In order to honour Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, who turned 71 years old yesterday (July 17th), famed photographer Mark Weiss, who just released his new book, The Decade That Rocked, dug deep into the vaults. He came up with the following video interview he conducted with Geezer back on August 23, 2016 at PNC Bank Arts Center in Homdel, New Jersey for Rock Scene.

Before becoming a bass player, Geezer Butler started on a two-string guitar. He played it for two years before he realized that if you put your finger on the fret of the string you’re playing, it makes a different sound. He eventually graduated to a six-string guitar and started learning Beatles, Kinks and Rolling Stones songs. He formed a band and started playing out. Everywhere they played, they only played once because they were so terrible. Disillusioned, the singer left the group but Geezer wanted to continue.

He saw an ad for a new singer who called himself Ozzy Zigg. In the ad were the magic words, “has own P.A.” Geezer met with Ozzy, set up an audition, and Geezer had a new singer. They formed a blues band with a saxophone player and a slide-guitar player. Now, all they needed was a drummer. Ozzy said he might know someone who might know someone. They went to Tony Iommi’s house and met with Bill Ward. Bill said he would play with them only if Tony could play with them as well. They agreed and began rehearsing.

That’s when Geezer realized that they didn’t need a slide-guitar player, a lead guitar player and a rhythm guitar player. So he started tuning down his Fender Telecaster to play the bass lines. A week of practicing and they booked a gig. On their way to the show, Geezer stopped at a former bass player’s house and borrowed his bass. This would be the first time he would play a bass and it would be in front of an audience. It didn’t go well at all. The band was actually beaten up afterwards.

In the following days, they realized that the saxophone player wasn’t cutting it. Tony refused to play with the slide-guitarplayer, so the two were asked to leave. With the new lineup change, came a new name. They called themselves Earth. However, there was already a band using that name, so they changed their name to Black Sabbath.