In a recent interview with BraveWords, Black Sabbath‘s legendary bassist Geezer Butler shared his thoughts on the band’s final studio album, “13,” and the experience of working with renowned producer Rick Rubin. The album, released in 2013, marked the end of an era for the iconic heavy metal group.
Butler expressed mixed feelings about the recording process, noting that while some aspects were enjoyable, others were less satisfactory. He highlighted the contrast between the spontaneity of their earlier works – when the band recorded 5 albums in a little more than 3 years – and the more prolonged production of “13,” suggesting that the extended timeline may have diminished the raw energy and emotional impact of the music.
“Yeah, that’s the way it’s evolved, I suppose. I always think you just lose the spontaneity and the feel of stuff. But when we did the ’13’ album, that took forever. And some of it was great doing it, and some of it not so good. But… It just didn’t have the same feeling as the old ’70s album or even ‘Heaven and Hell‘ album. I loved doing ‘Heaven and Hell.’ But yeah, I think the longer you take over something, it becomes forced in the end, and you sort of lose the initial rawness and the feeling of the music.”
When asked about the possibility of collaborating with Rubin again, Butler‘s response was unequivocal: “Nope. He certainly wouldn’t work with me ever again. Or Tony. Tony was incredibly disappointed with him. In fact, Tony took some of the master tapes and redid them.”
Butler went on to discuss his preferred Black Sabbath albums, citing the band’s first three records for their raw, live-like quality. He also praised the work of producer Martin Birch on the Ronnie James Dio-era albums “Heaven and Hell” and “Mob Rules.”
“I always liked the first three albums because it’s so basic and you can’t really go wrong with it. We played them as a live gig in the studio kind of thing. So there was no ridiculous overdubs and all that kind of stuff. So I like the first three, and I like ‘Heaven and Hell‘ and ‘Mob Rules,’ because I like Martin Birch as a producer. And ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath‘ is a good album as well, good production-wise.”
Listen to his entire conversation with BraveWords‘s Tim Henderson, below.