The Beatles aren’t a controversial topic amongst hard rock music fans, right? That never goes wrong when we bring that up. Nobody thinks the Beatles were overrated. Nobody is going to bring up that John Lennon was a wife beater. That’s definitely not all going to happen in the comments section, I’m sure of it. Anyway, apparently the Beatles were a massive influence on Black Sabbath bassist Geezer butler.
In a recent interview with Michigan rock station WRKR (that was transcribed by Blabbermouth) Butler explained how the Beatles were a major influence on him:
“They were a massive influence, because there was nobody else like them at the time. And up until then, it was, like, my brothers were into like Elvis [Presley] and Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly, that kind of thing. And there was no real English [rock bands]. All the English rock and rollers were trying to sound American and copy of an American [band], and they never succeeded. And then when THE BEATLES came along, they had a completely original sound. And they were all literally from Liverpool, which is 90 miles from where we were born. And it just like gave us some hope that British musicians could actually become successful. And as soon as THE BEATLES were successful, then you had THE ROLLING STONES and THE KINKS and THE WHO, HERMAN’S HERMITS, a whole explosion of British pop music.”
That makes sense. No mater how overrated you think The Beatles are, they caused such a monumental shift in music that it’s hard to find a band that can’t claim a direct or indirect Beatles influence. Even The Clash who sang “No Elvis, Beatles, and The Rolling Stones” can’t pretend The Beatles didn’t affect them. The Beatles obviously touched everyone.
Rick Rubin is an absolutely legendary music producer whose work spans several genres from hip-hop to heavy metal to punk to funk to pop. Having started out as a hip-hop producer primarily, he gained a positive reputation amongst rock artists after producing Slayer’s 1986 masterpiece Reign in Blood. Many consider him one of the greatest producers in the history of popular music, but apparently Black Sabbath didn’t enjoy the experience of working with him on their 2013 album 13 and wouldn’t work with him again. Of course, according to Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, that feeling is mutual.
In a recent interview with Brave Words that was transcribed by Ultimate Guitar, Butler talked about the early days of Black Sabbath when the band churned out five high-quality albums in approximately three years, as opposed to the band’s later albums which took much longer, and Butler said:
“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 like 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.”
And, when asked if he would ever work with Rubin again, Butler was pretty definitive in his
“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.”
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