Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath - and Beyond

by Geezer Butler

The longtime bassist for the legendary heavy metal band Black Sabbath looks back on their early days in working class England and their ascension to worldwide stardom as well as the band's later years

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Audiobook, Autobiography, Music Biography

274 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[Rebecca Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic memoir, I had a great time reading this! It was a very honest and down to earth telling of his early life to current days. As someone born and raised in the West Midlands, I found it very interesting reading about his early life in post-war Birmingham, which were similar experiences I have heard from my own family. He also talked about a lot of paranormal experiences he had with ghosts and premonitions, which was fascinating!
A lot of his tales of his time with Black Sabbath I had read about in Iommi's book Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath, but it was great to hear these stories from a different perspective, and there were also a lot of things that an had not heard about before! This book is also more up to date than Iommi's as it brings us to their final show and post-pandemic. It really is a miracle that all four members of the original line-up are still with us, reading some of the things that went on!
I loved finding out that Geezer is an introverted book hoarder, which I can relate to! He was very open about his experience with depression and mental health struggles. His love for animals and nature is heart-warming, I think he has now become my favourite member of Black Sabbath! I highly recommend this book to any Black Sabbath fan, or fans of rock and metal in general!🤘

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This an open and honest look at his life before and after Sabbath some funny and sad events and opens up on some parts of the sabbath history not widely discussed before. geezer honest about his drugs and alcohol problems

[Levent Pekcan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Şaşırttı, çünkü çok güzel yazılmış. Geezer Butler zaten Black Sabbath üyelerinin diğerlerine göre "okumuş" olanı kabul edilir, burada da o çizgi devam etmiş. Tüm grup üyelerinin nasıl derin bir fakirlik içinden geldikleri oldukça ilginç, keza tüm yaşananlara rağmen tüm grup üyelerinin hala hayatta olmaları da ilginç.

Tüm Black Sabbath kitaplarında olduğu gibi, burada da Tony Martin döneminden olabildiğince az bahsedilmiş, finaldeki teşekkür kısmında da adı bile geçirilmemiş. Belki bir nedeni vardır ama bunun biraz kötü olduğunu düşünüyorum.

Grupla özel olarak ilgiliyseniz, harika bir kitap. Geri kalanlara hiç hitap etmiyor.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Told with an almost alarming lack of passion. But some great stories still - and what a band, for the first 5 years anyway.

[Eric Van Houten · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a great tale of how Geezer became the person who made me go out and pick up a bass guitar. It’s honestly everything a Sabbath fan could hope for in a book. From the humble beginnings to all the turmoil and everything you’d expect from one of the most influential bands of all time. I loved reading it and would definitely read again, gave me everything I would’ve hoped for in a book about Sabbath and Geezers life within it.

[Harpal · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's bloody geezer! bass god. esp nice to read about lyric inspiration and their final tours/album, which are missing from the other memoirs. nice to know he drinks the same tea as i do.

[Jason Koivu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is how I like my rock'n'roll memoirs! Quick and to the point without much dillydallying with mundane shit that has little to do with the personal experiences and career which helped to make the artist who they are!

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s an absolute delight to listen to one of your favorite musicians from one of your favorite bands and discover he’s a truly lovely person.

[Robnrel · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘They’ say that there is no such thing as perfection. But ‘they’ clearly have not heard the first six Black Sabbath albums. Apparently men once landed on the moon, but I consider that six album run a greater human achievement. I truly do. So, one Terrence ‘Geezer’ Butler is the third member of the band to pen an autobiography, and I can tell you it is the best of the three. His story is funny, engaging and insightful. Geezer was completely transparent and honest about himself, even in some areas of his life that must have been painful to write. I had expected a run of the mill story featuring well trod tales that I already knew. What I got from this book was quite the opposite.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written and down-to-earth, Geezer tells his story with casual aplomb, while also taking on deeper issues. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill, Rock-Star-Bares-All kind of memoir. It’s great to finally have the Black Sabbath story told by, to use Tony Iommi’s word, “the intelligent one.”

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satisfyingly straightforward. As a fumbling bassist about a decade younger than Geezer, from a similar ethnic and religious background, his explorations of how his early faith, later skepticism, precocious vegetarianism -- long before it was fashionable-- and the expected details of life with Ozzy, Tony, Bill and seemingly dozens of bandmates all kept my interest. I admit not being a huge Black Sabbath fan who knows much about them past their first four groundbreaking albums, so a lot of the chronicles about their gigs, splits, reunions, and splinter lineups might be more relevant to the devoted followers of everything that Geezer has been associated with for decades in the studio, on stage, and on the road.

I would have liked the nitty-gritty about which kinds of basses he favored out of the over eighty he owns, and a deeper dive into intricacies of crafting the Sabbath sound, but this may be due to my own predilections for production techniques and bass processing and manipulation. He does provide solid information about his lyrics, and corrects the misreading and distortion of how his messages. He shows how what Sabbath was all about comes from a moral worldview (at its best), and also the damage drugs, drink, and debauchery created for its many members.

[Mike S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tony Iommi comes off as a coke-and-ego-crazed butthole quite a bit of the time, which was a bit of a bummer revelation (not a surprise though). Actually, the whole Sabbath ride seems like it was sorta snakebitten by buffoonery and mismanagement. If you love the Sabbs like I do, this book coupled with Tony's "Iron Man" are kind of essential. I'm glad everything ended on good terms and in financial solvency and that now Geezer Butler is in a position of enough prominence that I have acquaintances that name small dogs after him. That "Listen to Black Sabbath" t-shirt is right and was always right. Oh yeah, the bits of Mancunian slang and anglo-isms that got through editing are a delight.

[James Maskell · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the primary lyricist for Black Sabbath it isn’t too surprising that Geezer was able to put together a well crafted autobiography. He does clarify in his Acknowledgments that Ben Dirs did some significant editing to his original manuscript, but the result is certainly worth the collaboration. The final product is a well-organized and wonderfully entertaining account of Geezer’s life, including of course, some of the many tales of Sabbath’s craziest times.

[Jason Schneeberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This was a good book, I really enjoyed it and read it very quickly, but so much of it just seemed really rushed and so many aspects of Sabbath’s career was just briefly examined. I mean by page 165, we had already covered 8 albums by the band and Ozzy’s entire run with the band!

Not a bad memoir by any means, just don’t expect a lot of depth.

[RJ Pflueger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black Sabbath, being one of the bands I first really got into, have always been a love of mine. Getting to hear Geezer’s story first hand of how Sabbath came to be, their journey through constant criticism to their eventual global success, was a great read for any metal music lover!

[Geoff Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting biography of the Black Sabbath bass player, Geezer Butler. A nice easy read who doesn't sugarcoat his mistakes nor delve into self glorification.

I'm not a Black Sabbath fan at all, but the book was insightful. Great back stories of his and other bands.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great audiobook, narrated by the author!

[Johnmcdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Juicy, hilarious, violent. Loved it. 🤘

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this for a class it was awful

[Jonas Paro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ett måste om man älskar Black Sabbath och det gör man ju.

[Jon Flick · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I escaped the nuns and partook of the forbidden fruit of the seventies, Black Sabbath was my soundtrack. Geezer was the lyricist and the opening of 'Wheels of Confusion' led into my book, 'The Bogus Buzz.' I have waited many years for the tales of this tome and after rushing down today to buy it off the shelf, it does not disappoint. Born just down the cobblestone from the bombed out Spitfire factory, it is no wonder where Geezer got gloom from. He did elicit chuckles when he recanted the adventures of the band and the clown prince, Oz. Geezer bared his soul, telling of depression and how composing lyrics helped beat the blues back. Writing can be a double edged sword. Long passed friends of mine clutched at my coattails when I would attempt to close the laptop, wanting me to remain with them and I with they.
"Long ago I wandered through my life
in a land of fairy tales and stories
lost in happiness I knew no fear
Innocence and love was all I knew"
Black Sabbath
Wheels Of Confusion
Vol. 4
1972
Great going Geez!

[Kent Fletcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is an interesting read. I liked all of the background info on how Geezer cam up with the lyrics of songs on their early albums and how the band came together. I find it interesting that Geezer claims more than once that he was not a "heavy drinker/partier" but then goes into multiple stories about getting wasted and arrested or in some sort of trouble due to booze or drugs. I guess if he's comparing himself to other members of the band then yeah, not as heavy as the others but compared to most ordinary people, I would say he was a heavy partier.

[Tom Fordham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A train journey well spent. What a wonderful memoir. I've always heard Tony and Ozzy's perspective so to finally read Geezer's account was awesome for me. He's always been one of my favourite bassists and his memoir is vivid, and I couldn't put it down. Black Sabbath is a big part of my life and I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Finding out he's also an introvert with a book addiction was the most relatable thing I've read 😂

[Blaise · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. It’s a good book and a quick read. It moves pretty darn quick. It has some good stories and a little bit of name dropping. There is not a lot of music making information and some albums have very little info about them specifically. Not the most in depth of music books. The one topic that may get the most type is finances, mostly how he didn’t make enough money, yet the dude has multiple homes and mansions and all the stuff. Oh well.

[Brett buckner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a perfect autobiography from a heavy metal god.

[Ray Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't a huge fan of Sabbath back in the day, but we played a few of their songs in our garage band and just like the Stones, Deep Purple, and dozens of other bands, they are part of my history. I read Ozzy's book first because it looked funny and was. I've always respected Tony as a guitar player, so I followed up with his book. Now that Geezer has told his version of the tale, I had to check it out.

This is by far the most down to Earth of the three. Geezer certainly pioneered heavy metal and set the bar for laying down solid driving bass lines, but he wasn't a star like Ozzy or Tony. He also wrote the lyrics and was more the founder than anyone else, but he could step back and observe in a way Tony and Ozzy couldn't. It's a bass player thing. So, his story is just very real.

After the usual growing up as a working-class lad in post-war Britain, he goes against his family ambitions for him and joins a band. Like Ozzy and Tony, Geezer had gone to school and grown up in the same neighborhood outside Birmingham. Oddly enough, they all knew each other. After a mix up over a name for the early band, Geezer suggested Black Sabbath which was the name of a new song they had just worked up. The name stuck and the rest is history.

I really enjoyed this book. It was fun the re-visit stories Ozzy and Tony told, but from Geezer's perspective. The book was well written and a quick read. I recommend it. If you ever wondered what it was really like to tour a rock act, Geezer explains, it was really like the movie "This Is Spinal Tap".

[Max Ide · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid autobiography, and definitely an insightful read for any Black Sabbath fan. Butler gives interesting commentary and fun stories about his decades long career as a bass player, which may as well be fiction because of how absurd it was. With that being said, Butler’s writing style can be sloppy at times which is not his fault since he’s not a professional writer (unless you count writing lyrics) but it makes the content more difficult to digest. Butler also overuses certain expressions like “we got on like a house on fire” and “make him an offer he can’t refuse” which got annoying and cringey. I enjoyed hearing Geezer’s side of the Sabbath story, but I think his writing could have been edited and polished for a much better reading experience, which to be clear is not his fault at all, rather the fault of the editor.

Tangent:
At one point, Butler slanders progressive rock bands (prog rock is my favorite genre), which was upsetting to me and an unnecessary addition to the book in my opinion. It was also hypocritical considering Butler was treating progressive rock bands like the majority of music critics were treating Black Sabbath.

[Taneli Repo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black Sabbathin klassisten alkuvuosien biisien sanoittaja oli pääsääntöisesti Geezer Butler, joten – vähättelemättä kenenkään muun saavutuksia – se, joka on kiinnostunut Black Sabbathista myös sanoitusten eikä pelkästään pirullisten riffien ja Ozzy Osbournen dramaattisen lauluosuuksien ja Bill Wardin jazz-henkisten soolojen puolesta, on väistämättä kiinnostunut mitä Geezerillä on sanottavanaan bändin urasta. Eikä Geezerin panos toki sanoituksiin jäänyt, esim. War Pigsin melodisesta introsta melkein kaikki on hänen bassokuvioitaan.

Geezer käy läpi Black Sabbathin uran 1980-luvun hajanaisiin kokoonpanoihin saakka ja 1990-luvusta eteenpäin alkaen Dehumanizer-albumista, jossa Ronnie James Dio palasi bändin laulusolistiksi. Tämän jälkeen seurasi alkuperäisen bändin paluu, muutama sooloalbumi ja lopulta finaali "13" -albumin ja jäähyväiskiertueen myötä.

Vanhojen bändien elämäkerroissa/muistelmissa parasta on usein ajankuvaus, jota tässäkin on paljon. 1960-luvun brittiläisen työväenluokan elämä on aika kaukana kenenkään nykyään länsimaissa elävän elämäntyylistä, mutta samaan aikaan totta lienee, että pohjois-englantilaisen marginaalibändin matka maailmanmaineeseen lienee n ykyisin vaikeampaa kuin 1960–70-luvun taitteessa.

[Mikael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Det er som vores allesammens Allan Olsen siger det: Det mest interessante ved en musiker, er hans musik. Det gælder også i tilfældet Geezer Butler. Det er udmærket skrevet, men rimelig banalt. Side op og side ned med misbrug og misgerninger. Man undrer sig over, at musikken blev skabt og at de overlevede.

Begyndelsen og slutningen på affæren er bedst. Det er fint at læse om hans drømme og forudanelser. Og det er fint at fornemme, hvordan han overgiver sig til en tilværelse som pensionist. Han ville gerne være berømt og leve af musikken; berømmelsen vil han ikke have. Så selvmodsigende fremstår hans tilbageblik på et liv med rock'n'roll.

For fans. Måske.

[Bartek Szeluga · Rating 4 out of 5]

lubię poznawać te samą historię opowiedzianą przez różnych ludzi, żeby zobaczyć, jak bardzo różnią się poszczególne narracje wydarzenia. co ciekawe, zarówno Geezer jak i Ozzy podają dokładnie tą samą ilość kieliszków wódki, która zabiła Johna Bonhama (40), co wydaje mi się wartością nieco zaniżoną, gdyż tyle wypija średnio gość na polskim weselu, zanim przyniosą tort. ale może Bonham pił na pusty żołądek?