Sharon Osbourne Urges Ex-Manager of Black Sabbath to Cancel Release of Band's 'Earth' Demos

'Earth: The Legendary Lost Tapes', a collection of 1969 demo recordings, had been previously scheduled for a July release.

Sharon Osbourne has publicly demanded that Black Sabbath’s first-ever manager not issue an album featuring the band’s earliest-known recordings.

Back in June, an announcement was made regarding a compilation of demos. These demos were recorded in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward back when the group was still known as Earth. The planned title was ‘Earth: The Legendary Lost Tapes’.

These recordings were made at Zella Studios in Birmingham. The new release was being organized by Jim Simpson, who managed the band during that period, and it carried an initial release date of July this year.

That July release, however, never materialized. Now, Sharon Osbourne has vocally opposed the project. On Saturday (November 15), she published a detailed statement on social media that laid out the Black Sabbath legal argument, which contests the legal ownership of those tapes.

She also posted an email she claims to have sent to Simpson back in July. “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,” she stated in the email. “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 [when and] where their rights are infringed, both here and in America.”

Sharon Osbourne additionally attacked the planned release during a recent episode of The Osbournes podcast. In the episode, she made several claims, including disputing Simpson's assertion that he covered the £500 studio costs in 1969, and alleged that Simpson planned to retain all the proceeds from the album.

That podcast episode drew a rebuttal from Simpson, who told Blabbermouth: “It’s such a shame Sharon has decided to go all out on the attack without sitting down to talk about this. It’s also very unfair of her to make such inaccurate and potentially defamatory comments.”

Simpson has also stated his desire for “all bandmembers to receive royalties from the album in the usual way,” and claims he proposed a meeting with Sharon this past July. “If they want to strike a deal with me to launch this album, I would therefore be delighted to discuss that with them,” he added.

Currently, ‘Earth: The Legendary Lost Tapes’ remains unreleased.

Separately, the Osbourne family recently shared that both Donald Trump and King Charles contacted them following Ozzy’s passing in July.

They also disclosed that Ozzy was secretly hospitalized just two weeks prior to his final performance. While he had contended with various health issues for years—including Parkinson’s Disease—Jack Osbourne noted that “things started getting worse” in early December 2024, after Ozzy “took a little fall”.