In a recent interview, Geezer Butler reflected on the inevitable inception of Black Sabbath. The bassist explained the relationship between Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne back in the days:
“Ozzy had been to school with Tony, and they hated each other. Tony had bullied him at school, so it was me one day, Tony the next day, so Ozzy decided he’d go with me because he didn’t want to play with Tony. That’s how we started.”
Geezer continued that after he formed Rare Breed with Ozzy, one thing led to another, and they came across Iommi once more:
“We did two shows together in Rare Breed,” Butler continued. “Then I got fired from work and wanted to go into music full time, so we went round to Tony’s house to see if he knew any drummers. Bill was there at Tony’s house. He said, ‘I’ll join the band if Tony does’ and there we went, first as Earth, then as Sabbath.”
In a 2022 interview, Tony explained his current relationship with his former bandmate:
“Yeah, I’m in touch with Ozzy more than anybody. We talk on a regular basis, probably every other week, something like that. We’ve stayed in contact a lot. In fact, I’ve done a track for Ozzy’s album, as well. I wrote a track and played on it for Ozzy’s new album.”
Butler, on the other hand, revealed in a recent interview that him talking to Ozzy is prohibited. He said:
“I haven’t spoken to Ozzy since the last [Sabbath] gig [on February 4, 2017]. Osbourne and Gloria [Butler, Geezer’s wife] fell out, and that was it; we’re not allowed to speak to each other by command of our wives. I’ve seen Tony [Iommi] a couple of times. We got given a lifetime Grammy in 2019, and that was the last time I saw Bill [Ward].”
Black Sabbath got disbanded in 2017 after ‘The End’ tour. You can watch the band’s final performance on stage below.