'They said I couldn't say that!' Geezer Butler forced to cut out 50 pages of memoir

Geezer Butler had to remove a chunk of his memoir for legal reasons credit:Bang Showbiz
Geezer Butler had to remove a chunk of his memoir for legal reasons credit:Bang Showbiz

Black Sabbath star Geezer Butler had to cut out "at least 50 pages" from his memoirs for legal reasons.

The 73-year-old rocker is best known for being part of the heavy metal band alongside Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne and explained that when writing his memoir 'Into the Void' - which is due to be released on June 6 - that the "original manuscript was deemed unsuitable for modern readers" and he was forced to omit some of its content when lawyers descended upon the publishing house.

He told The Sunday Times: "At least 50 pages of them [had to go]! I had this whole thing back from them, ‘You can’t say this; you can’t say that. I said, ‘I was with Black Sabbath, not the Osmonds.’ "

Geezer - whose real name is Terence - also explains in the book that the band ended up stealing various items from gigs and selling them for scrap metal after firing band manager Patrick Meehan and finding themselves without a great deal of cash despite signing a massive record deal.

He said: "God knows how much Warner Brothers advanced for the albums. Apparently, it was one of the biggest amounts of money ever in the record business. All we wanted to do was play music."

Meanwhile, the 'Sweat Leaf' hitmaker endured a nervous breakdown in 1998 just after the band had got back together and went on to add that all these years later he is unable to really enjoy anything nor feel any "misery" towards anything because of the medication he is on.

He said; "I think it’s probably because of the antidepressants I’m on. You can’t get really excited about anything. but you can’t get miserable about anything.”

''Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath and Beyond' is due to be released on Thursday 8 June.