Geezer Butler

The longtime bassist for the groundbreaking heavy metal outfit Black Sabbath, Terence “Geezer” Butler was born July 17, 1949, in Birmingham, England. As a teen he formed his first band, Rare Breed, with schoolmate John “Ozzy” Osbourne. In the fall of 1968, the two reunited in the blues quartet Polka Tulk, which also featured guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward. After briefly re-christening themselves Earth, Geezer suggested changing the name to Black Sabbath in early 1969. While Black Sabbath’s self-titled 1970 debut album laid the foundations for their deafening, sludgy hard rock attack, the follow-up Paranoid was their creative and commercial breakthrough, selling four-million copies in the U.S. alone on the strength of fan favorites like “War Pigs,” “Iron Man,” and the title track; Butler wrote the songs’ lyrics, drawing heavily upon his fascination with the black arts to explore recurring themes of death and destruction.

Over the next couple decades, the lineup of Black Sabbath underwent several changes, with Geezer leaving the group briefly in 1979, but returning soon thereafter to join the group and it’s new front man, Ronnie James Dio. After a solo stin in 1984 with the “Geezer Butler Band”, Butler returned to Sabbath for 1992’s Dehumanizer and 1994’s Cross Purposes. Geezer released Plastic Planet in 1995 under his solo “G/Z/R”, followed by Black Science (1997) and Ohmwork (2005)

In 2006, Black Sabbath was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Geezer Butler, along with bandmates Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, and Bill Ward appeared at the ceremony. That same year, Butler re-formed the Dehumanizer-era Black Sabbath line-up with Iommi, Dio and Vinnie Appice as “Heaven & Hell”. The band performed together until 2009.

In 2011, it was announced that Butler, Iommi and Osbourne were returning to the studio to record “13” (2013), which would be their last studio album. That reunion album went on to land the band their 2nd Grammy award for the song "God is Dead?". Geezer has had a total of 5 Grammy nominations and 2 awards in his lifetime. The band embarked on their final tour, “The End”, and subsequently released a CD of the same name in 2016. The band performed their last show on February 4th, 2017 in Birmingham, where it had all begun almost 50 years before.

After retiring from Black Sabbath, Butler took a short hiatus to travel and write. In 2018, Butler was approached by Matt Sorum of Guns N’ Roses and soon after, Butler joined “Deadland Ritual”, comprised of Sorum, Steve Stevens (Billy Idol) and Franky Perez (Apocalyptica). The band released their first song, “Down In Flames” in December 2018 and kicked off their tour in May 2019

After the pandemic hit, Deadland Ritual called it a day but Geezer continues to write music. He’s also now working on his first book.

Stay tuned…..