Happy Birthday: Geezer Butler

Today’s the birthday of longtime Black Sabbath member Geezer Butler, and when we use the word “longtime” to describe his tenure, we’re not kidding around. In fact, he was so devoted to the band that even during the windows in the ‘80s when he took a leave of absence from the lineup, he wasn’t really doing much of anything for anyone else, either. As such, we are forgoing our usual six-pack of track and instead spotlighting four non-Sabbath songs featuring Butler, and even two of those are a bit of a stretch to call non-Sabbath. Still, they’re more than worth spotlighting, particularly on Geezer’s b-day!

1. G/Z/R, “Drive Boy Shooting” (1995): Geezer hasn’t done a ton of work on his own, but he did opt to start his own band in the ‘90s, calling it G/Z/R. This track was one done with the assistance of the band Fear Factor, and it certainly shows that he’s still quite capable of rocking out with the best of them.

2. Ozzy Osbourne, “Perry Mason” (1995): Okay, so it’s not exactly the shock of the century to find one member of Black Sabbath playing on an album by another member of Black Sabbath, but in fairness, it wasn’t something that had ever happened before, so it bears mentioning.

3. Geezer, “Invisible” (1997): In case, you’re wondering, yes, this is the same band as G/Z/R. Apparently the clever name was too much for some folks, so they switched things up to something that was more obvious. Hey, if it sells more records…

4. Heaven & Hell, “Atom & Evil” (2009): Otherwise known as the Dio-era lineup of Black Sabbath under a new name. Alas, it was a short-lived endeavor, owing to the passing of Ronnie James Dio, but at least we got some good stuff out of them in their brief existence.