“Happy Birthday Geezer” 

July 17, 2019

By Jim Culp

It’s very hard to look at website pages sometimes and see that your nieces and nephews are graduating high school or posting photos of being in college. For me, it is a sign that I am getting old and better start enjoying life a little more before I am dead.

One thing that seriously gives me a swift boot in the ass is seeing my musical idols turning 60 something years old. For some of them, I am surprised they made it past 30. Hell, Keith Richards is going to be 76 this year, and Willie Nelson turned 86 in April. It’s funny, because Willie wrote a song in 1961 called “Funny How Time Slips Away.” I never paid it the slightest bit of attention until I woke up one October morning, and I was 50.

Today we celebrate the birthday of one of my guitar idols, Mr. Terence “Geezer” Butler. Geezer is the godfather of Heavy Metal bass guitar, going all the way back to 1969 with the official formation of Black Sabbath. The world would never be the same. In a time when Rock and Roll was all about good drugs, bad drugs, hippie styles, and beach boys…Black Sabbath would perform songs such as “War Pigs” that expressed their opinions on the war in Vietnam, or would sing songs about the Devil roasting people on a fire for his pleasure. Oh my what a field day those “Make sure you leave a check” evangelists had with that.

Geezer Butler turned 70 years old today. He is now in his 10^th band, Deadland Ritual, and still rocking the world with his incredible song writing and bass guitar. People like Geezer make me feel young again, and ready to take on another 10 years of life.

Happy Birthday Geezer. Rock on!!