A legal dispute surrounding Black Sabbath’s early demos has come to an end, as the four members have regained ownership.
The 1969 recordings, captured at Birmingham’s Zella Studios when the band were known as Earth, became a controversial topic when the iconic metal band’s first manager, Jim Simpson, announced plans to release the music in July last year. However, that never eventuated due to legal disputes between Simpson’s Big Bear Music and the band members themselves.
Now, Sharon Osbourne, wife of the late great frontman Ozzy Osbourne, confirmed that the matter is settled on the latest episode of The Osbournes podcast.
“We settled with Jim Simpson and the band now have their demos back,” she said, via Blabbermouth.
“And all four of them [the original members of Black Sabbath] own it, which is where it should be. All of that stuff should be theirs. So it all ended well. So, yeah, they own them. We’re gonna talk about what everybody wants to do with it, and we’ll go from there.”
Osbourne continued: “I just think it’s historically important — for music lovers of that genre. And then we got [the rights to] the pictures that were taken at that time too. So, that is all so important. I mean, listen, you [son, Jack] want those pictures. Everybody in the band’s kids and grandkids would love to see [them]… It’s special. And I’m just happy that it’s where it should be — with the band, and [they can decide] what they wanna do as a band, what they’re gonna do with it. So that’s great.
“[Simpson] did the right thing at the end of the day. He did the right thing for the band.”
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Following Simpson’s announcement last July, Osbourne took the matter public and shared on Instagram that Black Sabbath did not want the demos released.
“As you know, the Band do not want these tapes released, not least as they haven’t heard them despite you saying you would provide copies long ago,” Sharon wrote to Simpson. “You know that, as a band, Black Sabbath don’t take things lying down and you can be assured that if you go ahead with this against the Band’s wishes we will take any action where their rights are infringed, both here and in America.”
