Geezer Butler looked back on rehearsals for Black Sabbath’s “Back to the Beginning” concert during an appearance on his wife Gloria’s podcast “Gabbing with Girlfriends.”
The bassist fielded viewer-submitted questions during the pod, including one about his initial reaction to the idea of performing that final, epic concert at Villa Park in Birmingham. In his response, Geezer also reflected on seeing Ozzy Osbourne at rehearsals and his initial shock when he saw the state of the late singer’s health.
“I suppose I was just wondering how everybody would do,” said Geezer about being approached to play the “Back to the Beginning” show. “I knew Ozzy wasn’t in the best of health. I knew Bill [Ward] hadn’t been well for a while. Tony [Iommi] was up for it, and I was up for it as long as everybody else was. And I said ‘yeah’ straight away, ‘I’ll do it.’ Especially as it was at Villa Park, [the home stadium of] my football team and one of the earliest places I ever went to and I was a little child.”
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Butler went on to recall the rehearsal sessions, which began with two days of Tony, Bill, and Geezer playing together. Ozzy made his appearance on the third day.
“The only shocking bit was when Ozzy came in,” Butler said. “I knew Ozzy was very ill, but I didn’t realize how ill he was. … on the third day, Ozzy came in and he was helped in by two helpers. And I was just shocked to see him like that. And, of course, being Ozzy, he had to crack a few jokes and things. And they had like an armchair set aside so he could sit down to sing through the songs, ’cause he couldn’t stand up.”
Added Butler: “I think we rehearsed about six or seven songs and picked out four or five. We knew we could only do four or five ’cause of the time limit, and we picked out the four or five songs that sounded the best and which we were most comfortable with. And after that, we fell into the old Sabbath again. Ozzy could only do it once, could only rehearse, go through the songs one time and then he’d leave and we’d sort of carry on.”
Geezer would also add that the “Back to the Beginning” concert was personally special as it reconnected him with his former bandmates, including Ozzy, who he didn’t see for about six years due to a falling out between his wife Gloria and Sharon Osbourne.
“Because you and Sharon had fallen out, I didn’t see Ozzy at all for about six years after the last gig,” Geezer told his wife during the podcast. “Then you and Sharon [were] talking and everything was okay again, and it was great to finally get to talk to Ozzy again. We used to text each other every day. He used to send me some funny things and I’d send him some funny things. It was just great to be back together again after all these years. I mean, he’s probably my oldest friend. I’ve known him for 57 years, so it was great to get back together again.”
You can stream the full podcast episode with Geezer below.