Geezer Butler Is Working On A Book About Growing Up And Early Black Sabbath

Geezer Butler has revealed that lockdown life amid the coronavirus pandemic has afforded him the time to start work on a book.

The Black Sabbath legend has not only done "tons" of reading himself over these past few months, but he's now begun to form a tome of his own, focussing on his life growing up, and how the heavy metal titans formed.

"I'm currently putting together a book about growing up in Aston, Birmingham and how Sabbath came about…" he tells Wall Of Sound, "but I'm really enjoying semi-retirement and not having to do anything or be anywhere, especially after being away from home for most of the last 50 years."

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Reflecting on everything he's achieved in this past half-a-century, Geezer enthuses, "It’s a great achievement to still be relevant 50 years after we recorded our first two albums. We honestly thought we’d last a few years, then be forgotten about. Fifty years ago any form of popular music was seen as a passing fad – people even thought The Beatles would be forgotten about after they broke up, but nobody then [realised] how powerful the nostalgia effect would be."

Previously, Geezer told Kerrang! of growing up in Aston that he had a "really happy childhood because my favourite football team, Aston Villa, were just down the road from where I lived".

His family were also close to the local church (he was brought up Catholic), and Geezer enjoyed the proximity of it all. "We didn’t have any cars when I was growing up, so we were restricted to Aston, which was fine by me," he said.

"There were also burned-out cars we’d play in, and a factory across the road," Geezer continued. "I could hear the noise every day, but when you’re growing up that’s all you know. There’s no other kind of life or place that you are aware of. I had no reason to leave Aston, though we used to go to Dublin every other year because that’s where my mum and dad were from. We’d visit aunts and uncles, as well as my grandma. That was the extent of our holidays back then."

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