Sharon Osbourne, the wife and manager of the late Ozzy Osbourne, has settled a legal dispute with Jim Simpson, the first manager of Black Sabbath, over Simpson‘s plans to release an album of tracks from the pre-Black Sabbath days of Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward.
Simpson, who managed the band in their earliest days, announced last year — weeks prior to Osbourne‘s passing — that he intended to release a collection of 1969 demos recorded before the band adopted the Black Sabbath name. The material, titled Earth: The Legendary Lost Tapes, was initially expected for release in July 2025, but Osbourne‘s legal threats put a block on its release, warning Simpson against moving forward without the band’s approval.
The demos in question feature Black Sabbath‘s original lineup during the brief period when the four musicians performed under the name Earth.
Osbourne offered an update on the legal dispute during an appearance on the latest episode of The Osbournes podcast, telling her son Jack (as transcribed by blabbermouth.net): “We settled with Jim Simpson and the band now have their demos back. 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.”
She added that the Earth recordings are “very different” from what Black Sabbath eventually became, featuring a more blues-driven direction. She explained, “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 [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.”
Osbourne also thanked Simpson for eventually working out a deal with the members of Black Sabbath so that the recordings would end up under their ownership.
“He did the right thing at the end of the day,” Osbourne said. “He did the right thing for the band.”
Simpson, now in his late 80s, previously claimed to have paid for the recordings back in 1969 when Osbourne and the other three musicians were youngsters in a band called Earth. He said that he had since restored and remastered each track and initially planned to issue the material via his Birmingham blues/jazz label Big Bear Records.