Black Sabbath Regains Control of Early 'Earth' Demos After Legal Dispute
Black Sabbath has settled a legal dispute with their first manager, regaining ownership of their 1969 demos recorded under the name Earth. Sharon Osbourne announced the resolution, ensuring the band's control over their early recordings.
The legal battle over Black Sabbath’s early demos has been resolved, with the four members regaining ownership of the songs they recorded in 1969 when they were known as Earth.
In June 2025, just weeks before Black Sabbath’s End of the Beginning concert and Ozzy Osbourne’s death, the band’s first manager Jim Simpson revealed plans to officially release the Earth recordings that Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward recorded at Zella Studios in Birmingham, England, in 1969, months before the foursome changed their name from Earth to Black Sabbath.
The Legendary Lost 1969 Tapes were set for release in July 2025 but never arrived, as Sharon Osbourne revealed there was a behind-the-scenes legal battle over ownership of the demos between the band and Simpson.
“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 in July. “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 we can where their rights are infringed, both here and in America.”
Five months after going public with the dispute over the demos, Sharon announced on The Osbournes podcast that the situation has been resolved, with the four members of Black Sabbath — Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, and Ward — regaining control of the Earth recordings.
“We settled with Jim Simpson and the band now have their demos back. And all four of them 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,” Sharon told her son Jack, adding that Simpson “did the right thing at the end of the day. He did the right thing for the band.”
While The Legendary Lost 1969 Tapes won’t be released as planned, Sharon was open to putting out the Earth demos at some point, pending the band’s approval. “I just think it’s historically important — for music lovers of that genre,” Sharon said. “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.”
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