Geezer Butler Opens Up About Depression and Its Relation to Black Sabbath Song “Paranoid”
If you’ve never experienced depression, consider yourself a very lucky person. If you have, then you know that it can be crushing, debilitating, and devastating. It’s one hell of a mean disease and it fights dirty. Sometimes great art can come from depression, although admittedly most people would trade their art for the relief of not being depressed anymore. Still, some of the greatest art in history was made because of depression. And because of drugs, but the drugs were often taken to deal with the depression, so they’re related. Apparently Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler found the writing of the classic 1970 Sabbath song “Paranoid” to be a cathartic way to express his depression.
“Paranoid” isn’t a song with subtle lyrics; it’s clearly about depression. But apparently it was also a form of therapy for Butler’s depression at a time when he wasn’t able to get the help he needed professionally. In a recent interview with TalkShopLive (that was transcribed by Blabbermouth), Butler opened up about his experience with depression, and this is what he had to say:
“Unless you’ve experienced true depression, you can’t describe it. It’s like you’re going to this awful black hole. And people would say, like, ‘Oh, just go and have a drink or take the dog for a walk.’ That’s what the doctors used to say. ‘Well, go and watch television or read a book.’ And, of course, you’ve got no interest in anything. So the only way I could express myself was writing the lyrics for [BLACK SABBATH’s classic song] ‘Paranoid’. I mean, I wasn’t depressed all the time, but when I used to get the bouts of depression, you just couldn’t explain it to anyone, and you were terrified that you go to a mental health person, maybe, and they put you in hospital for years, in a mental institution. So you’d never go to doctors or anything like that. And so you just had to get on with it. And the only way I could get it out of my system was to write the lyrics.”
Undoubtedly, it’s, in part, because of the fact that “Paranoid” was written during a bout of depression and is about that depression that it’s become such an iconic classic. A lot of people are depressed and, while I doubt anyone’s ever done a survey on the topic, I’m certain a large percentage of metalheads suffer from depression. People who wear all black and listen to abrasive songs about death and destruction seem like they might be a group that’s a tad prone to depression.
As for how he’s doing now, Butler said that a treatment in 1999 helped him a lot:
“Good now, yeah. ‘Cause in 1999, I was finally properly diagnosed, and they put me on Prozac for six weeks. And the doctor says, ‘It’s not gonna work straight away. Keep taking it for six weeks and eventually you’ll start feeling like normal again.’ And I said, ‘Well, what’s normal?’ After six weeks, this big cloud seemed to lift off me. It was great.”
I’ve never heard of anyone being successfully and permanently treated for depression in only six weeks. I’ve been on SSRIs most of my life and expect to be for the rest of it. Are we sure that Butler saw a doctor and not a magic wizard? And can I get that wizard’s phone number, please?
All jokes aside, we’re glad to hear that Butler is doing better now.
