Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler hates 'supergroups'

Credit: Tilly Antoine

Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler opens up about self-harm and depression

Sun 18 June 2023 9:48, UK

Black Sabbath member Geezer Butler has discussed his battle with depression and revealed he regularly used to self-harm to “get relief”.

“People didn’t understand. You’d go to the doctor and he’d say, ‘Go and have a couple of pints’ or, ‘Go and walk the dog.’ I thought,” Geezer, who recently released his memoir Into The Void, said of his mental health battle in the latest edition of Uncut.

He continued: “‘Well, that’s not going to help me. Nobody talked about it and nobody understood it. I just thought in the end it was a normal thing to be depressed and I started cutting myself to get relief. One day I cut myself so deeply that I couldn’t stop the blood. People used to think I was really moody, but it was when the depression hit me I couldn’t get out of it, I couldn’t talk to people. People used to think I was miserable.”

Butler explained how he started taking antidepressants during a tour of America and has remained medicated since. He explained: “Then I wrote the song ‘Paranoid’ which is all about mental health stuff and it wasn’t until ages after that that I went to the doctor and they gave me pills. I had a mental breakdown, went to a doctor in America and he put me on Prozac. After about six weeks on that, the depression started lifting. I’ve been on various antidepressants ever since.”

The bassist further explained how he has a “big black hole” inside of him and called it a disease. Butler added: “I enjoyed the success of the album, absolutely. People would say you’ve got all this money coming in, you’ve got a No 1 album, what have you got to be depressed about? It’s like a disease – there’s nothing you can do about it, no matter how much money you’ve got or how happy you are with your job.”

Butler continued: “When you’re in it you don’t think you’re going to get out of it. I’d go into this big black hole. And once you’re in it you can’t remember what normal life was like. People used to think if you were depressed, that you were antisocial, miserable.”

His admission about his mental health battle comes shortly after Butler confirmed he doesn’t want to participate in another Black Sabbath reunion, stating, “I don’t want to do anything anymore”.