This weekend, Black Sabbath will play their last-ever show in America in San Antonio. After that, they’ve got 15 more shows that will find them playing South America before closing out their career in 2017 with a show in Ireland and a handful of shows in the UK. While Ozzy has announced that he’s working on another solo album, Austin360 caught up with bassist Geezer Butler to chat with him about that. When asked what he thought of the band’s legacy, Geezer admitted that life without Sabbath won’t be the same;
It will be bittersweet. It has been a great achievement lasting so long and still being relevant — it’s something to be proud of, but my life will be very empty without the band. I hope our music will be around for a very long time after we’ve gone.
He doesn’t have to worry about that. There were lots of dads with their kids at the Sabbath show we saw earlier this year, and as inventors of a genre, their legacy will carry on for years. He also said that Charles Bradley’s cover of “Changes” is one of the best covers he’s heard. He also commented on the way that Sabbath have gone from being a feared and “evil” band to the mainstream act they are now.
I think it comes from longevity; the shock of the new wears off pretty quickly, and hate turns to acceptance. After all, Elvis was seen by some as a kind of demon when he started, playing the “devil’s music,” and you can’t get much more mainstream than him now.
Thanks for the memories, Sabbath. If you want to commemorate their last show in America, you can crank up “Black Sabbath,” as Geezer calls it the heavies song they’ve written. As far as what’s next, his solo career G/Z/R wasn’t brought up, but the band’s Wikipedia page says that there’s an album TBA coming next year. Their last one came out in 2005.
