Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler suffered from ‘undiagnosed mental health issues’ for years

Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler, 73, is a famous and successful musician but nobody ever knows what is hiding behind a public persona. Butler has opened up about his mental health issues in his new autobiography Into The Void: From Birth To Black Sabbath - And Beyond - which is released on June 6.

This is not the first time Black Sabbath’s bassist Butler has spoken about his struggles with his mental health. In 2016, he told Classic Rock Magazine that he used to self-harm.

He said: “I used to be a cutter. I’d cut my arms, stick pins in my fingers, that kind of thing. I used to get really depressed and it was the only thing that could bring me out from it. If Sabbath hadn’t made it, I’d have been long dead. I’d have killed myself.”

In 2018, he told Guitar World that when he wrote the lyrics to Paranoid, it was a breakthrough for him as they were very personal.

He said: “I had been suffering from undiagnosed depression, and the only way of dealing with it was to write about it. It was quite cathartic.”

The musician had a nervous breakdown in 1998 right after the band reunited and added that he not able to feel much these days since starting medication, according to Bang Showbiz.

He said: “I think it’s probably because of the antidepressants I’m on. You can’t get really excited about anything. but you can’t get miserable about anything.”

His autobiography will tell his version of the story of the band - from its beginnings as a scrappy blues quartet in Birmingham to its later years.

Butler, who real name is Terence Michael Joseph “Geezer” Butler also writes of his childhood in a working-class family of seven in Luftwaffe-battered Birmingham.

Geezer Butler’s health struggles

The musician was down with pneumonia during Christmas 2022. His wife, Gloria Butler, had shared in a social media post about the diagnosis.

Gloria wrote: “After day 1 at Dr with my husband & was told he was negative for flu, Covid, strep & tonsillitis; I said…well, he’s positive for being a pain in my arse. Day 2 at Dr, he was told he has pneumonia. Although, still positive for being a pain; I now feel guilty for thinking that.”

Prior to that, he was unable to join for the small reunion at Commonwealth Games 2022 after an accident, according to NME.

Tony Iommi had said: “I don’t think he wanted to come over as he hadn’t been well with COVID. He’d been on holiday to Kenya and to Italy and had had an accident on a boat, cracking or breaking a rib about three weeks ago, so he was not quite in fine fettle to come over to play.”