Geezer Butler

The longtime bassist for the groundbreaking heavy metal outfit Black Sabbath, Terence "Geezer" Butler was born July 17, 1949, in Birmingham, England. As a teen he formed his first band, Rare Reed, with schoolmate John "Ozzy" Osbourne; in the fall of 1967, the two reunited in the blues quartet Polka Tulk, which also featured guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward. After briefly re-christening themselves Earth, the foursome adopted the Black Sabbath moniker in early 1969, borrowing the name from a song written by Butler, a disciple of occult novelist Dennis Wheatley. While B...