Sharon Osbourne shared her disapproval upcoming release early games Black Sabbath demos recorded when the band was known as Earth.
In June, just weeks before Black Sabbath's End of the Beginning concert, Ozzy OsbourneFollowing the death of the band's original manager, Jim Simpson, plans were unveiled to officially release the recordings that Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward recorded at Zella Studios in Birmingham, England, in 1969, just months before the foursome changed their name from Earth to Black Sabbath.
The legendary lost tapes of 1969 was originally due out in July, but apparently hasn't been released yet (as Sharon Osbourne revealed on social media Saturday) due to legal disputes between Simpson's Big Bear Music and the band themselves, including who actually owns the demos and whether they're copyrighted in the US.
In a recent episode The Osbornes On the podcast, Sharon criticized the plan to release the Earth footage and also questioned Simpson's motives, after which Simpson issued a lengthy statement in response to Sharon's claims (via Blabbermouth).
Negotiations continued this weekend, with Sharon taking to social media to once again warn Simpson about the Earth recordings, as well as sharing emails she sent Simpson urging him not to release the recordings.
“As you know, the group do not want these recordings published, not least because they have not heard them, despite your long-promised copies,” Sharon wrote to Simpson in July. “You know that as a band, Black Sabbath don't put up with anything lightly, and you can be assured that if you do this against the wishes of the band, we will take any action if their rights are violated, both here and in America.”
Sharon previously accused Simpson of keeping the Earth recordings “silent all these years because they are now out of copyright, which is 50 years old.” In addition to protesting the publication of the Earth recordings themselves, Sharon expressed an additional objection to The legendary lost tapes of 1969 distributed by Big Bear Records and Trapeze Music. “We would never allow any Black Sabbath product to be released” through these labels, Sharon wrote.
Legal threats ultimately pushed back release The legendary lost tapes of 1969as different online retailers currently have the album arriving on different dates, from December 2025 to February 2026, if at all.
