In a recent conversation on Full Metal Jackie's weekend radio show, Geezer Butler discussed his memoir "Into the Void," reflecting on his storied career and sharing insights on various topics, including his views on religion, his disappointment over drummer Bill Ward's absence from the band's final tour, the transformative '60s, and Black Sabbath's records with Tony Martin.
Asked about his thoughts regarding the Tony Martin era, Butler shared (as transcribed by Loudwire): “There was just one album that I did with Tony Martin that was, God, I can't even remember Cross Purposes. Tony Martin's a great singer and he was good to work with. There were no bigger egos or anything. He got down to it when he needed to. That was a good album for me because a lot, half of it was probably written by me, but the music side of it. I went round to Tony's one day and played him all this because I was doing a solo thing at the time and I'd got tons of material. I played him some of the stuff that I'd been writing, and he really liked a lot of it. So I think about half of it ended up on the album.”
When Jackie commented about Ozzy’s comments regarding how he regrets the absence of Bill Ward during Black Sabbath’s final album and tour, and how he'd like to do a final show with Ward, Butler agreed with the sentiment: “Well, obviously, I'd love Bill to have been on the final album and the final tour that we did. I think Bill was a very proud person and he didn't want to come along and just do three or four songs. He insisted on doing the whole set and the whole album.”
“And I think people said he wasn't up to it health-wise. And we couldn't risk booking a whole worldwide tour and then having to cancel it after a few days. And so we respected that. We were all sad about it, that he couldn't really do it. But yeah, I'd love Bill to have been on the last album and tour.”
As the primary lyricist for Black Sabbathh, Butler often channeled his disillusionment with organized religion into the band’s lyrics. When asked if his views had changed over time, he acknowledged the shift that comes with age.
“I suppose they remain the same. I'm not as religious as I used to be, so that's definitely changed. I think I'm a bit more conservative than I used to be as I get older. Dirty old man. But the '60s was such an incredible time to be a teenager. All the music was changing everywhere. There were all these new ideas coming. The counterculture was going on at the time and there was a big backlash against organized religion, a big backlash against the establishment. The Vietnam War was raging, which my generation was totally against, and there just seemed to be so many things happening. There'd be new great bands coming out every other month, it seemed, and everything was just like, really vibrant.”
Butler also reminisced about the vibrant music scene of his youth, recalling how he saw some of rock’s biggest names before they became famous: "Yeah, one of the local bands that I used to see every week or so was Band of Joy, whose singer was Robert Plant. And you could tell from the first time I saw him, he was going to be massive. It was Rob Plant. And then John Bonham used to be in a local band as well, drummer. And you knew that he'd go on to greater things." Butler said.
