Black Sabbath bass player and songwriter Geezer Butler recalls the only occasion he went to a football match with the band’s frontman Ozzy Osbourne.
“It was England against some Soviet-era team, I can’t remember which one,” he starts. “But when England scored Ozzy pretended to be a Russian supporter and put on this really silly, ‘crying and howling in despair’ act, really loudly, and the England supporters around us were trying to console him. Nobody knew who he was.”
Ozzy recently manifested to the size of a mountain at the Aston Villa versus Celtic match in the Champions League, in the form of a tifo. The Prince of Darkness was an imposing and unexpected presence from the Holte End. “The Ozzy Tifo was a surprise,” says Butler, “especially as he’s never been to a match! But he’s probably Aston’s most famous person. People were saying it should have been me on the banner since I’ve been a Villa fanatic since I was a toddler, but unless you were a diehard Sabbath fan, you wouldn’t have had a clue who I was!
“I thought it was a good game, Celtic gave a good example of themselves. Because of my Irish heritage, Celtic has always been my ‘second’ team. I always look for their results.”
As well as Villa, Aston can lay claim to inventing heavy metal, with all four members of Black Sabbath coming from the area. However, it is safe to say that Terence ‘Geezer’ Butler – who has associated Villa with the “smell of pipe tobacco” from when he “sneaked in as a kid” – is Sabbath’s most ardent fan.
“The only other member I went with was [guitarist] Tony [Iommi], who only went because I was being honoured with a Birmingham Hall of Fame-type thing at Villa Park. While I watched the match, Tony stayed in the bar. He has absolutely no interest in football, but ironically was best mates with Trevor Francis and Andy Gray.”
Gray, the former Villa and Wolves player, is a favourite of both Butler and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant. Both enjoyed watching the Glaswegian striker play a vital role in securing the League Cup for their club. “Andy Gray was a fantastic player,” says Butler, “one of my all-time favourites. I remember one special goal he scored when he dived and headed a ball about four inches off the ground into the net…marvellous!
“Charlie Aitken [Edinburgh-born player who made a record-breaking 660 appearances between 1959 and 1976] was also a hero of mine and I sat next to him a couple of seasons ago, not long before he ...
