Recently, Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath participated in an episode of the podcast On The RAGS , hosted by his wife, Gloria Butler , to talk about his life, his leisure time, and his inspirations.
During the conversation, an interesting question arose about why Geezer Butler never swears, to which the bassist responded with a story about a childhood trauma. “When I was a kid I had very, very strict parents who attended the Irish Catholic Church. There were seven kids in the house. None of us were allowed to swear, so when I was out of the house I became the biggest foul-mouthed kid on the street,” he recalled.
“One day I was cursing everyone and someone complained about my language, and the police came to our house to scare me. My father hit me with his leather belt. That's what made me stop cursing. He told me, 'That makes you sound very ignorant because only brutish people swear because they can't think of an appropriate word to say.' That stuck with me. Every time I wanted to swear, I thought of a different word, and that expanded my vocabulary,” he concluded.
During the conversation, Geezer – whose real name is Terry – also revealed that his famous nickname originated during the time his brother served in the army alongside British soldiers. “People in London call everyone ‘geezer,’ which just means a guy, like, ‘Hey, man?’,” he explains. “My brother would come home from the army and say, ‘Hi, geezer. How are you, geezer?’ and because I was seven years old and admired my brother, I’d go to school and call everyone ‘geezer.’ And that’s how I got cursed with the word.”
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