Geezer Butler: The Beatles “gave us some hope that British musicians could actually become successful”
The Beatles have long been held up as the pinnacle of British music, but while they’ve undoubtedly been influential in musical terms, they’re also responsible for helping to put British music on a global stage.
READ MORE: “We used to boil all our strings, so all the crap would come off them, and they’d sound almost new again”: Geezer Butler shares how Black Sabbath used to save money
It’s for this reason that Geezer Butler has said that the Beatles were a “massive influence” on Black Sabbath, as their success showed them what could be possible.
“They were a massive influence, because there was nobody else like them at the time,” he tells Michigan rock radio station WRKR (transcribed via Blabbermouth). “And up until then, it was, like, my brothers were into like Elvis [Presley] and Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly, that kind of thing. And there was no real English [rock bands].
“All the English rock and rollers were trying to sound American and copy of an American [band], and they never succeeded. And then when the Beatles came along, they had a completely original sound. And they were all literally from Liverpool, which is 90 miles from where we were born. And it just gave us some hope that British musicians could actually become successful.
He added: “And as soon as the Beatles were successful, then you had The Rolling Stones and The Kinks and The Who, Herman’s Hermits, a whole explosion of British pop music.”
The Beatles in 1963. Credit: Reg Lewis/Getty
Butler’s bandmate Ozzy Osbourne is also a noted Beatles fan, once saying that meeting Paul McCartney was “like meeting Jesus Christ”.
In other news, Butler also recently recounted the time bandmate Tony Iommi “beat the absolute hell” out of a bunch of skinheads. The incident took place when they were playing a gig in Weston-super-Mare early in their career.
“There were three different varieties of skinheads in England. The first was the mods, who turned into townies, and the townies turned into skinheads. Their sworn enemy was anybody with long hair, or bikers,” the bassist explains in another interview.
“And, as usual, this was with our first manager. We’d do these gigs, and we’d go to get the money for the gigs, and [they’d] go, ‘Oh no, we’ve already sent it to your manager.’ So, with this gig we did, our manager promised us that we’d get the money at the end of the night. So, we did our show, [and] I went to the guy that was putting the show on, and I said, ‘Where’s our money?’ He says, ‘I’ve already sent it to your manager.’”
As the band’s accountant at the time, Butler headed out to the telephone box to call their manager, all while the skinheads “surrounded the telephone box, chanting, ‘Kill the greaser, kill the greaser!’”
“Because, if you had long hair, they used to call us ‘greasers,’” he continues.
“So I’m going, ‘Oh no, I got no money, and I’m going to get kicked to death now by the skinheads.’ So, I pretended to keep talking on the phone, pushed the door out, and ran back into the gig, told Tony and Ozzy I couldn’t get through to the manager because all these skinheads just threatened to kill me.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
