Geezer Butler’s Lost Decade: “I Nearly Died” — Kerrang!

Despite Butler’s evident disillusionment with his former band two years earlier, speculation had been rife that the original Black Sabbath line-up would attempt to bury their differences and reform. The rumours were proven true when Geezer, Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne reunited to close the latter’s Ozzfest touring festival in the summer of 1997. Drummer Bill Ward also finally returned for two homecoming shows in December at the Birmingham NEC, which were captured for posterity on the Reunion live album (a million-seller in the US alone). This rapprochement would allow for Sabbath – minus Ward on a number of occasions – to remain as a functioning unit until their final bow in February 2017.

If the politics surrounding the band have, at times, been complicated, on a personal level the quartet have enjoyed an enduring friendship, mutual respect and shared affection for the music that they have made together. In fact, legacy has always been an issue for Sabbath, with the original four members finding it hard to match the impact of their original first decade together.

Attempts to get the original line-up to record together down the years have floundered. Two new studio tracks – Psycho Man and Selling My Soul – appeared on the aforementioned Reunion album but were dismissed by the band themselves as being substandard. For Butler, a subsequent attempt at recording a Sabbath album led to a further burst of creativity and his third solo album, Ohmwork.