Geezer Butler names one “cringy” Black Sabbath song: “Maybe because I wrote it, and I hate listening to stuff that I’ve written”

Geezer Butler performing live in 2019 — (Image credit: Stephen J. Cohen/Getty Images)

Geezer Butler has named one Black Sabbath song that he finds “cringy”.

In an interview with Lifeminute, the heavy metal pioneers’ longtime bassist is quizzed about a line in his autobiography Into The Void which called some Sabbath songs “cringy”.

When asked to name an example, he picks Gypsy from the 1976 album Technical Ecstasy. Explaining his rationale, Butler says (via Ultimate Guitar), “Maybe because I wrote it, and I hate listening to stuff that I’ve written. Just the whole thing about it is just, I don’t know… it’s weird.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Butler discusses the accusations of Satan-worshipping that were levelled at Sabbath during their early days. He clarifies that the band’s first song, Black Sabbath, was a warning against the occult and Satanism, not a celebration of it.

“Because there was a big black magic thing going on in England at the end of the 60s – everybody was getting into black magic and Satanism and all that kind of stuff,” the bassist says. “So the song Black Sabbath was actually warning people about getting into black magic and Satanism.”

He adds that the backlash was particularly strong in America. “And nobody really cared about it in Europe and England. So when I got to America, I couldn’t believe how big Christianity still was. And all these people that were trying to turn pro-Christianity lyrics… they were trying to make it against us, and they completely misinterpreted us.”

Butler co-founded Sabbath with guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward and singer Ozzy Osbourne in 1968. The original lineup, sans Ward, embarked on an extensive farewell tour before retiring in 2017. Osbourne has since retired from touring altogether due to health issues.

However, all four classic Sabbath members, including Ward, have recently expressed interest in a live reunion. The one-off comeback could possibly take place during the two retirement shows Osbourne plans to hold in his hometown of Birmingham.

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Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.