This is the new book released by Black Sabbath bassist / lyricist Terence "Geezer" Butler. It only came out last month and I just now bought it. I only started it reading it around 1pm today and already I can tell it's going to be a good book
-Terence Michael Joseph Butler was born on 7/17/1949, in Aston, Birmingham, England. He was the seventh child to Dublin, Ireland-born citizens Mary and James Butler. He has six siblings, sisters Eileen, Maura, Sheila and brothers Patrick, James and Peter. He often describes seven as being his lucky number because that number appears so frequently in his life. He says that his sister Eileen tried to throw him out a window when he was young. He talks about growing up lower class to poor in Aston, including how he woke up many nights fighting bedbugs that infested his home and woke up many mornings covered in bites. Holidays to Dublin were occasional, but not all the time. One time while on holiday with his family in Dublin, he was made fun of by Irish kids for having an English accent. He states he couldn't win. He is a firm supporter of Aston Villa FC, the local football club and that he thinks the locals only support teams like Manchester City, Chelsea or Liverpool because they win a lot. Like most post World War II kids, he grew up with not a lot of money; he lived in a Victoria-style home that involved taking baths in a tin tub in front of the stove. He laughs about an incident that occurred when he was six. He was playing with marbles in another room and had accidentally seen his sister Maureen naked while trying to retrieve a marble that rolled under the tub.
-One night, he saw a sphere appear in front of him showing a man on stage with long hair and boots doing something. He says it wasn't exactly clear what this long haired man, wearing silver boots, was doing, but he would have this dream pretty frequently. As a child, he said that the Catholic faith was strong with him. He would buy all manner of religious items, such as rosaries and the like. This comes from being raised in a strict Irish Catholic family. The Catholic rituals fell out of practice with him when he started growing his hair long and attending church and someone there called him "miss" frequently, thinking he was a woman. Geezer says that because swearing was frowned upon in his house, anyone who said a swear word was punished. Even now, Geezer seldom swears because of his strict Irish Catholic upbringing.
-What started his interest in music was the huge skiffle craze of the 1950s. With Lonnie Donnegan covering the old Leadbelly song "Rock Island Line", all manner of kids jumped on this new craze. He also said Cliff Richard and the Drifters were big in his house, until they changed their name to The Shadows. Geezer laughs as mentions how, in one interview, Cliff Richard said he hated his song "Living Doll" and how one of his brothers put "I did too" next to it to anger one of their sisters.
Growing up in Aston, you were, more or less, a firm supporter of Aston Villa FC. He went to every game he could, since he lived near the stadium in which they played. When playing football (soccer to everyone else) in his backyard, any time he heard a cheer, he pretended it was for him. As he got older, he started attending grammar schools. His first school was Sacred Heart until he finished school there and moved onto Holte Grammar School. Fights there were constant between Holte Grammar and the Prince Albert School nearby, where future Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne attended school. While attending Holte, the discipline was strict. It was caning on the hands on backside and often called "six of the best", where you would be given a choice of hand or backside.
-His brother James, who he calls Jimmy, is the one who gave him the nickname "Geezer". His brother was stationed somewhere with a lot of Londoners, called "Cockneys" who would often use the slang term "geezer" as a way of saying "bloke, man, dude, etc.". Terence started using that term and thus became known as "Geezer", only after stating his proper first name is Terence. He mentioned the diversity in Aston, all the interesting cultures that came to live there, including Pakistani, Indian, black residents from the West Indies, Africa and more. Terence's father, who spent time in India, got along great with his Indian neighbors. They would talk incessantly and as such, both families became friends. Terence witnessed the other side of that friendly world of diversity-the ugly racism towards those who were different. His mother cradled a West Indian man who was beaten until an ambulance arrived. There was such ugly racism towards the black and brown population in those areas. And it was not just the Pakistani, Indian, Caribbean and African populations that were getting harassed. The Irish population of Aston faced discrimination too, including Geezer and his family. One of his sisters tried to book a stay in a bed and breakfast somewhere one time and there was a sign saying NO BLACKS. NO IRISH. NO DOGS. Turning tail, she came right back home.
-Not everyone knows that Geezer Butler is vegan. He made the conscious decision to pursue a vegan life when he was seven. His mother had put his dinner on the table and when he went to cut his meat, blood spurted out. He was disgusted. When he asked what it was, his mother told him it was from an animal. Suddenly, he thought of his dog and best friend Scamp. He decided from then on, not to eat meat or any animal by product. Later on, during his says in Black Sabbath, they went to a Chinese restaurant and Geezer told him he only wanted rice, the waiter said "Ah, a vegetarian". Geezer had never heard that term before.
-It was also his brother Patrick or Paddy who helped inspire a dream of becoming a musician to Geezer. He bought his younger brother a guitar after seeing how huge a fan of the Beatles young Terence was. He himself describes himself as an okay bassist, but not perfect. When he joined the band Mythology, which had then guitarist Tony Iommi and Bill Ward, he switched over to bass. Meeting Ozzy Osbourne for the first time was a real head turner. He said Osbourne walked around with a shaved head, dragging around a sneaker on a leash and was dressed in the skinhead attire of the day-tight jeans, dress shirt and Doc Marten boots. One of Geezer's siblings said "Something is at the door for you." And when Geezer answered, there was Ozzy.
Geezer was put in charge of money because he had gone to school for accountancy and the band trusted him the most with money. Prior to becoming Black Sabbath, the band was known as Mythology, then Polka Tulk Blues Band after a sari shop called Polka Tulk. Then Earth. They had to change their name after an accidental booking at a dance hall where the owners thought they were a pop band. That's when the band realized they needed a new name and fast. Suddenly, the horror movie Black Sabbath with Boris Karloff sounded right. They officially changed their name to Black Sabbath on 8/30/1969. Their debut album came out on Friday the 13th in 1969. He was horrified when he opened the album and seen an inverted cross on the inside. His parents were, not surprisingly, horrified. He had to tell them the record label did that, not him.
-One thing hardly anyone knows about Geezer Butler is that in his younger years, he suffered with depression and mental health. He worked at a steel factory called Spartan Steel, but he ended up getting fired for showing up later and later each day. After being fired, he went on the dole (unemployment for those who don't know what "the dole" is). His father was raging. "No Butler ever has been on the dole!" said his father. After getting fired, his depression pushed him to the point of self mutilation. He would cut himself with razor blades or stick himself with safety pins. He contemplated ending his life quite frequently. When the band came to record their album Paranoid, hardly anyone knew what that term meant back then. He wrote the lyrics while Tony wrote the iconic riff. The words are about depression, mental health. He wrote those lyrics because that's what he felt then. He was suffering from depression. Geezer says that some people called him a miserable guy, but he also says that you couldn't really talk about depression or mental health back then because the suggested solution was to get over it, walk a dog or something, just get over it. And it's not as simple as that.
-To this day, unlike most rock stars, Geezer has no tattoos. What stopped him from going under the needle and getting inked is one of his brothers had gotten a swastika and dagger tattoo because of his affinity for Nazi memorabilia. Their father was horrified and asked that he get something else. This brother did get something else and an infection set in because he didn't care for it properly. That is what stopped and has kept Geezer from getting a tattoo. And, because he was always reading, he was made the lyricist in the band because he could come up with lyrics that no one else could. He also, like most in the sixties, flirted with drug use. He would often buy hash and Black Bombers (a type of amphetamine) and he would be high out of his head. He laughs as he recalls the various adventures and misadventures of being in a band. Like one time, Tony Iommi was so drunk he threw up on Geezer's boots. And how a run-in with skinheads inspired "Fairies Wear Boots" or how he was inspired to write "Behind the Wall of Sleep" after reading a story called Beyond the Wall of Sleep by H.P. Lovecraft.
-He also describes how Tony Iommi became the sort-of, de facto leader of the band. He was tall, physically imposing and would often give someone a vicious tongue lashing if something went wrong. For example, when the band's transit van broke down, Tony opened the hood and was blasted in the face with brown, oily water. Ozzy burst out laughing until Tony gave him the tongue lashing of a lifetime and then Ozzy quit right there. When Tony had told the band that Jethro Tull had asked him to join the band, Geezer supported him and told him to go for it and see what happens. Not long afterwards, Tony came back and told the band how they were going to run things. They were going to show up at a certain time each morning and put their noses to the grindstone and really work. Tony had seen, first hand, how disciplined Jethro Tull was and he felt that Black Sabbath needed to be the same way, while secretly Geezer was thrilled to have Tony back.
-September 16, 1978 is a very important day in Geezer's life. It was the day he first saw his future wife Gloria. He was initially taking a bus with Ozzy, Bill and Bill's brother Jim from gig to gig. But, because of Ozzy and Bill's drinking being out of control, he had to break up fights between them frequently. Geezer took an air pistol and threatened them with it. They stopped fighting immediately. Because of Bill's ridiculous lack of hygiene, Geezer started taking a plane from gig to gig. He went into detail about how Bill would vomit and leave it there to foul up the air on the bus. Or how he'd hardly shower. Or how he would have bowel movements in the bus bathroom when you were not supposed to. He states that when he landed at the airport in St. Louis on the date mentioned above, he seen a beautiful woman waiting for a friend. She got in a Porsche and Geezer told his limo driver to follow her. Once at a stoplight, he rolled his window down and asked her out for lunch. She immediately said Yes. They went out more and more often because they got along so well.
-When making some of their albums in the 1970s, Geezer talks about the adventures and misadventures that took place. He says that it was Ozzy who pushed the panic button in the Bel Air mansion where they were recording one of their albums. Not realizing what the button did, they quickly found out that panic button alerted the Bel Air police. Quickly rushing to hide any drugs in case they came in, it was all for naught-Geezer told the maid to stall the police and they didn't even come in. They just responded to inquire about what happened and the maid told them someone hit the button by mistake. In Tony's book, Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath, he says it was Bill who pushed the button and that the police DID come in to find a group of wide eyed men sitting there. After explaining the error, they walked out and suddenly someone was on the phone to order more drugs. It was after the Never Say Die! tour that Geezer strongly contemplated quitting. He was just not in it as much as he used to be.
-Geezer describes Tony as being the leader and, as such, was at a habit of doing long guitar solos. He talks about some of the bands travelling with Sabbath, including Black Oak Arkansas, Yes, Van Halen. He said that the guys in Van Halen were nice guys, but Tony was getting irritated that resident guitarist Eddie Van Halen would do ridiculously long solos and Tony would tell him to quit. Geezer honestly started wondering if they were becoming old fashioned with this new band sweeping the music charts. He also notes that he came very close to punching Ozzy. He said that Ozzy always did have a cruel streak to animals and one night, he was flicking off the eyes of a lobster.
-Geezer sets the record straight about the story involving him pulling a knife on Malcolm Young, since AC/DC was travelling with Black Sabbath. He didn't pull a knife on Malcolm; he had a flick knife that also had a comb on it and he was showing people this item and someone said he pulled a knife on Malcolm. Then there's the famous story of Ozzy going missing before a concert. In Tony's book, they were somewhere in Tennessee to do a concert and Ozzy went missing, only to turn up several hours later. The band thought he had been kidnapped and had issued missing person alerts on the news. It turns out that Ozzy had a cold and, instead of taking a spoonful of Night Nurse cold medicine, which is what you're supposed to do, he drank the whole bottle. Instead of going to his room, he went into the first room he found and passed out. In Geezer's book, the story is the same. The band was touring with Van Halen and their gig was in Nashville. Van Halen played, Black Sabbath didn't and, as a result, the venue was smashed to bits.
-When he and Gloria had their first child, Geezer was overjoyed. He named the child Terence Damien (after his first name and one of his cousin's first names). He called his son Biff as a nickname due to the fact that when he was born, he appeared to have no neck and looked like a boxer. It's also because of Gloria that he got clean and sober; he quit drinking and using drugs because she hardly even drank. Ozzy also quit the band, and as a result, left Sabbath wondering what was their next step. Tony, who had been talking to former Rainbow front man Ronnie James Dio, suggested him as their next vocalist. Contrary to popular belief, Geezer actually didn't care if Ronnie wrote lyrics because it freed him up to focus on his bass playing. At first, it was all roses with Ronnie in the band. It was like a breath of fresh air because instead of singing with the riff, as Ozzy would do, Ronnie would sing across it. He would also make suggestions about where to put guitar lines and bass lines since Ronnie knew how to play guitar and bass.
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| Geezer and son "Biff" |
-After a while, tension started building in the band. Ronnie would not be the kind of person to simply address concerns with that person at a a good time; he would simply state, right then and there, what the problems were. He came to Geezer about all of his complaints. Eventually, his wife Gloria grabbed Ronnie and pinned him to the wall, shouting "You're upsetting my husband!" because Geezer's depression was setting back in. Geezer confirms the story about Ronnie coming in after hours to fiddle with the tunings on the master tapes. Geezer confirms with Lee De Carlo, who was working on the album, that Ronnie was in deed coming in after hours and tuning down the bass and guitar because he thought they were too loud. And, eventually, Ronnie quit Sabbath to form his own band Dio. Geezer is not too upset about this; he is happy that Dio went on to become a successful heavy metal band, with Holy Diver being their biggest selling album. But with Ronnie out of the band, they were back at square 1 with no singer.
-After Ronnie left, in came Ian Gillan, formerly of Deep Purple. At the time, the band was renting a mansion owned by Virgin exec Richard Branson. Ian would sleep in a tent outside and cook on a little campfire, claiming the cool air was better for his voice. Geezer describes the songs on what would become Born Again at so-so. Around this time, he and Gloria welcomed their second child James, named after Geezer's father. He named his son James because it was also around this time that his father passed away. When Geezer quit the band, he formed his own band called g/z/r and recorded one album called Plastic Planet. Later on, he would change the band name to GZR and record albums like Ohmwork and Black Science.
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| Lineup of GZR around the time of Plastic Planet |
-As the 1980s gave rise to the 1990s, things in the music world changed. And with Sabbath, came more and more tension. This caused Geezer's depression to go into overdrive to the point where he was drinking again and causing issues with his wife. As the 1990s gave rise to the 2000s, the line up of Black Sabbath would change frequently. It was eventually in the mid to late 2000s when Geezer finally had a mental breakdown from all of the stress and had to go to the doctors to get prescribed antidepressants. He said they are a life changer and have been on antidepressants ever since. He does say that the only downside to antidepressants is that they do make you gain weight. After the band recorded 13, their most recent album with Rick Rubin they retired from touring. He does make a small mention of his recent arrest for a drunk and disorderly in a Death Valley, California bar. He doesn't go into too much detail about. You can find those details elsewhere on the internet. Now, Geezer lives in LA with his wife Gloria and two sons James and Biff. He and Gloria dote on their grandkids. He even laughed as he said one of his granddaughters is now playing music and went to a music class with her guitar and wearing a Black Sabbath shirt and how she got the class to play "Iron Man". He smiles with a kind of pride as he describes how his granddaughter is almost proud of the fact her grandfather is one of the people who played "Iron Man" on a regular basis
