What You Didn't Know About Geezer Butler - Top Surprising Facts About the Black Sabbath Legend
Geezer Butler - legend Black Sabbath and the most "wicked." the idol of the 20th century! But he is much more than just the bass player of one of the heaviest and most iconic bands in history. He also wrote many unparalleled Sabbath tracks, and yes: his dark lyrics shaped the band's style and gave birth to the "blackness" that metal fans loved so much. And by the way: it is believed that Butler, or rather his mesmerizing riffs, inspired Tony Iommi to a more metallic sound. But all this is a preface.
Today we decided to highlight some of the most interesting and little-known facts about Butler, one of the "darkest" figures in the world of rock.
He suggested the name of the group
Title Black Sabbath was suggested by Butler. The story goes that Geezer's brother was a fan of the horror film of the same name, and was constantly talking about his favorite movie. Butler turned out to be impressed by the macabre wordplay ("Black Sabbath."), and so when the question arose of getting rid of Earth's name, he kindly offered his brilliantly gloomy idea.
Everyone felt that Black Sabbath - really not a bad name for a "rock frigate.
Getting to Know Ozzie
Before conquering the world as Black Sabbath, Geezer and Ozzy Osbourne had time to work together! From Butler's recollections:
"I was always hanging out at guitar stores. And that's how I came across this ad: 'Ozzy Zig wants to perform. I wouldn't have noticed it if it hadn't been for the magic words at the end: 'He has his own speaker system. At that point, I didn't care what he sounded like. He had a system!"
The two soon joined Tony and Bill Ward. The interesting thing is that Ozzie and Tony went to school together, and the relationship between them was, to put it mildly, bad.
"Ozzy went to school with Tony, and they hated each other. Tony used to make fun of him at school.
That is why Osborne initially refused to play in the same band with Iommi. But in the end, fate did its work, and the world got a powerful team that turned the public's perception of "sound power.". But that's another story.
Black Sabbath also became famous for their dark lyricismwhich showed not the usual love, beach, and other romance, but The harsh reality. And it all came from Geezer.
"A lot of artists sang about protests, but essentially they were all living in style. And I, and the other guys in the band, were up to our necks in the swamp. Our life was hard to call beautiful, romantic... It was a harsh reality. So I wrote from my heart. Our lyrics were about what we were going through at the time, and we never thought we'd get out of there..."
"Flying Balloons"
Butler has long been dubbed the most the wicked rock 'n' roll man in history, and for good reason. For example, his early hobbies occultism and other interesting things.
"I was brought up a strict Catholic... At school, in church, at home - everywhere I was taught to believe in God. So I started to get interested in the other side of it, Satan. I started reading about astral travel and stuff like that. When I was a kid I used to have strange visions: I imagined orbs... It was not a dream, because when I was four years old I woke up, I felt a presence in my room, and I saw this orb hovering over my head. Only in time did it disappear..."
Butler adds:
"But the Catholic priests frightened me more than Satan! Missionaries from Africa used to come to us: they had these long robes, and they would yell at me, "The Devil will get you!"
By the way: Butler's occult experiments and creepy visions are the basis for the song of the same name "Black Sabbath.".
The story of the crosses and the knife and Malcolm Young
At first "black reputation" played into the hands of the Black Sabbath members, but at some point she made a move against them.
"We didn't really think about it until our first American tour and first album. And then there was this magical organization that wanted us to play in a stone circle or something like that. We refused - we were against Satan, and we weren't going to promote it. And then they supposedly cursed us..."
The musicians were really shocked and even agitated. So they did not neglect to take any precautions, however ridiculous those were not.
"That's how we started wearing crosses! Ozzie's father made them for us. He used to work in a steel mill that made car parts, so he made us these huge crosses out of unwanted metal."
Another no less entertaining story has to do with the knife and Malcolm Young from AC/DC. It says that Butler allegedly waved a retractable blade in Young's face, and some sources claim that he even tried to attack the poor guy! But was that really the case?
"I've always had folding knives since I was a kid, because in Aston everyone went around and literally stabbed each other! Retractable knives were banned in England, but when we played in Switzerland, I bought one. I was very excited about it. I was drinking, waving the knife around, when Malcolm came up to me and started scolding us. He said: "You must think you're big since you have a folding knife!" I said: "What are you talking about?" That's all. Nobody got hurt."
"I was the first victim."
When asked how success affected the Black Sabbath, Geezer replied:
"We felt it, we felt a big change! We worked hard and hard together, and at some point each of us felt exhausted and tired. We all started using alcohol and substances, and it felt like there was no getting away from it. I was the first victim. At first I got fired, for about two months, and I was glad. It was like: "Thank you, damn it! Freedom!"
Going back to the topic of the band's work: during the interview, Geezer was asked, "So what is this "Symptom of the Universe."?". Butler answered briefly and without further thought:
"It's love!"
