Ozzy Osbourne is being sued by his former bandmate Bob Daisley for unpaid royalties
Osbourne’s lawyers have described former bandmate Bob Daisley’s $2million lawsuit against him as “harassment.”
Daisley played bass on Ozzy’s first two solo albums and has writing credits on the hit 1980 single Crazy Train, for which he says he is owed $2m in unpaid performance royalties.
He is now suing the Black Sabbath frontman and his firm Blizzard Music Limited for the $2m, a claim Ozzy will “vigorously defend.”
A statement from Ozzy’s legal teams reads, “For the past 36 years Mr. Daisley has been receiving bi-annual royalty statements and checks from Blizzard Music, totalling in the millions of dollars, which have been routinely cashed.
Mr. Daisley has audited Blizzard Music accounts over the years using several different auditing firms who found no discrepancies. He has previously filed lawsuits in the UK and the US and has lost on each occasion.
We understand that Mr. Daisley is now in retirement and that these funds are his main source of income, so it is his right to be diligent with his money, but after 36 years, this is tantamount to harassment.
We would have hoped that after 36 years that Mr. Daisley would have lost his unhealthy personal obsession and resentment towards Mr. Osbourne’s success. Blizzard Music and Mr. Osbourne plan to vigorously defend these proceedings.”
Crazy Train was the first single from Ozzy’s debut solo effort Blizzard Of Ozz and was written by Ozzy, Daisley and late guitarist Randy Rhoads.
Daisley is paid regular songwriting credits for the track and his lawsuit relates to performance payments only. He says that an audit carried out in 2014 shows Blizzard Music Limited has been “improperly deducting undisclosed fees before distributing royalties to Daisley.”
Daisley’s lawyer Alan Howard says, “While Mr. Osbourne was benefiting from the songs co-authored by our client, the audit shows that he was systematically short-changing Mr. Daisley.
Mr. Daisley had no choice but to bring this action to secure his fair share of the proceeds those songs have generated.”
The lawsuit is the latest blow for Ozzy, who is receiving treatment for sex addiction. His marriage to Sharon Osbourne is on the rocks after it was revealed he had been having an affair with his hairdresser.
source: Classic Rock
16 Responses
…On a lighter note, Ozzy’s new show “Ozzy and Jack’s World Detour” on the History channel is really good, IMO. Funny as hell, and you even learn some stuff about history that either you never knew, or forgot about, like Ozzy! LOL!!!
For God’s sake Doug, that show is dull, boring….Jack should just get a life, it’s pathetic watching Ozzy try and prop this poor kid up……why does this fleeting notion of fame have to be the only road to validation for Jack and his average sister?
Daisley, it seems, looked at the fine print and saw he was being shorted, not surprising, I wish him all the best..
Ozzy is a phenomenal talent, an incredible vocalist, and composer of melody…he is the soul train of rock and roll…..however, now Ozzy is a dumb reality TV personality, then you have Ronnie, the most literate of rockers, he wrote in Biblical terms, saying something vast and profound in a very simple way…he’s now a goddamn hologram…it’s just monstrosity after monstrosity.
“Call me the Devil, it’s true, you can’t accept, but I crept inside you…” so much irony…God we were so lucky.
Doug,…the show is factually inaccurate: Ozzy couldn’t have descended from Neanderthals, that is a completely different species than human, with a gestation period of twelve months as opposed to nine, the humans wiped them out…how funny, Ozzy is part Neanderthal, that’s pure b.s. for TV, moreover, Neanderthals didn’t do anything artistic, nor anything to comment on their own existence…
We actually had the luxury of thinking that Turbo and Unmasked were not good albums…in hindsight, they’re great records…..we had it made with these bands man.
Shannon, bro, my crazy clown from another town, lighten the f-ck up dude!!!! Don’t you have a sense of humor? Or any kind of sense? Sorry, didn’t mean to be in-sensitive! O.K., so you don’t like the show, to each is own, it’s not perfect, but still better than 90% of all the other bullsh-t that’s out there today! I like watching Ozzy hit his head, boink! I thought it was pretty cool seeing Ozzy return to the Alamo after all these years, scripted or not. Don’t get so “pissed” dude, it’s just a TV show! UHHH!!!!! 99 bottles of beer on the wall… just kidding! 😉
Has anyone read Bob’s autobiography? I’ve been wondering about what’s been going on with those two ever since a Kerrang! interview with him in the late 80s. He was quoted as having written most of those songs, but a few weeks later he wrote in to Kerrang! saying that he had been misquoted and denied his authorship! Then these lawsuits started flying.
I read the book, it was a fascinating, and enlightening (literally, since Bob is a devout Buddhist), read. He is also a very talented songwriter and lyricist.
D 🙂
How many Viagra does it take to get Ozzy going? Any guesses? Gotta be at least 3.
I think Bob and Sharon should hook up.
Yes, because we all know how well that went for the legendary Mr. Rhoads. 😉
D 🙂
I met Bob and his wife last year when he came to see a band I’m in and he’s a great guy. Read his book too and hopefully this time he get’s what he is owed.