![]() He kept pressing it, “I wonder what this does?” The next thing, the police turned up - it was a panic button. One day Ozzy noticed this button below one of the windows. Completely mental! We used to have bucketloads of cocaine there, and we had this big bowl in the middle of the table, full of cocaine. That wouldn’t have happened any other way.įBPO: One shudders to imagine what the four of you living together in 1972 must have been like.īutler: It was mental. I think there are things on there that wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t all been together like that - like “Changes,” which started because Tony was playing a piano at the house we were staying in and Ozzy came up with the melody and I came up with the lyrics. And we had a really good time living together, ’cause it was the first time we actually lived together to write and make an album. We went to Los Angeles, so the weather was a lot better than we were used to in England. Where does it fit for you?īutler: Well, it was different because we didn’t have a producer on that album. 4 is a lot of fans’ favorite Black Sabbath album. I think the name, Black Sabbath, people associated with black magic and all that kind of crap, whereas the lyrics were about the evils of the world - pollution and war and that kind of thing.įBPO: Looking at the latest reissues, Vol. ![]() So we had our own integrity kind of thing.įBPO: And there was a great image and kind of mystery to the group as well, which had some appeal.īutler: But it wasn’t to do with Satanism or anything like that - in fact, “Black Sabbath,” the first song on the (first) album is a warning against Satanism and getting involved in black magic and that kind of thing, which was a bit of a thing at the end of the ‘60s, early ‘70s in England. And the subject matter was a lot different to what everyone else was writing. Because it’s so live-sounding, it doesn’t date. The first three albums were, like, live in the studio. I think because there was just one guitar and a bass to put the music across, I used to follow a lot of Tony’s riffs, and then when he’d do solos or choruses I’d go off on a tangent to fill in.įBPO: So what’s your read on why the band and the music has endured as it has?īutler: I think it’s because Tony’s riffs were absolutely amazing, and I think every guitar player tried to play “Iron Man” or “War Pigs” or “Paranoid.” I’ve had so many people over the years come up to me to say, “The first thing I ever learned on guitar was “Iron Man.” It’s not mind-boggling science or anything, the stuff we were doing. I said, “I’ll switch to bass, then,” and with the encouragement of Tony and Bill, their patience with me, I started learning from there.įBPO: What were the biggest lessons as you were learning?īutler: Just staying to what I know, don’t try and do something you can’t do. Tony didn’t want a rhythm guitarist in the band. I said, “That’s what I want to do from now on, play bass!” Then when I got together with Tony (Iommi) and Bill (Ward) and Ozzy. I went to see Cream at the local club I was mesmerized watching Jack Bruce, ’cause I’d heard of Eric Clapton but I’d never heard of Jack Bruce….and it was fascinating watching Jack Bruce. To mark the occasion, we interrupted Butler’s family skiing vacation in Utah (he stays away from the slopes himself) to revel a bit in Sabbath’s glorious past…įBPO: How did you come to be Black Sabbath’s bass player?īutler: I used to play rhythm guitar and rhythm guitar was going out of style back then. 4, the first album the band produced itself and recorded outside of England, and Heaven and Hell (1980) and Mob Rules (1981), which marked the arrival of Ronnie James Dio for a short stint, replacing Ozzy Osbourne. ![]() This spring the group is remembered via expanded reissues of three key albums - 1972’s Vol. In 2019, meanwhile, Black Sabbath received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award after winning three other Grammys. The group created a heavy rock template for bands from Mötley Crüe to Greta Van Fleet - and to Spinal Tap - making its 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction wholly deserved, if overdue. The British group’s status is iconic, enough so that classic tracks such as “Paranoid,” “Iron Man” and “War Pigs” are heard as much now as they were during the early ‘70s. But we’ve hardly heard the end of Black Sabbath and founding bassist Terry “Geezer” Butler. Black Sabbath declared “The End” back in February 2017.
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