He is one of the most influential bass players in hard rock and metal.
His heavy, dark bass sound will lead to the development of genres like Doom Metal.
He was a major part of the creation of some of the most important albums in the history of metal.
Beyond being a bassist he is also the lead lyricist in his band.
The band that his one of its founders is probably the band that created the metal genre.
This bassist is Geezer Butler and he's celebrating his birthday today.
So we will tell about 40 important facts about him:
(Photo: Erika Goldring)
1. He was born on 17 July 1949 in Birmingham England as Terence Michael Joseph Butler.
2. His parents were Catholics of Irish descent and the working class.
3. He grew up in a poor family with 6 more brothers and sisters.
4. The nickname Geezer was given to him at the age of 8 in school because that was how he used to call everyone. It was slang for the word "man."
5. Butler also became vegan at the age of 8. After becoming famous he also helped the organization PETA - an organization of people with a moral attitude towards animals.
6. As a teenager he was influenced by the mystical Alistair Crowley. The impact will also be evident in the lyrics he will write later in his career.
7. In 1967 he formed his first band together with Ozzy Osbourne who studied with him in school. It was called "Rare Breed". Butler played guitar there.
8. Butler and Ozzy later teamed up with guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward, and along with slide guitarist Jimmy Phillips and saxophonist Alan "Aker" Clarke, formed "Polka Tulk", which played blues music.
9. After only two shows, in September 1968, the last two were fired and the band changed its name to "Earth".
(Photo: Premier)
10. The band played mostly blues and at this point, Butler switched to playing bass, as he was not interested in playing the second guitar alongside Tony Iommi.
11. The first time he played bass guitar was also the first time he took the stage with the band. He even lent a bass guitar to a friend because he did not have one.
12. The bass player who influenced him the most was Jack Bruce from "Cream".
13. After the members found out about the existence of another band called "Earth", the band was renamed "Black Sabbath". The one who suggested the name was Butler was inspired by the horror movie of the same name.
14. When Black Sabbath was formed Butler was still studying accounting, this training of his would help him manage the financial affairs of the band in its early days.
15. The first album called "Black Sabbath" was released on Friday, February 13, 1970.
16. It was not just a debut album, but an album that is the mainstay of the heavy metal genre and the album that will lay the foundations for Doom Metal, with a particularly heavy, metallic, and gloomy sound.
17. This sound is attributed, among other things, to Geezer's bass guitar sound, which was heavy and gloomy, and became so identified with "Black Sabbath".
18. Although metal runs through his veins, he is very inspired by Jazz and in 2005 said he has a lot of jazz songs written.
19. Beyond playing the bass Butler became the band's lead lyricist. His lyrics had motifs from science fiction, fantasy, religion, horror, and occultism.
20. Butler was one of the first to make use of the "wah wah" effect on a bass guitar, as can be heard on "Master Of Reality" album, the band's third album from 1971.
21. After eight albums with Black Sabbath and following the dismissal of Ozzy Osborne in 1979, Geezer left the band for a short time, to deal with a crisis in his marriage that led to the divorce.
22. The band's comeback album "Heaven and Hell", with singer Ronnie James Dio, was recorded with bassist Craig Gruber, but Butler returned to the band at the last minute and managed to re-record all the bass roles before the album's release.
23. Butler left "Black Sabbath" again in 1984, after completing the tour that accompanied the album "Born Again", recorded with Ian Gillan.
24. Butler will return to the band several months later during attempts to record an album with singer David Donato, but he will leave the band again shortly.
25. In 1988 Butler joined his friend Ozzy Osbourne's backing band, with whom he immediately went on a tour supporting the album "No Rest for the Wicked".
26. In 1991 Butler returned to "Black Sabbath" in honor of the reunion of the Ronnie James Dio lineup along with drummer Vinnie Appice. Together with this band, he will release the excellent album "Dehumanizer" which was released in 1992.
27. In 1994, after a tour that accompanied the album "Cross Purposes", Butler left the band once again.
28. Butler joined garlic for Ozzy Osborne in 1995 ahead of the recording of the album "Ozzmosis".
29. After recording the album with Ozzy, he formed the band "G / Z / R" and in 1995 he released his first album "Plastic Planet".
30. In 1997, Butler released his second album, "Black Science". This time it was under the name "geezer".
31. That same year Butler returned to "Black Sabbath" ahead of the "Ozzfest" tour and the reunion album with Ozzy "Reunion" that would follow.
32. In 2005 he released his third solo album "Ohmwork", this time under the name "GZR".
33. In 2006 he was again a partner in the "Black Sabbath" Dio era reunion, this time under the name "Heaven & Hell". The band will release the album "The Devil You Know" in 2009.
34. In 2013 he reunite with Iommi and Ozzy and the three released Sabbath's album "13", an album which was a kind of a closer for the Ozzy lineup. Together with this lineup, he will release in 2016 the EP "The End".
35. In 2018 he founded the supergroup "Deadland Ritual" together with Matt Sorum, Franky Perez, and Steve Stevens. The band has released two singles to date and we are eagerly awaiting the album.
36. In 2015 Butler was arrested for assault and vandalism. He attacked a drunken neo-Nazi in a California pub after he started slandering Jews. Butler claimed that his wife - Gloria butler was Jewish and that he wanted to teach the neo-Nazi a lesson.
37. Butler pulled out a spring knife on Malcolm Young from "AC/DC" during the 1977 "Technical Ecstasy Tour" in which "AC/DC" opened for Sabbath. "AC/DC" would leave the stage like a wreck, which took Sabbath's stage workers a lot of time to reorganize. That was enough for the drunken Geezer to pull out a spring knife on Malcolm at the hotel bar where they were staying.
38. Butler's son - Trans "Beef" Butler, is the lead singer of the non-metal band "Apartment 26".
39. In March 2021 Butler stated that he used the "Horns metal sign, as early as 1971. He provided a picture proving his words. According to him, although he used to use it before, Dio adopted the sign and he will always be identified with it.
(Photo: Pinterest.com)
40. Butler influenced an entire generation of bass players: Steve Harris, Cliff Burton, John Myung, Billy Sheehan, Jason Newsted, Rex Brown, and others cited Butler as an inspiration in their playing.