Geezer Butler Says Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ Was Based On Jesus

Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler recently joined The Eddie Trunk Podcast for an interview and revealed that they were inspired by Jesus while writing the song ‘Iron Man.’

After releasing their eponymous debut album on February 13, 1970, Black Sabbath returned to the studio in June 1970. Although they set the album’s title as ‘War Pigs,’ they later changed it to ‘Paranoid.’

In September 1990, Black Sabbath then released the title single ‘Paranoid,’ which became their only top ten hit. Later on, they released the album in October 1970 in the UK, and it topped the UK Albums Chart following the release.

Sabbath also released ‘Paranoid’ in the US in January 1971. They then embarked on a tour in the US for the first time and released the album’s second single ‘Iron Man.’ Although it failed to achieve chart success, ‘Iron Man’ became one of Sabbath’s most popular songs.

Speaking to Eddie Trunk, Geezer Butler revealed they were inspired by Jesus while writing ‘Iron Man.’ According to the bassist, the song is about Jesus Christ’s life, and it bears similarities with Iron Man’s story. However, the main difference between them is that Jesus died to save people, while Iron Man is vengeful.

About Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man,’ Geezer Butler told Eddie Trunk the following:

“It was based on Jesus Christ. He’s this guy who goes and does good and then comes and tries to spread the word and ends up being crucified for telling the truth. And that was Iron Man seeing the future and coming back to tell the world how horrible it will be, and people turn against him. Whereas Jesus died to save people, Iron Man takes his revenge. That is a big difference.”

You can listen to Black Sabbath’s song ‘Iron Man’ and the podcast below.