Ozzy Osbourne expressed his disappointment with his former BLACK SABBATH bandmate Geezer Butler, criticizing him for not reaching out during Osbourne’s struggles with various health issues in recent years.
In his autobiography “Into The Void: From Birth To Black Sabbath – And Beyond”, Geezer discussed his relationship with Ozzy, writing: “Me and Ozzy are fine. It’s just that we’re both ruled by our wives. He’s got a big heart and was always there for me in times of trouble… We might not be as close as we were, but we’ll always be brothers.”
Speaking with Rolling Stone UK, Osbourne said the lack of communication with Butler was due to a disagreement between his wife/manager Sharon and Geezer‘s wife/manager Gloria Butler.
“[BLACK SABBATH guitarist] Tony Iommi has been so supportive of me since my illness,” Osbourne said. “Geezer Butler hasn’t given me one fucking phone call. Not one fucking call.
“When his son was fucking born, I phoned him every fucking night even though we were at war with each other, BLACK SABBATH and me [after I was out of the band]. I thought, ‘Fuck it, he’s my mate. I’m gonna call him.’ But from him, not one fucking call.
“It’s sad, man,” he continued. “We all grew up together, and he can’t pick up the fucking phone like a man and see how I’m doing. Even [original BLACK SABBATH drummer] Bill Ward has been in touch with me. I said some things about Bill, and I don’t know why I said it, but when I came through my illness, he contacted me.
“I’m not in shock. I’m just very fucking sad that he can’t just call me after all this time and say, ‘How you doing?’ Fucking arsehole.”
When asked why he and Geezer were fighting in the first place, Ozzy said: “His wife and my wife had a falling out. But that’s got fucking nothing to do with me. Are you really going to hide behind your wife’s skirt because of that?”
Geezer discussed his strained relationship with Ozzy in an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock. When mentioning that he mentioned BLACK SABBATH guitarist Iommi in the book acknowledgements, writing Tony “actually still keeps in touch”,
Geezer said: “Yeah, he’s always been there for me. You know, he’s a good friend. We can slag each other to death. It’s like marriage, really. You have terrible arguments, you fall out and you come back together. But he’s always there. He always is. I hope he is after this book as well.
“I still love Bill, but he’s not on the Internet. If you want to talk to Bill, you have to e-mail his wife and she has to tell him. It’s really awkward. [Laughs] Ozzy I don’t speak to at all.” Asked if he thinks there’s a chance those lines of communication will open back up at some point, Butler said: “I very much doubt it. We didn’t fall out; it was the wives.”
While Geezer Butler and Gloria divide their time between Henderson, Nevada, and Utah, Ozzy and Sharon are in the process of relocating to the United Kingdom after residing in California for the past few decades.
