Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath—And Beyond

by Geezer Butler

I was happy with how that album came out, especially the heavier songs like “Bible Black” and “Rock and Roll Angel.” I was even happier when it went straight in at number eight in the States, the highest chart placing for a Sabbath album for almost forty years (even if it wasn’t officially a Sabbath album).

We were back to being kids again, like the time we heard that “Paranoid” had reached number one. You could argue that the performance of The Devil You Know was the bigger achievement, because we’d had to put the band back together—for the umpteenth time—gone out on the road and built up a whole new following, which takes some doing at the age we were then.

the best producer I ever worked with was Martin Birch. When he produced Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules, he had lots of great ideas and was really patient in capturing our sound, rather than trying to get us to sound like he wanted us to sound. We’d play him our demos and he’d say, “Oh, I get what you’re trying to do,” and he’d do his best to make it happen.

It’s mind-boggling that supposedly the most advanced country in the world doesn’t have socialised medicine, like in the UK and most other countries. Trillions of taxpayers’ dollars go towards the military and people are going bankrupt when they fall ill. How can that be right? But I’m conservative about other things, for good reason.

It amuses me when people question my sanity or veracity when I talk about my supernatural experiences, but they quite happily believe in the stories from the Bible—the

although organised religion probably causes more wars and violence than anything else, I do pray to a higher power. I don’t think there’s an old bloke in the sky with a long, white beard, but I do believe there’s something out there.

I haven’t spoken to Ozzy since the last tour, because Sharon and Gloria fell out about something trivial. Me and Ozzy are fine, it’s just that we’re both ruled by our wives.

about something trivial. Me and Ozzy are fine, it’s just that we’re both ruled by our wives.

People tend to ask me: Could Sabbath happen now? The truth is, probably not. The odds of four working-class lads coming together in a rough place like Aston, writing very heavy songs about their gritty reality and making it in the music industry are slim to none. They wouldn’t look “right,” they wouldn’t sound “current” and they’d be too much of a risk for major record companies.

While we never saw ourselves as a heavy metal band, people told me we invented metal so often that I eventually just accepted it. And I’m glad to be part of the heavy metal community, because metal fans are the most loyal in music, unswerving in their support. But metal or not, I prefer to think of Sabbath as rock’s great survivors.

The reason for writing a memoir came from the fact that when my parents died, I hardly knew anything about their early lives, and I regret not asking them when they were alive. I now have a ton of questions I wish I’d have asked them.

many Sabbath fans have asked why I haven’t written a memoir, especially as I was the chief lyricist for Sabbath. I value my privacy, I hate using the phone, except for texting, so it has been a heart-wrenching decision whether to allow anyone into my life (or not.)

Me, Dad, Mom, Granny Butler, and cousins Damien, Bernadette, and Olive in the beautiful Irish summertime, a blazing hot 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Black Rock, Dublin, ca. 1963.

He was a founding member, bassist and lyricist of heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, who have sold over 75 million albums worldwide.

Geezer is widely accepted as the godfather of heavy metal bass.