Black Sabbath haven’t exactly carved their legacy on being advocates of a straight-edge lifestyle. Over the course of their career the band have harnessed the title of the most unhinged and debaucherous rockers in the industry. In a recent interview with Metal Hammer, bassist Geezer Butler delved into his first experience with acid.
Butler recalled that the first time he partook in the hallucinogenic he took enough for a small army. The trip that ensued is described as being a completely nightmarish affair.
“Probably when I took my first acid. It was actually enough for four people, but I didn’t know, and we had a gig the next day,” Butler explained. “I thought I was a skeleton, I got in the van and they all went, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ I said, ‘Can’t you see? I’m a skeleton!'”
The rocker then went on to detail that in his blissed-out state, he thought that flowers in a nearby park were attempting to break into the van the band were travelling in.
“We were driving along and there was a park on the side of us with all these flowers in it, and I thought the flowers were trying to get into the van,” Geezer explained.
“I went on stage and thought it was on a boat and the crowd were waves. It was horrendous. I was watching my hand playing the songs and I thought it wasn’t connected to my body. Scary.”
That story is enough of a cautionary tale for me to never want to touch acid in my life. I can’t imagine living in a state so altered that I believed flora to be the enemy. We owe it to the rockers of the 70s for living enough that we’re able to live vicariously through them.
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In related news, Black Sabbath recently unveiled a Black Lives Matter t-shirt. The shirt borrows from the band’s seminal Master of Reality album artwork, with 100% of net profits being donated to Black Lives Matter.
