Sharon Osbourne has revealed that Black Sabbath have obtained their early demos under the name Earth after a settlement with the group’s first manager Jim Simpson.
In June of last year, Simpson had announced plans to release Earth: The Legendary Lost Tapes on July 25th, 2025, with the collection featuring nine demos from Sabbath’s early days as Earth. While it never surfaced in July, a few months later, Simpson once again announced plans for a release, but Sharon threatened legal action, saying in an open letter that the band didn’t want the demos released without hearing them first and without getting royalties.
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In the latest episode of The Osbournes podcast, Sharon told her son Jack that a settlement has been reached, giving the rights to the demos back to the band. Now, Sharon and the surviving Sabbath members are determining what to do with the recordings.
“We settled with Jim Simpson and the band now have their demos back,” said Sharon (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “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 continued, “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.”
Ultimately, Sharon thanked Simpson for working out a deal, saying, “He did the right thing at the end of the day. He did the right thing for the band.”
Prior to taking on the name Black Sabbath, original members Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward played under the name Earth after forming in 1968. The aforementioned recordings feature a combination of blues covers and original songs.
Watch Sharon talk about the early Black Sabbath demos in the latest episode of The Osbournes podcast below.
