BLACK SABBATH bassist Geezer Butler recently spoke to Frankie DiVita, radio personality at Southern California’s 96.7 KCAL Rocks, about the band’s long-awaited new album “13”, which is expected to arrive this spring.
About the new album’s title, Butler states:
Well, it was sort of a temporary name, that we had something to refer to the album as, and I think it kind of stuck. But I don’t know if that’s gonna be the final title or not. [It was named partly because it’s coming out in the year 2013] and originally, we were gonna put 13 tracks on the album. We ended up doing 16 tracks, so I’m not sure what’s gonna on the album and what isn’t.
On the recording process of “13“:
This is the first time we’ve done an album together sober; none of us have been drinking or doing drugs or anything, so it’s been more professional in that way. And we’ve stuck to a schedule every day. We’d go in at one o’clock and finish at six, just to keep everything fresh. Five hours a day — that’s it.
On the inspiration of the album:
It’s sort of got the feel of the first three albums — back to the basic rawness. And the lyrics are very… They’re just about life…. Life and death and doom and everything else. You get Prozac with every album.
Butler also talked about the band’s decision to hire RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE‘ sBrad Wilk as the drummer for the album:
That was Rick Rubin’s idea, ’cause he wanted to have… He didn’t want a typical heavy metal drummer on the album, ’cause it’s not really a heavy metal album; it’s more of a rock… heavy rock. And Rick Rubin suggested having Brad, ’cause he’s more in the vein of Bill Ward. So we jammed with him and he sounded great with the stuff, so we went with that … It’s sort of back to the way we used to be in the ’70s; that’s his feel — sort of a jazzy, bluesy feel to him, and that’s the way the music is now. It was great working with him.
