Curse words are a part of language and life, but for some, they are a rude and unnecessary term they would rather not use.
Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler opened up about the reason he doesn't use swear words, and his story sounds very familiar.
Appearing on his wife Gloria Butler's podcast 'On The Rags', Geezer explained his Irish Catholic upbringing is why he never curses.
He said: “When I was a kid, I had very, very strict Irish Catholic parents. There were seven kids in the house. None of us were ever allowed to swear.
“And so when I went out the house, I used to have the worst mouth in the street on me.
“And this one day I was calling everybody all these swear words and everything, and somebody complained about my language, and the police came to frighten me, to the house.
“My dad belted the hell out of me with his leather belt. That’s what stopped me swearing.
“And he said to me, ‘It makes you sound really, really ignorant, ‘because only think people swear because they can’t think of a proper English word to say.’
“That stuck in my mind. And when I went to swear, I’d think of a different word. And it expanded my vocabulary.”
The musician, whose real name is Terry, went on to explain where his famous nickname of 'Geezer' originated from.
He said: “It came because when I was at school, my brother was in the army, and he was based with a lot of Cockneys. And people in London call everybody ‘geezer.’ Just a man – like, ‘Hello, mate.’
"It's just like somebody calling you 'dude' over here [in America]. In England, it would be 'geezer.' So my brother used to come home from leave from the army, and he'd be going, 'hello, geezer. How are you, geezer?"
“And so because I had looked up to my brother when I was about seven years old. I’d go to school calling everybody a geezer. And so that’s how I got cursed with it.”
