The curse Geezer Butler allegedly put on a Black Sabbath thief
If it wasn’t already clear, Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler is not a man to be messed with. Despite his peaceful demeanour, something which often saw him become the butt of the band’s in-jokes, the musician is not a figure who will suffers fools gladly. Perhaps the best example of this is the 2015 incident that saw his fist meet with a Nazi’s chin in Death Valley, California. It’s not just skin on skin violence that Butler allegedly has at his disposal though as a lesser-known rumour from 1980 claims the bassist turned to magic to enact his revenge.
As pointed out by Dangerous Minds, a December 1980 article by Andrew Epstein in Record Review magazine was the first to break the story of Butler as a curse-inducing vigilante. In a feature called Bits & Pieces, Epstein recalls a story about the alleged theft of Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi’s 24-fret SG Custom made by John Birch — the luthier who also crafted instruments for Butler.
Iommi’s long-necked axe is a significant model, as he primarily used it on the records Technical Ecstasy, Never Say Die, Heaven and Hell, and Mob Rules. Around this period, which would also see frontman Ozzy Osbourne depart, with Ronnie James Dio taking his place, Iommi also used the guitar heavily in live performances.
Whilst the facts of Epstein’s article are dubious, with his dates of certain shows all wrong, it claims that one night in Chicago, on the US leg of the Heaven and Hell tour, his SG was stolen. The report describes how the heartbroken Iommi mourned for his special guitar until one night, it was mysteriously returned to him with a note attached. The letter was from the thief, who explained that they were compelled to return the guitar after his life had become an unending misery since his crime.
Since stealing the instrument, things had gotten so bad for the anonymous crook that it culminated in a severe traffic accident that saw him hospitalised. Per Epstein’s account, the note instructed the Black Sabbath guitarist: “Take it, take this cursed thing from my life so that I may never see it again.”
The journey was not yet over for the storied guitar. Epstein’s piece claims that when Black Sabbath turned up to play in Dallas, Texas, it was stolen again. Before proceeding any further, it should be noted that Epstein got his dates so muddled that Sabbath actually stopped in Dallas before Chicago. The Texan date occurred on July 5th, 1980, with Chicago on August 18th.
Regardless of the muddled dates, this story has a delicious and salacious edge that makes it utterly tantalising for the band’s fans. One thing is sure: the instrument had an eventful couple of months. The most remarkable claim from Epstein’s article states that Geezer Butler put a “hex” on the supposed second (first) thief.
Epstein didn’t stop there. He said that Tony Iommi issued an eerie warning to the guitar’s second thief after Butler’s hex: “I know there are a lot of people who won’t believe this, but I’m very concerned about the person who has stolen the guitar. It’s bad luck for anyone other than me to have that axe, and I don’t want anything terrible to happen.”
