Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
The ownership of Black Sabbath’s early demos was the subject of a legal issue that has been settled, as per theprp. Sharon Osbourne, the widow of Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne and a long-time important figure behind the band’s scenes, was contesting the rights to those recordings. Given that Black Sabbath had made those 1969 recordings under their previous incarnation as Earth, Jim Simpson, the band’s early manager, had planned to release them as “Earth: The Legendary Lost Tapes.” However, Sharon contested Simpson’s assertions that she was the owner of the recordings, and conflicting claims were made. The conflict had been going on for eighteen months by November of last year. Speaking on this week’s episode of “The Osbournes” podcast, Sharon affirmed that the band still had the rights to the demos after the dispute was settled.
We settled with Jim Simpson and the band now have their demos back… And all four of them [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, and we’re gonna talk about what everybody wants to do with it, and we’ll go from there.
After concurring with her son Jack that the demos had a “very different” sound, Sharon continued, saying this.
I just think it’s historically important for music lovers of that genre. And then we got [the rights for] the pictures that were taken at that time too. So, that is all so important… 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 going to do with it. So that’s great.
