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SHOCKING: Geezer butler - What They Never Told You

"I still can’t believe that he’s not with us. There will never be another Ozzy." Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward share reflections on Ozzy Osbourne on the first anniversary of their friend's passing

"Gone in body, but his legend lives on"

Metal Hammer

“We’d just played the Black Sabbath farewell show and I thought, ‘What’s the worst that can happen if we ask Geezer to guest on our album?’” How Troy Sanders landed one of metal’s greatest bassists for a guest spot on Mastodon’s new album

Marrow Deep features an unexpected low-end hero – and according to Troy Sanders, it's the album’s defining bass performance

Guitar World

"We thought, 'What the hell is going on around here?' They thought he was some lunatic who got into the castle." How a ghostly apparition ended Tony Iommi's writer's block and inspired one of Black Sabbath's greatest riffs

With Tony Iommi suffering from writer's block, Black Sabbath did the most logical thing: They hired a haunted castle

Metal Hammer

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"Ozzy signed the book plates months before the final show." Black Sabbath announce first ever official book, featuring rare photographs and memorabilia, plus in-depth interviews with all four original band members

The Masters of Reality - Why Black Sabbath Matter is now available to pre-order

Metal Hammer

“One of the customs guys in Canada decided he hated Black Sabbath, so he smashed the neck with a hammer”: How Geezer Butler’s P-Bass survived a Sabbath hater’s attack – and ended up on the band's most iconic tracks

Butler’s iconic tone – sculpted by blasting his bass through a blown guitar cabinet – was made possible thanks to a beat-up 1968 Fender Precision Bass

Guitar World

“A few others were singing about the underside of life, but we had the heaviness to hammer the subjects home.” The inside story of Black Sabbath’s stoned masterpiece Master Of Reality

How Black Sabbath pushed metal to ever heavier levels on their immortal third album

Metal Hammer

“The bass you think of when you go to pick a bass. It’s magic and it really has no limits”: Fender celebrates 75 years of the Precision Bass with three stunning anniversary models

We've got bling with the AmPro PJ Bass, OG mojo with the American Vintage II 1951 Precision Bass, and a super-glam Player II P Bass in Diamond Dust Sparkle...

Guitar World

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“This is like the center of gravity for the bass world”: Geezer Butler, Tal Wilkenfeld and Nate Mendel hail the legacy of the P Bass, as Fender celebrates its 75th anniversary

Fender unveils the 75th Anniversary P Bass Collection featuring a a stunning American Professional PJ Bass, a Player II P Bass in Diamond Dust Sparkle, and a retro American Vintage II 1951 model

MusicRadar

"Substitute any Vietnam reference with any current war and the lyrics still stand up. I think the lyrics on Paranoid are timeless." How themes of war, madness and nuclear holocaust shaped Black Sabbath's second album

Black Sabbath ditched the hippy dream and faced brutal reality on Paranoid

Louder

"Seeing these dogs finally get a chance at freedom and loving homes is deeply moving." Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler backs rescue of 1500 beagles from Wisconsin breeding facility

Geezer Butler attended the beagle liberation alongside pop star Debbie Gibson

Metal Hammer

Watch Slipknot’s Corey Taylor and Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale sing Black Sabbath covers at Geezer Butler and Paul Rodgers tribute show this week

Taylor sang Paranoid and Hale took on lead vocals for a version of Neon Knights, with Butler playing bass for both performances

Metal Hammer

“They said, ‘You're playing heavy metal.’ I said, ‘Heavy metal… what's that?’” Why Tony Iommi shunned the heavy metal tag during Black Sabbath's early days

The Godfather of Heavy Metal was trying to channel the horror films he and bassist Geezer Butler used to watch – and that, in turn, would give birth to an entire genre

Guitar World

“Those cleaner tones are very characterful and usable, evoking classic tube-driven bass amps”: Ashdown Geezer Butler Pedal of Doom review

Geezer Butler helped invent heavy metal. Here’s a slab of heavy metal bearing his name.

Guitar World

“There was an advert saying, ‘Ozzy Zig requires gig.’ I said to Bill, ‘I know an Ozzy but it can't be him. He can't sing’”: Tony Iommi looks back at the birth of Black Sabbath – and their “horrible” first jam

The legendary riff lord is the subject of a new multi-part documentary from Gibson TV

Guitar World

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Metal Hammer

"In 2026 I shall have definitely, definitely have my solo album out": Tony Iommi films New Year message, reflects on the "Summer of Sabbath"

The Riff Lord has spoken

Metal Hammer

“The Alamo incident, bat-biting, dove head-biting, snorting ants”: Ozzy Osbourne was at his “wildest” during early days of solo career, says Black Sabbath bandmate Geezer Butler

Butler has penned a moving tribute to the late Prince Of Darkness, who died in July

Metal Hammer

"Who would you rather sleep with, Ozzy or Geezer?": Smuggling, private jets, and expecting the unexpected with the Osbournes

Witnessing the warmth and wit of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne

Metal Hammer

“I would have liked to have not chopped the ends of my fingers off. It became a burden”: The Devil, the blues and a factory accident – the story of the Black Sabbath song that kicked off heavy metal

Black Sabbath didn’t plan to start a new genre when they debuted in 1970, but their self-titled track is now seen as the place where metal began

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Guitar World

“I’m not sure why the tour ended so abruptly. I never got a bunch of my gear returned. People don’t get sacked from Sabbath – they just don’t get spoken to again!” Ask Jo Burt about Freddie Mercury, Brian Setzer and The Troggs – just not Black Sabbath

The veteran bassist on his Queen and Led Zeppelin links, love for fretless, fighting with a Music Man EQ, and Tony Iommi’s smile when Geezer Butler’s Ampeg rig made a bass feel like an animal

Guitar World

“This is your chance to own the sound that defined heavy metal”: Reverb and Ashdown are selling bass amps used by Geezer Butler during rehearsals for Black Sabbath’s final show

15 Head Of Doom amp heads will be sold exclusively via Ashdown’s Reverb Shop

MusicRadar

“This is your chance to own the sound that defined heavy metal. Don’t wait, once they’re gone, they’re gone”: Ashdown and Reverb are selling Geezer Butler’s Head Of Doom bass amps, signed by the man himself

This Reverb exclusive offers 15 of Butler's signature heads used for rehearsals for Black Sabbath's final show, each coming with a COA from Ashdown MD Dan Gooday

Guitar World

“I couldn't afford a real bass guitar, so I just tuned the strings down on a Telecaster”: How Geezer Butler went from playing bass on a guitar to the ominous riff that defined one of Black Sabbath’s darkest moments

Geezer Butler’s iconic bassline announces this tune from the classic 1970 LP Paranoid

Metal Hammer

“As soon as he hit the stage, everything changed.” Farewell to Ozzy Osbourne: Metal's first - and greatest - icon

How heavy metal's original madman became a global icon

Metal Hammer

"It was the four of us against the world." Behind the curtains of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne's historic farewell gig

In July, Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne performed their final show together. Weeks later, Ozzy passed away. Metal Hammer caught up with the band ahead of their final farwell

Guitar World

“Tony Iommi didn’t want a song by another guitarist on a Sabbath record.I never saw the money. But hearing Dio perform my song was unforgettable”: Jimi Bell may have lost out to Zakk Wylde in his Ozzy Osbourne audition, but he has no regrets

The drummer turned guitarist remains grateful for what Sharon Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Joan Jett and Randy Rand did for him, as he preps original music from his Deep Purple tribute band

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