Terence "Geezer" Butler

This is the second installment in a series of profiles on some of Rock And Roll's most influential bass players.

As the founding bassist for the groundbreaking metal band Black Sabbath's Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler's bass playing and songwriting have been an inspiration to many later bassists.

Butler was born in Birmingham, England on July 17, 1949, and began his musical career in late 1967 as a rhythm guitarist when he and classmate John "Ozzy" Osbourne started a band called Rare Breed. This short lived band dissolved after the departure of Osbourne. Butler and Osbourne would soon work together again when guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward asked them to join an upstart blues band called Polka Tulk. At this time Butler was still playing guitar, but Iommi made it clear that he didn't want to play with another guitarist so Geezer moved to bass. "I never picked a bass up before Sabbath started," he stated.

After Butler and Osbourne agreed to join, the band soon changed the name to Earth, but this name didn't last either after finding out that the name Earth was being used by another English club band. So in 1969 the name Black Sabbath was suggested by Geezer and and Rock and Roll history was made.

Though Osbourne was the focal point of Sabbath, Butler wrote almost all of the band's lyrics, drawing heavily upon his fascination with religion and the black arts to explore recurring themes of death and destruction. He said, "I would not want to write something about something I do not think about."

Butler is noted as being one of the first bassists to use effect pedals on on his bass. An example of this can be heard at the beginning of the song "N.I.B" from Black Sabbath's self titled 1970 debut album. He is also one of the first bassists to down-tune from the standard EDAG to the lower C#F#BE in order to match Iommi who had started tuning to C#.

Butler remained as bassist for Black Sabbath until 1984 when he left to form the Geezer Butler Band. In 1988 he joined again with Ozzy Osbourne (who had left Sabbath in the early '80's) to take part in the "No Rest For The Wicked" World Tour. Butler rejoined with Black Sabbath in 1991 for the reunion of the "Mob Rules" lineup but quit the band again after the 1994 "Cross Purposes" tour.

In 1995 Butler again worked with Osbourne on the "Ozzmosis" ablum. He then went on to form the band G/Z/R and released the album "Plastic Planet". Butler's next album "Black Science" followed in 1997. Butler returned to Black Sabbath in 1997 and has remained with the band since. 2005 was the release of his third solo album "Ohmwork".

Through the years Geezer has used various guitars and amp setups. Early in his career with Black Sabbath he was known to use Laney amps with Laney cabinets. Later on he gradully switched to various pre-amps running through Crown power amps and custom built JBL speaker cabinets. Some of his earlier guitars included a Fender Precision and a Dan Armstrong plexiglass bass. Later guitars included custom made John Birch and Jaydee basses with the occasional Rickenbacker. Currently Butler is endorsed by and uses Lakland basses and for amplication he uses Ampeg SVT-2PRO Heads and SVT-810E cabinets.