Sharon Osbourne is looking to block the release of early Black Sabbath demos by the band’s former manager Jim Simpson.
Simpson originally announced back in June that he had nine demo recordings that Black Sabbath recorded in 1969 when they were still called Earth. He had planned to the collection as Earth: The Legendary Lost Tapes on July 25th, but it has yet to see the light of day.
On Friday, Simpson once again announced his intention to release the demos, but Sharon quickly denounced those plans in an Instagram post, explaining that Black Sabbath do not want the demos released. She even included a letter she wrote to Simpson upon his original announcement back in June.
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In that email to Simpson, she wrote, “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. 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 where their rights are infringed, both here and in America.”
In her new Instagram post, she questioned Simpson’s Big Bear Records, his label on which he plans to release the demos. writing, “Regarding his claim that Big Bear Records is the ‘longest-running independent record label in the UK,’ this is a false claim. ‘Topic Records’ is a British folk music label. It began as an offshoot of the Workers’ Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world. It still operates today. Big Bear is not even a Limited company and does not file open accounts in public.”
Later on, she added, “We would never have allowed any Black Sabbath product to be released through Big Bear Records or Trapeze Music, and at no time did Simpson ever off the band royalties, and he continuously refused to let Black Sabbath hear the recordings that he claims are his. Their integrity is dubious.”
See Sharon Osbourne’s full Instagram post, including the letters she sent to Jim Simpson, below.
