Geezer Butler opens up on battles with depression
‘You're not supposed to get depressed if you're a rock star…’
Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler has opened up about battling depression at a time when mental illness was not widely recognised or spoken about.
Butler was guesting on NPR's Bullseye With Jesse Thorn to promote his new autobiography, ‘Into The Void: From Birth To Black Sabbath - And Beyond’.
He said: "When I did get depression, people used to think I was moody and miserable, and they'd be going, 'Well, what's the matter with you? What's happened to you?' And nothing bad had happened.
“So they were saying, 'You've got all the money you want, you've got your house, you've got your cars and everything. What's wrong with you? Cheer up.' And they couldn't understand that it's nothing like that.
“You can have everything you can possibly want in the world, but when you get into those dark, depressing days, nothing matters. All you think about is, like, 'So I'll just end it or what.' And luckily I used to come out of it."
Watch: Black Sabbath – ‘Killing Yourself To Live’ (Official Video)
Butler continued: "I just wish people could have understood that I wasn't miserable at the time. If you're a rock star or whatever, if you're in a band, you're supposed to be this happy person and you're up all the time and everything is available to you, and you can do this, you can do that.
“You're not supposed to get depressed if you're a rock star and all that kind of thing. It was just hard coming to terms with it and admitting that's where it was. It was just the occasional thing; I wasn't depressed all the time or anything like that.
“It's just that when I'd get into those black holes, I just couldn't get out of it, and it wasn't until it was diagnosed that I finally found a way out of it."
Butler was Black Sabbath’s primary lyricist and his mental state coloured many of the band’s songs.
Watch: Black Sabbath – ‘Paranoid’ (Official Video)
The band’s signature song ‘Paranoid’ was as much about depression as paranoia, as Butler himself has previously said.
"Basically, it's just about depression, because I didn't really know the difference between depression and paranoia,” he admitted in a 2013 interview.
“It's a drug thing; when you're smoking a joint you get totally paranoid about people, you can't relate to people.
“There's that crossover between the paranoia you get when you're smoking dope and the depression afterwards."
If you're struggling with your mental health, help is available from a number of sources, including the Samaritans and CALM.