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

11-27-2023

Ozzy Osbourne Rolling Stone UK cover with Ozzy

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."