Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler Discusses What’s Not in His Memoir

Geezer Butler says he isn't planning a sequel to his 2023 memoir Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath – and Beyond. That's mainly because he wants to avoid legal action.

Brian Posehn asked about his plans during a Colorado event dubbed Filling the Void. "Um, it depends if I'm gonna get sued or not," Butler responded with a laugh, "'cause I had to leave out so much stuff."

The autobiography was nevertheless brutally honest, as Butler revealed his battles with self-harm and depression. "Back then nobody ever said anything about depression or anything like that," Butler said on NPR's Bullseye With Jesse Thorn, "and people were terrified to mention that you might be depressed because you automatically thought you were gonna be taken away to a mental hospital and be locked away forever. So you couldn’t talk about it to people in case that happened.”

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He began cutting myself to "get relief," Butler told Uncut. "One day, I cut myself so deeply that I couldn't stop the blood."

Butler wrote lyrics for the Black Sabbath classic "Paranoid" in an effort to work through his feelings, but only much later sought treatment after what he said was a "mental breakdown." The doctor prescribed Prozac and Butler said, "after about six weeks on that, the depression started lifting. I've been on various antidepressants ever since."

Watch Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ Video

Why Geezer Butler's Autobiography Was Revised

Yet even those dark revelations don't compare with some of the things Butler said he ended up leaving out of Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath – and Beyond.

He admitted that the editing process was grueling. That's another reason Butler isn't expecting a second volume. "They were saying, 'Oh, you can't say that.' 'You can't say that.' 'How can you prove that?' and all that kind of thing," Butler remembered. "So I don't think there would be enough for another one."

In the meantime, Butler and former longtime bandmate Ozzy Osbourne have publicly argued over who's to blame for their lingering absence in one another's lives. But Butler confirmed that he was still open to some sort of Black Sabbath reunion.

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