Geezer Butler

Geezer Butler
Butler in the 1970s.
Background information
Birth Name	Terence Michael Joseph Butler
Born	17 July 1949
Occupation	Musician
Genres	Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Blues Rock, Doom Metal, Groove Metal, Industrial Metal
Instrument(s)	Bass
Years active	1965 - 2023
Labels	Vertigo, Capitol, Sanctuary, TVT
Associated acts	Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, Ozzy Osbourne, Deadland Ritual, Rare Breed, GZR
Website	Official Page

Terence Michael Joseph Butler, better known by his stage name of Geezer Butler is a retired musician and songwriter. He is best known as a founding member, bassist and the primary lyricist of the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, performing on fourteen of the band's nineteen studio albums and coining the band's name. Along with his tenures with Sabbath, Butler has also recorded and performed with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne's solo band, his own solo project commonly known as GZR and Heaven & Hell with the Dio-era lineup of Black Sabbath. Recently he had performed with the rock group Deadland Ritual.

Butler is noted for his melodic playing, and as being one of the first bassists to use a wah pedal and to down-tune his instrument (from the standard E-A-D-G to the lower C#-F#-B-E), as exemplified on Black Sabbath's Master of Reality album, to match Iommi who had started tuning his guitar to C# (a minor third down). During the band's Ozzy Osbourne era, Butler wrote most of the band's lyrics, drawing heavily upon his fascination with religion, science-fiction, fantasy and horror, and musings on the darker side of human nature that posed a constant threat of global annihilation. Geezer's distinctive playing and lyricism at the time would help to lay the groundwork for the heavy metal genre as a whole.

Butler is widely considered to be one of the greatest bassists of all time by several publications and has been cited as an influence by numerous key bassists such as Billy Sheehan, Steve Harris, Jason Newsted, Cliff Burton and Les Claypool just to name a few.

Since his career started in 1965, Butler has played on fourteen studio albums with Black Sabbath, three albums with his own solo project GZR and one album each with Ozzy Osbourne and Heaven & Hell. He would retire from music in 2023, ultimately having a music career spanning seven decades and nearly sixty years.

Biography

Early Life

Butler was born in Aston. He received the nickname "Geezer" at approximately age eight, because he "used to call everybody Geezer" at school. "It was just a slang term for a man."

Butler grew up in a working-class Irish Catholic family in Birmingham. The Butler family had seven children and were poor, typically having "no money whatsoever". Two of Butler's older brothers had been called upon to serve in the army, and in the Vietnam War era, Butler feared that he would be next. However, mandatory service was ended in England a couple of years before he was due to be conscripted.

Butler was heavily influenced by the writing of Aleister Crowley as a teenager. By his late teens, he had stopped attending Mass. He cited a loss of belief, and feels that everyone should sooner or later decide for themselves what to believe in. By the end "I was going to Mass every Sunday just to take a look at all the nice girls that were going there", he recalled years later.

Black Sabbath

• For more details, feel free to view the Riffipedia page on Black Sabbath.

Butler performed with his first band The Ruums in 1965 and then formed Rare Breed, in the autumn of 1967, with John "Ozzy" Osbourne soon joining as lead vocalist. At that time, Butler was dating a girl who lived near Tony Iommi, and Iommi's earliest memories of Butler involved seeing him walking past his house every day to visit her. Later, Iommi and Butler became acquainted when their bands played at a nearby nightclub. Separated for a time, Osbourne and Butler reunited in the blues foursome, Polka Tulk, along with guitarist Iommi and drummer Bill Ward, both of whom had recently left the band Mythology. They renamed their new band Earth, but a band already existed in the small-time English circuit with the same name, so they were forced to change the name yet again. Inspired by the popular Boris Karloff horror film of the same name, Butler suggested the name Black Sabbath in early 1969.

Inspired by John Lennon, Butler played rhythm guitar in his pre-Sabbath days, including with Rare Breed. When Sabbath was formed, Iommi made it clear that he did not want to play with another guitarist, so Butler moved to bass. According to Butler, "I'd never played bass until I was on stage at the first gig that we played. Borrowed the bass guitar off one of my friends and it only had three strings on it." Butler lists Jack Bruce of Cream as his biggest influence as a bassist. Iommi described Butler as being "from another planet" in the band's early days; he took LSD, wore Indian hippie dresses, and was very peaceful. At the time Black Sabbath was formed, Butler was studying to become an accountant, and this training resulted in him managing the band's finances in the early days.

The band's first show as Black Sabbath took place on 30 August 1969, in Workington. They were signed to Philips Records in November 1969 and released their first single, "Evil Woman" (a cover of a song by the band Crow), recorded at Trident Studios, through Philips subsidiary Fontana Records in January 1970. Later releases were handled by Philips' newly formed progressive rock label, Vertigo Records.

Black Sabbath was released on Friday the 13th, February 1970, and reached number 8 in the UK Albums Chart. Following its US and Canadian release in May 1970 by Warner Bros. Records, the album reached number 23 on the Billboard 200, where it remained for over a year. The album was a commercial success but was widely panned at the time by some critics. It sold in substantial numbers despite being panned, giving the band their first mainstream exposure. It has since been certified platinum in both the US by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and in the UK by British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

To capitalize on their chart success in the US, the band returned to the studio in June 1970, just four months after Black Sabbath was released. The new album was initially set to be named War Pigs after the song "War Pigs", which was critical of the Vietnam War; however, Warner Bros. changed the title of the album to Paranoid. The title track (and lead-off single) was written in the studio at the last minute. Ward explains: "We didn't have enough songs for the album, and Tony just played the [Paranoid] guitar lick and that was it. It took twenty, twenty-five minutes from top to bottom." The single was released in September 1970 and reached number four on the UK charts, remaining Black Sabbath's only top ten hit. The album followed in the UK in October 1970, reaching number one on the charts. Black Sabbath would record six more albums with the classic lineup of Butler, Iommi, Ward and Osbourne, all of which attaining some degree of success and complimented by extensive touring.

After Black Sabbath fired vocalist Ozzy Osbourne in 1979, Butler also briefly left the band to deal with the divorce from his first wife. The 1980 album Heaven and Hell was actually recorded with bassist Craig Gruber but Butler returned to the band at the last minute and re-recorded the bass parts prior to release. He again left the band in 1984 after touring in support of their 1983 album, Born Again, though he returned months later as the band attempted a comeback with vocalist David Donato. Ultimately Geezer would leave the band to form his own solo project in 1984 and later join Ozzy Osbourne's solo band in 1988.

While on his own Lock Up the Wolves US tour in August 1990, former Black Sabbath vocalist Ronnie James Dio was joined on stage at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium by former Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler to perform "Neon Knights". Following the show, the two expressed interest in rejoining Black Sabbath. Butler convinced Iommi who in turn broke up the current line-up and dismissed vocalist Tony Martin and bassist Neil Murray, a decision Iommi would later express regret about.

Ronnie James Dio and Geezer Butler joined Tony Iommi and Cozy Powell in autumn of 1990 to begin working on the next Black Sabbath release. While rehearsing in November, Powell suffered a broken hip when his horse died, falling on the drummer's legs. Unable to complete work on the album, Powell was replaced by former drummer Vinny Appice, reuniting the Mob Rules era line-up, and the band entered the studio with producer Reinhold Mack. The year-long recording process was plagued with problems, primarily stemming from writing tension between Iommi and Dio.

The resulting album Dehumanizer was released on 22 June 1992. In the US, the album was released on 30 June 1992 by Reprise Records, as Ronnie James Dio and his namesake band were still under contract with the label at the time. While the album received mixed reviews it was the band's biggest commercial success in a decade. Anchored by the top 40 rock radio single "TV Crimes", the album peaked at number 44 on the Billboard 200. The album also featured the song "Time Machine", a version of which had been recorded for the 1992 film Wayne's World. Additionally, the perception by many fans of a return of some semblance of the "real" Black Sabbath provided the band with some much needed momentum.

Black Sabbath began touring in support of Dehumanizer in July 1992 with Testament, Danzig, Prong, and Exodus. While on tour, former vocalist Ozzy Osbourne announced his first retirement, and invited Black Sabbath to open for his solo band at the final two shows of his No More Tours tour in Costa Mesa, California. The band agreed, aside from vocalist Ronnie James Dio, who would quit the band following a show in Oakland, California on 13 November 1992, one night before the band were set to appear at Osbourne's retirement show. Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford stepped in at the last minute, performing two nights with the band. Iommi and Butler also joined Osbourne and former drummer Ward on stage for the first time since 1985's Live Aid concert, performing a brief set of Black Sabbath songs.

Following Dio and Appice's departure, Iommi and Butler enlisted former Rainbow drummer Bobby Rondinelli, and reinstated former vocalist Tony Martin. The band returned to the studio to work on new material, although the project was not originally intended to be released under the Black Sabbath name. Under pressure from their record label, the band released their seventeenth studio album, Cross Purposes, on 8 February 1994, under the Black Sabbath name to mixed reviews. The album just missed the Top 40 in the UK reaching number 41, and also reached 122 on the Billboard 200 in the US. Touring in support of Cross Purposes began in February with Morbid Angel and Motörhead in the US. The band filmed a live performance at the Hammersmith Apollo on 13 April 1994, which was released on VHS accompanied by a CD, titled Cross Purposes Live. After the European tour with Cathedral (Featuring Pentagram members Victor Griffin and Joe Hasselvander) and Godspeed in June 1994, drummer Bobby Rondinelli quit the band and was replaced by original Black Sabbath drummer Ward for five shows in South America, bringing together 3/4th of the original lineup, at least in a touring capacity, for the first time in over a decade. However, following the touring cycle for Cross Purposes, bassist Geezer Butler quit the band for the second time.

In the summer of 1997, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Ozzy Osbourne officially reunited to co-headline the Ozzfest festival tour alongside Osbourne's solo band. The line-up featured Osbourne's drummer Mike Bordin filling in for Ward, who was unable to participate because of previous commitments with his solo project. In December 1997, the group was joined by Ward, marking the first reunion of the original four members since Osbourne's 1992 "retirement show". The original line-up recorded two shows at the Birmingham NEC, which were released as the double live album Reunion on 20 October 1998. Reunion reached number eleven on the Billboard 200 and went platinum in the US. The album spawned the single "Iron Man", which won Black Sabbath their first Grammy Award in 2000 for Best Metal Performance some 30 years after the song was originally released. Reunion also featured two new studio tracks, "Psycho Man" and "Selling My Soul", both of which cracked the top 20 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

Shortly before the band embarked on a European tour in the summer of 1998, followed by further touring in 1999. Following the Ozzfest appearances, the band was put on hiatus while members worked on solo material. Black Sabbath returned to the studio to work on new material with all four original members and producer Rick Rubin in the spring of 2001 but the sessions were halted when Osbourne was called away to finish tracks for his solo album in the summer of 2001. During the 2001 edition of Ozzfest a new song from those sessions entitled Scary Dreams popped up in setlists, but no studio recording of the song nor the 2001 sessions have surfaced, Butler later stating that they were "not up to quality".

The band remained on hiatus until the summer of 2004 when they returned to headline Ozzfest 2004 and 2005. In November 2005, Black Sabbath were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame and in March 2006, after eleven years of eligibility, the band were inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the awards ceremony Metallica played two Black Sabbath songs, "Hole in the Sky" and "Iron Man" in tribute to the band. To date the last performance of the full original lineup was on 4 September 2005 at Sound Advice Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, FL.

In a January 2010 interview while promoting his biography I Am Ozzy, Osbourne stated that although he would not rule it out, he was doubtful there would be a reunion with all four original members of the band. Osbourne stated: "I'm not gonna say I've written it out forever, but right now I don't think there's any chance. But who knows what the future holds for me? If it's my destiny, fine." In July, Butler said that there would be no reunion in 2011 as Osbourne was already committed to touring with his solo band. However, by that August they had already met up to rehearse together, and continued to do so through the autumn. On 11 November 2011, Iommi, Butler, Osbourne, and Ward would appear at the Whisky a Go Go with Henry Rollins introducing them and announced that they were reuniting to record a new album with a full tour in support beginning in 2012.

On 21 May 2012, at the O2 Academy in Birmingham, Black Sabbath played their first concert since 2005, with Tommy Clufetos of Ozzy's solo band playing the drums. In June, they performed at Download Festival, followed by the last concert of the short tour at Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago. Later that month, the band started recording an album.

On 13 January 2013, the band announced that the album would be released in June under the title 13. Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine was chosen as the drummer and Rick Rubin was chosen as the producer. Mixing of the album commenced in February with a track list announced in April.

The band's first single from 13, "God Is Dead?", was released on 19 April 2013. On 20 April 2013, Black Sabbath commenced their first Australia/New Zealand tour in 40 years, to be followed by a major North American Tour in Summer 2013. The second single of the album, "End of the Beginning", debuted on 15 May in a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode, where all three members appeared. In June 2013, 13 topped both the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200. "God Is Dead?" earned Black Sabbath their first Grammy Award in 14 years for Best Metal Performance in 2014. Ultimately 13 was praised by critics as a return to the classic Sabbath sound but was criticized for some aspects such as brickwalling and divided fans over Ward's dismissal of the project, along with generally average reviews compared to most of the band's prior output.

In July 2013, Black Sabbath embarked on a North American Tour (for the first time since July 2001), followed by a Latin American tour in October 2013. In November 2013, the band started their European tour which lasted until December 2013. In March and April 2014, they made 12 stops in North America (mostly in Canada) as the second leg of their North American Tour before embarking in June 2014 on the second leg of their European tour, which ended with a concert at London's Hyde Park.

On 3 September 2015 Black Sabbath announced that Black Sabbath would embark on their final world tour entitled The End. From January 2016 too February 2017 shows were announced all over the world. Initial plans were to compose a follow-up album to 13 but were ultimately scrapped though a live EP featuring four live recordings and the remaining songs from the 13 sessions were released as The End. Despite a few shows being rescheduled due to Osbourne suffering from rhinitis the band would perform all dates and sell out many of them.

The final shows of The End tour took place at the Genting Arena in their home city of Birmingham, England on 2 and 4 February 2017. Since the band's breakup, Ozzy Osbourne has returned to his solo career with headlining appearances at Rock USA and Chicago Open Air being the first announced performances. While talks of possibly one more show would surface, in 2020 Ozzy would confirm that the band was done Geezer would also confirm that the band was done in November 2020.

Ozzy Osbourne

From 1988 to 1989, Butler joined the backing band of his former Sabbath bandmate Osbourne to take part in the No Rest for the Wicked World Tour.

Butler would return to Ozzy's solo band to play bass on his seventh solo album Ozzmosis, released 23 October 1995 via Epic Records. Despite mixed reviews from critics, Ozzmosis would peak at #22 on the UK Albums Chart and #4 on the Billboard 200, along with three singles in "Perry Mason", "See You on the Other Side" and "I Just Want You". Ultimately the album would be certified Double Platinum by the RIAA, selling over three million copies in the United States alone. Butler would play bass on the Retirement Sucks! Tour to support the album for the entire 1995 leg and part of the 1996 leg before being replaced by Mike Inez (Alice in Chains, Black Label Society, Heart) and Robert Trujilio (Suicidal Tendencies, Black Label Society, Metallica).

GZR

GZR (feat. Fear Factory) - Drive Boy Shooting

Following Butler's second departure from Black Sabbath, he would form a second solo project known as GZR, the name stylized on each different release. Unlike Sabbath however, GZR's sound would be more of a modern heavy metal style, incorporating elements of industrial metal, groove metal and nu-metal. Geezer Butler would found the band with his nephew and guitarist Pedro Howse, Deen Castronovo (Journey) on drums and Burton C. Bell (Fear Factory, Ministry, etc.) on vocals. Before taking on Bell as vocalist for the debut album Plastic Planet, Butler contacted Devin Townsend to perform vocals. However, due to Townsend's recent stint with Steve Vai and having had to sing lyrics not written by himself, he was unwilling to enter into another band where he would have no lyrical input.

GZR's first solo album (stylized as g/z/r) Plastic Planet would see release on 26 October 1995 via TVT Records. Bell's aggressive vocal performance would stand out, making the project drastically different from Black Sabbath though Bell did not stay with the band past the recording of Plastic Planet, due to Fear Factory commitments. Notably Butler's lyrical themes had also changed, leaning into sci-fi, comic books ("Detective 27" being a reference to the debut of Batman) and even a lyrical jab directed at former Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi in "Giving Up The Ghost".

Notably a song from that album, "The Invisible", would appear on the film soundtrack to the 1995 video game film Mortal Kombat. The soundtrack would win the BMI Film Music Award, and go Platinum in less than a year, retroactively regarded as the most successful video game soundtrack according to The Guinness Book of World Records. This would inspire a follow-up soundtrack in Mortal Kombat: More Kombat whom GZR would contribute an exclusive song in "Outworld" featuring Anger on Anger vocalist Mario Frasca. This proved to be a one-time collaboration as Frasca was replaced by Clark Brown from the band Symatic in line for sporadic shows in 1996.

Work would begin on a second studio album on Studio Morin Heights. Black Science would see release on 1 July 1997 to average reviews. The GZR formation played a few live dates in 1997 behind the release of the album, however, this was not a full-fledged tour, as most of the gigs were played concurrent to the Ozzfest tour of that year. The band opened for musicians like Bruce Dickinson who was playing some live gigs at the time. Castronovo recorded, but did not play any of the live gigs. He was replaced on drums by Chad Smith (not to be confused with the Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer with the same name). The majority of the setlist would comprise of songs from Plastic Planet.

GZR would largely go on hiatus as Butler would be busy with Black Sabbath for their reunion at the time. In 2004 Butler would announce that a third solo album would be in the works, recruiting Pedro Howse, Clark Brown and Chad Smith. Recording the entire album n just ten days and at one point considering the idea of making it a jazz album After a few songs released and a slight delay Ohmwork would see release on 9 May 2005. However the album would only sell 895 copies in it's first week as compared to Plastic Planet (over 27,000 copies) and Back Science (over 16,000 copies). While a handful of reviewers would praise the album, critical reception would be largely negative.

GZR would not tour to support the album at the time but proposed a tour with Iommi to support both Ohmwork and Iommi's latest solo album Fused in the Fall of 2005. However it's not known if the tour had happened as talks would be in line with Ronnie James Dio and sometime after, would form Heaven & Hell.

BMG Music would re-issue all three of Butler's solo albums on 30 October 2020. Along with CD reissues the albums would be issued on vinyl for the first time. On 23 June 2021 it would be announced that Butler's solo works would be released as a box set entitled Manipulations of the Mind, featuring all three albums and a bonus disc of rare and unreleased materials.

Heaven & Hell

While Ozzy Osbourne was working on new solo album material in 2006, Rhino Records released Black Sabbath: The Dio Years, a compilation of songs culled from the four Black Sabbath releases featuring Ronnie James Dio. For the release, Iommi, Butler, Dio and Appice reunited to write and record three new songs as Black Sabbath. The Dio Years was released on 3 April 2007, reaching number 54 on the Billboard 200 while the single "The Devil Cried" reached number 37 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Pleased with the results, Iommi and Dio decided to reunite the Heaven and Hell era line-up for a world tour. While the line-up of Osbourne, Butler, Iommi and Ward were still officially called Black Sabbath, the new line-up opted to call themselves Heaven & Hell, after the album of the same name, to avoid confusion. Ward was initially set to participate, but dropped out before the tour began due to musical differences with "a couple of the band members". He was replaced by former drummer Vinny Appice, effectively reuniting the line-up that had featured on the Mob Rules and Dehumanizer albums.

Heaven & Hell toured the US with openers Megadeth and Machine Head and recorded a live album and DVD in New York on 30 March 2007, titled Live from Radio City Music Hall. In November 2007, Dio confirmed that the band had plans to record a new studio album, which was recorded in the following year. In April 2008 the band announced the upcoming release of a new box set and their participation in the Metal Masters Tour, alongside Judas Priest, Motörhead and Testament. The box set, The Rules of Hell, featuring remastered versions of all the Dio fronted Black Sabbath albums, was supported by the Metal Masters Tour. In 2009, the band announced the name of their only studio album, The Devil You Know, released on 28 April with a tour supporting the album that year.

On 26 May 2009 Osbourne filed suit in a federal court in New York against Iommi alleging that he illegally claimed the band name. Iommi noted that he has been the only constant band member for its full 41-year career, and that his bandmates relinquished their rights to the name in the 1980s, therefore claiming more rights to the name of the band. Although, in the suit, Osbourne was seeking 50% ownership of the trademark, he said that he hoped the proceedings would lead to equal ownership among the four original members.

Ronnie James Dio died on 16 May 2010 from stomach cancer, effectively ending the band. In June 2010, the legal battle between Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi over the trademarking of the Black Sabbath name ended, but the terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.

Other Musical Endeavors

Deadland Ritual - Broken and Bruised Official Video

Following his first departure from Black Sabbath and prior to joining Ozzy's solo band, Geezer would form The Geezer Butler Band in 1985, recording a demo with Jeff Fenholt in 1985. A music video was made for "Heat in The Street" with vocalist Carl Sentance (Persian Risk, Nazareth, etc.) and later an early demo of "Computer God" would surface on the internet in video form.

Along with Butler, the band consisted of guitarist Pedro Howse, who would later also play in GZR with Butler. Welsh vocalist Carl Sentance (ex-Persian Risk) eventually fronted the band. The band released no recordings, but performed some shows in the mid-1980s of which some bootleg recordings still exist. At least one song composed by Butler for this project ("Master of Insanity") would eventually be recorded for Black Sabbath's 1992 Dehumanizer album, though with a faster tempo. A song called "Computer God" was composed by Butler for the Geezer Butler Band, but it is a completely different composition than the song of the same name also recorded for Dehumanizer.

Butler would participate on the Black Sabbath tribute album Nativity in Black, as part of the one-time project Bullring Brummies. Recording "The Wizard" specifically for this tribute album it would feature, Butler, Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, vocalist Rob Halford (Judas Priest) and guitarists Brian Tilse (Fight) and Scott Weinrich (The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, etc.).

In the Fall of 2005 following Hurricane Katrina, Butler would host the Los Angeles HEART for the South to help raise funds for the damage done to New Orleans in the wake of the hurricane. Along with vendors, a raffle and a silent auction, Phantom Planet and Fishbone would headline the event.

On 10 November 2011 at The Fillmore in San Francisco, Butler would join Metallica on stage to perform the Black Sabbath songs "Sabbra Cadabra" and "A National Acrobat".

Following Black Sabbath disbanding in early 2017, Butler would join a new hard rock band known as Deadland Ritual, alongside drummer Matt Sorum (Y Kant Tori Read, The Cult, Guns N' Roses), guitarist Steve Stevens (Billy Idol, Michael Jackson) and vocalist Franky Perez (Apocalyptica). The formation of Deadland Ritual was first announced on 3 December 2018, when the band's members began posting teasers of new music on their social media pages. The band released its debut single and music video, "Down in Flames", a week later. The track was produced by Greg Fidelman. Revolver magazine's Kelsey Chapstick categorised the song as "heavy, bluesy rock", outlining that it "carries the sinister, devilish tones trademarked by Butler, but the exultant vocal performance by Perez and groove-laden syncopations of Sorum lend a distinctly contemporary hard-rock feel". Ryan Reed for Rolling Stone described the track as "a brooding blues-rock epic".

Deadland Ritual would release a follow-up single in "Broken and Bruised" the next year, along with scheduling their first live shows, performing a mix of originals along with covers of Black Sabbath, Billy Idol and Velvet Revolver songs. The band's live debut would be at the Troubadour in Hollywood, California on 28 May 2019. A tour of Europe would follow that June including appearances at Sweden Rock Festival, Rock Am Ring, Download Festival, Hellfest, Azkena Festival and Graspop Metal Meeting. The band would perform two more shows in the United States: Louder Than Life Festival in Louisville, Kentucky and Aftershock Festival in Sacramento, California. The band intended to record a studio album but on 10 March 2021 Butler would announce "Deadland Ritual's Dead".

Geezer Butler would participate for a one-time performance with Audioslave as part of the Chris Cornell tribute showcase I Am The Highway, performing bass on "Cochise" and "Be Yourself".

Butler would release his autobiography Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath and Beyond in June 2023. That same month, Butler would announce his retirement from music.

Personal Life

Butler is married to Gloria Butler, who is also a tour manager. He was divorced from his first wife in 1980. He also shares his Los Angeles home with several cats, of whom he has posted pictures on his website. His oldest son, Biff Butler, was the frontman in the nu metal band Apartment 26. Butler says Biff is very religious and brings up his children in the Catholic faith. Butler's other son James earned a degree in social sciences from Oxford University and resides in London. Butler describes him as "very politically minded". "My youngest is extremely left-wing, and I think it's because he was brought up knowing wealth and money, whereas I was brought up having no money whatsoever. That's where the church came in and made up for the lack of money because everybody knew each other in the street and everybody used to help each other out", Butler said.

Butler is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club, and during Black Sabbath's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Butler is heard shouting "Up the Villa" as the members of the band left the stage. He has referred to football as his "religion" and has stated that Villa legend Peter McParland is his "all-time hero".

According to Osbourne, Butler "never uses foul language". He was raised on a vegetarian diet, largely due to his family being too poor to buy meat on a regular basis and has been a vegan since approximately 1994. His mother was also a vegetarian. Butler would join a boycott of KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) hosted by PETA in 2005. Butler appeared in a promotional ad for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 2009 and later urged fans to boycott Fortnum & Mason until they remove foie gras from their shelves. Butler said, "I've seen some outrageous things in my time, but watching those poor birds suffer simply so that their diseased livers can be sold on your shop floor is horrific!"

Over the years, Butler has become disillusioned with politics, saying "For me, it's almost pointless voting anymore because it seems to be the same no matter what party or politics you stand for. It all seems corrupted to me. It's all the same old people that rule the world." He has also expressed concern over the increasing level of control government has in people's lives. "Every time I go back to England, there are things that totally surprise me that you never think would happen in England, just all the CCTV everywhere. There seems to be so much control over people these days", he said in 2014.

In January 2015, Butler was briefly detained after a bar brawl in Death Valley, California and charged with misdemeanor assault, public intoxication and vandalism. He was released following detoxification and a citation. In 2016 he opened up about the event: "This guy started mouthing off about something. He was, like, some drunken Nazi bloke. He [...] started going on about Jews and everything - Jews this, Jews that. My missus is Jewish and I'd just had enough, and me hand sort of met his chin. I whacked him one."

In October 2020 Butler would announce that he was beginning work on an autobiography on his life in Aston and tenure with Black Sabbath.

Bands

• The Ruums - Rhythm Guitar (1965 - 1966)
• Rare Breed - Rhythm Guitar (1966 - 1968)
• Black Sabbath - Bass (1969 - 1979, 1980 - 1984, 1987, 1991 - 1994, 1997 - 2006, 2011 - 2017)
• Geezer Butler Band - Bass (1985 - ?)
• Ozzy Osbourne - Bass (1988 - 1989, 1995 - 1996)
• Bullring Brummies - Bass (1994)
• GZR (1995 - 2006)
• Heaven & Hell - Bass (2006 - 2010)
• Deadland Ritual - Bass (2018 - 2021)
• Audioslave - Live Bass (2019)

Discography

With Black Sabbath (Selected)

For full discography, see Black Sabbath.

• Black Sabbath (1970, Vertigo / Warner Bros.)
• Paranoid (1970, Vertigo / Warner Bros.)
• Master of Reality (1971, Vertigo / Warner Bros.)
• Vol. 4 (1972, Vertigo / Warner Bros.)
• Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973, World Wide Artists / Warner Bros.)
• Sabotage (1975, Nems / Warner Bros.)
• Technical Ecstasy (1976, Vertigo / Warner Bros.)
• Never Say Die! (1978, Vertigo / Warner Bros.)
• Heaven and Hell (1980, Vertigo / Warner Bros.)
• Mob Rules (1981, Vertigo / Warner Bros.)
• Born Again (1983, Vertigo / Warner Bros.)
• Dehumanizer (1992, I.R.S.)
• Cross Purposes (1994, I.R.S.)
• 13 (2013, Vertigo / Universal)

With Heaven & Hell

• Live From Radio City Music Hall (2007, Rhino Entertainment)
• The Devil You Know (2009, Rhino Entertainment)
• Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell (2010, Armoury Records)

With Ozzy Osbourne

• Just Say Ozzy (1990, Epic / CBS)
• Ozzmosis (1995, Epic)

With GZR

• Plastic Planet (As g/z/r) (1995, TVT)
• Mortal Kombat: The Motion Picture Soundtrack (Contributing "The Invisible") (1995, TVT)
• Mortal Kombat: More Kombat (Contributing "Outworld") (1996, TVT)
• Black Science (As geezer) (1997, TVT)
• Ohmwork (As GZR) (2005, Sanctuary)
• Manipulations of The Mind (Box Set) (2021, BMG)

With Deadland Ritual

• Down in Flames (Single) (2018)
• Broken and Bruised (Single) (2019)

Guest Appearances

• Various Artists - Stairway To Heaven/Highway To Hell - Bass on "Purple Haze" (1989, Mercury)
• Bullring Brummies - Nativity in Black - Bass on "The Wizard" (1994, Sony)
• Device - Device - Bass on "Out of Line" (2013, Warner Bros.)

Equipment

Butler currently endorses Lakland basses and has his own signature model. For amplification, Butler is endorsed by Hartke bass amplification, Kilo bass head and 4X10 HyDrive cabinet. In the past, he has been known to use Ampeg SVT & B-15 bass amps and Fender, Dan Armstrong Plexi, Rickenbacker, Yamaha BB, Vigier and B.C. Rich Basses.

According to the Geezer Butler Bass Rig Rundown, he used the following over the years:

• Pre-CBS Fender Precision (x2)
• Dan Armstrong Plexiglass (Made by Ampeg)
• John Birch (JB1 body style) In white (customised with a sticker in the style of a Coca Cola label but says “enjoy cocaine.”)
• John Birch (JB1 body style) In black
• John Birch (JB1 body style) 8 string
• Jaydee Roadie 2 (Created by John Diggins)
• BC Rich Eagle Deluxe
• BC Rich Iron Bird
• Spector NS-2 (in white)
• Vigier Passion 5
• Vigier Arpege
• Vigier Excess
• Bill Nash custom precision (recording "13")

Lakland Bass Guitars

• Joe Osborn 44-60 (now called a Vintage Jazz)
• In Seafoam green
• In Black with tortoise pickguard
• In Black with grey pickguard (Virgin Mary and Henry sticker)
• Joe Osborn 55-60 (5 string Jazz bass)
• Bob Glaub 44-62 Precision Jazz
• In black with tortoise pickguard
• In black with grey pickguard
• In shoreline gold with grey pickguard (Seen on Classic Albums: Black Sabbath)
• 44-51 Precision with (Vintage Single Coil pickup) Black with White pick guard as well as 3 small “Henry” stickers.
• 44-51M Precision with a Split Coil, White with Black pick guard and a GZR sticker in the bridge
• 44-64 Duck Dunn (Vintage P with J style Neck) Singe Precision (Gold sparkle with white pick guard. Jazz bass neck with pearloid block inlays.
• Custom Lakland 51 style Precision in with the emblem of Aston Villa (Seen during Paranoid on "The End of The End" DVD)

Signature Lakland Bass Guitars

• Signature #1 Black with black and grey aluminum striped pickguard. Custom fret board inlays
• Signature #2 Black with black and grey aluminum striped pickguard. Plain headstock, Henry sticker on 5th fret, rose gold inlays
• Signature #3 Black with white pickguard, rose gold inlays. All black head stock.

External Links

• Geezer Butler Official
• Geezer Butler Twitter
• Geezer Butler Instagram
• Deadland Ritual Official
• Kerrang Interview
• Louder Sound Interview