Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler Reacts To Ozzy Osbourne's Criticism

11-27-2023

Rolling Stone UK cover with Ozzy

Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler took to social media to dispute claims made by Ozzy Osbourne in a recently published interview that the bassist failed to reach out to his longtime bandmate amidst Ozzy's health struggles the past few years.

Butler wrote, "Rumour has it; Ozzy is upset, saying he never received my get well messages. I made 2 different attempts at getting in touch during his illnesses. My first email (8 Feb, 2019) went through his office because I didn't have Ozzy's new number to text him.

"Sharon [Osbourne] responded but I didn't hear back from Ozzy. 11 months later (21 Jan, 2020),I emailed Sharon to check on Oz. That email went unanswered. I don't want to engage in a tit for tat. Having made 2 attempts to wish Ozzy well, without a reply, I figured it best to privately keep him in my thoughts."

Geezer's comments were a reaction to a new Rolling Stone UK interview that quoted Ozzy as saying, "You do find out who's a genuine friend when you've been through what I've had. Tony Iommi has been so supportive of me since my illness. Geezer Butler hasn't given me one f***ing phone call. Not one f***ing call."When his son was f***ing born, I phoned him every f***ing night even though we were at war with each other, Black Sabbath and me [after his sacking]. I thought, 'F*** it, he's my mate, I'm gonna call him.' But from him, not one f***ing call.

"It's sad, man. We all grew up together, and he can't pick up the f***ing phone like a man and see how I'm doing. Even 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."