GEEZER BUTLER

About 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 stint 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). 

Butler re-formed the Dehumanizer-era Black Sabbath line-up with Iommi, Dio and Vinnie Appice in 2006 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. 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 are set to kick off a tour in May 2019.

About GZR:

Whether it’s spelled G//Z/R, Geezer, or just GZR, the band founded by Geezer Butler & Pedro Howse is known for a very heavy sound.

“I like recording an album while its still fresh, that way you can treat it like an exorcism of ideas and pull the feelings right out of your soul, because it’s only then that you’re truly capturing something real.

Key to this mantra of keeping things real is the notion that GZR only really functions as a band and not as a whimsical solo project. While GZR is clearly Butler’s baby, it’s also one being reared by two other equally enthusiastic parents (Howse and Brown).

“It’s good to come together and blast things out as a band!” laughs the bassist. “You can come up with as many song ideas as you like, but it’s only when you play as a real band that you realize what’s any good!”

The ideas behind the songs on “Ohmwork” will be familiar to seasoned Geezer watchers and Sabbath heads alike: bad things in life.

However, it’s not all global meltdowns and spiritual bigotry that GZR are focused upon. As razor-minded singer Clark Brown explains the album’s most stirring song, the uncomfortable ‘Alone’, sometimes it’s the people you know best that piss you off the most: ‘Alone’ is about the times I needed something, either a helping hand, or guidance or even just a kind word and pathetically enough, the ones I thought I could rely on were nowhere to be found.

1995 - Plastic Planet

1996 - Cycle Of Sixty / X13 (Single)

1997 - Black Science

2005 - Killersongs (Split)

2005 - Ohmwork / In the Arms Of God (Split)

2005 - Ohmwork