Geezer Butler is up for playing one final Black Sabbath show at Aston Villa’s ground.
There was a “lot of miscommunication” between the bassist and frontman Ozzy Osbourne over Geezer not contacting him over his ongoing health issues, but it turns out, it was a misunderstanding; he wasn’t ignoring him – and they are both on good terms now.
Appearing on Eddie Trunk’s ‘Trunk Nation’, Geezer explained: “There was a lot of miscommunication (before).
“He didn’t think I was asking about his health because I know he’s been going through a lot of health problems, and I was sending all these messages to him and they weren’t being passed on to him. So he thought I was just ignoring him.”
He continued: “The weird way I had to go through Sabbath’s accountant to tell Ozzy I’d sent him all these things. Because he did this thing in Rolling Stone saying that I hadn’t been in touch with him about his health.
“So I went through the accountant, and he got in touch with Ozzy and said, ‘He’s just been sending you stuff. He wants to talk to you.’ And we’ve been fine since that.”
In an expletive-laden rant, Ozzy had told Rolling Stone: “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****** phone call. Not one f****** call.”
He continued: “It’s sad, man. We all grew up together, and he can’t pick up the f****** phone like a man and see how I’m doing. Even Bill Ward has been in touch with me.
“I’m not in shock, I’m just very f****** sad that he can’t just call me after all this time and say, ‘How you doing?’ F****** a***hole.”
In response, Geezer said: “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 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.”
Sharon recently dropped a huge hint that Ozzy will play two gigs in Aston, Birmingham, at Villa Park, the home of Premier League giants Aston Villa.
She said: “We will do it in Aston Villa where Ozzy is from.”
“Of course there’s an interest (on my part to do it), but there’s a big ‘but’ — you’d have to speak to Bill about it. Everybody wants to do it (but I don’t know if he is) capable (of pulling it off).
“I’d love to do it. I’d absolutely love to do it.”
And Geezer is keen.
Ozzy is also determined to reunite with former drummer Bill Ward – who opted out of their reunion tour in 2012, with Tommy Clufetos stepping in for both those concerts and the final ‘The End Tour’ in 2016-2017 – one last time, but that’s down to him.
Geezer said: “Ozzy was hoping to finish it all off next year back in Aston, at the Aston Villa ground. I’m definitely up for it, to finish the whole thing off.”
When asked if guitarist Tony Iommi or Bill Ward were aware, he replied: “Me and Ozzy have agreed, but I’m not sure about anybody else.”