’s like good one, for Eddie’s Def brush, with greatness. I have one but not Ozzy.

      My wife and I went to Vegas in 1999, and we took one of those red eye flights. We were waiting for the luggage and I noticed a familiar figure next to a tall blonde. I said to my wife, “Oh my god, that’s Ace Frehley.(He must have been there, because at that time in WWE, some wrestler was wearing Gene’s makeup and calling themself, “The Demon.” I think they were playing a few songs there). She said, “I’m going to the bathroom don’t embarrass me.” This was a time when there were no smart phones, so I didn’t have a camera on me. I realized I had a small notebook and pen. So, I stared rummaging through my backpack, thinking about how to approach him, to tell him how great his, and I love his solo albums, then she returned with a look that stabbed like daggers. A cross between a look of a mad Dave Mustaine and Sharon Ozbourne. By that time he left and my brush with greatness was barely a brush at all.

      I did get her back a few years later, when she pointed out a famous person, and said, “Don’t embarrass me.”

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