Black Sabbath bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler has revealed the inspiration behind the band’s Grammy-award winning song,“God Is Dead?”, from their latest album, “13.”
“[Guitarist] Tony [Iommi] came up with most of the music, and then we all worked together to arrange it,” Bulter tells Grammy.com about the track, which picked up honors in the "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" category. “Ozzy [Osbourne] always jams along to us, and he came up with the title "God Is Dead?" He remembered the [1966] Time magazine [cover story titled] "Is God Dead?" — but he remembered it as "God Is Dead." I had a mini-argument with him about it. I looked it up online and showed him that it was "Is God Dead?" Then I read the Nietzsche philosophy about it.”
"I wrote it about a person who thought it was completely revolting to think that somebody would say that, and it sticks in his head and he keeps hearing it in his mind,” Geezer continued. “So he turns violent in the end and
sets out to murder everybody. It was also inspired by the shootings that were going on at the time in the States. People were saying that ‘God told them to do it,’ and stuff like that.”
“That was one of the first songs we started writing together, so that probably took the longest to [finish],” he adds. “There was a lot of work before we got to the studio, and we knew that was a good song. The lyrics were written the night before recording them.”
On Monday, Black Sabbath resumed their “13” world tour with a show in New York; they’ll now play a 3-week run across Canada.
See also:
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