OZZY OSBOURNE Sues TONY IOMMI Over Ownership Of BLACK SABBATH Name

[bueno bob]

Everybody is talking about how Sabbath went on after Ozzy left to pursue his career yet I'll wager that no post-Ozzy album sold as many copies as any of the OG Sabbath ones.

That's his argument, yes. And because of THAT, he figures he's due to a percentage of Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, Live Evil, Born Again, Seventh Star, The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, Tyr, Dehumanizer, Cross Purposes, Cross Purposes Live, Forbidden, and The Dio Years albums. In addition to whatever merchandise from those albums and/or tours go through.

Does that sound logical because, well, Ozzy fronted Sabbath is supa-cool?

I'll go out on a limb (without checking the facts) and say that all of the post-Ozzy albums together wouldn't equal anywhere near the OG lineup in sales, that includes the ever so awesome (?) Dehumanizer, which I don't ever recall being that popular or even good for that matter.

Well, that's the running Osbournes opinion, apparently. Now, by the same argument, do you think Sammy Hagar should be getting royalties off of Fair Warning because it didn't sell as much as 5150 - or, in Hagar's opinion, wasn't as good an album?

Mind showing me a legal precedent for that while you're at it?

We are talking about a band that literally (with some others) defines what we know as modern hard rock music, but only with the original lineup.

And that, you see, is where you're diverging into speculation, opinion and conjecture. Mostly your own opinion.

Sab's popularity and commercial viability went severely downhill with the departure of Ozzy, and, in fact, they were a fucking joke in the 80s and every one of you knows it.

Ahh, spoken like a true Ozzy sackswinger. Here's some education for you - Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules and Live Evil were MORE successful albums than what Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die were, they were reviewed very positively on most fronts, and Sabbath did pretty well for themselves up til about 1985 or 1986 or so. Even Born Again performed moderately well.

Even so, there was a steady amount of concert attendance and while album sales weren't necessarily up to Ozzy's standards (which is, let's face it, what you're comparing them against), it doesn't really fucking matter at all because Ozzy had already sold his interest in the name BLACK SABBATH and all things involved with it. Thus, the "Oh, well, they sucked in the 80's" argument not only has no bearing AT ALL on the case, it's completely speculative and opinionated and unable to be verified legally because there's no bar to track it.

They only became popular again when the OG members got back together in the 90s.

Nope. Dehumanizer actually performed fairly well in sales and the tour was the most successful tour Sabbath had been on since 1983.

I'll go even further and say that it a huge portion of the albums they sold post-Ozzy were due to the name that they had already made for themselves with him.

Well, can you prove that or are you just talking out of your asshole again? Now, if you can pull in 70-80% of Black Sabbath fans worldwide and get them to attest that, yes, the music was irrelevant and we only liked Black Sabbath because Ozzy Osbourne is/was in the band, then maybe that statement would actually matter.

You can't, therefore, it doesn't.

Now I'm not saying that it's right for Ozz to sign off on the name and then try to get back in just because of the money,

Oh, but you see, you are.

but you gotta face facts. Sabbath without Ozzy will NEVER EVER equal the cash cow that it is with him.

So, by YOUR reasoning, Tony, Geezer and Bill should fork over half of everything to him and Sharon. And so should Vinny, Geoff, Ian, Bev, Glenn, Eric, Dan, Tony Martin, Bob Daisley, the estate of Cozy Powell, Laurence, Neil, and Bobby, because any Sabbath post Ozzy that Ozzy and Sharon get the royalties from, well, that's going to cut into THEIR profits off of THEIR work, too.

And we're not talking about pennies here, this is a multi million dollar franchise built on the backs of Iommi, Ward, Butler, and Osbourne.

No, no, no...it's all about Ozzy, remember? The only reason there are Black Sabbath fans at all after 1979 is because of Ozzy Osbourne, right? Your words, not mine.

I defy anybody to tell me that anything else is true.

Guess what? I just did.

It NEVER would have happened without those 4.

Opinionated bullshit. Black Sabbath could have had pretty much any lead singer they wanted, considering Ozzy Osbourne's input into the material was fucking minimal at best.

Yet every day, only one of those members gets paid for all the merchandise that gets sold

Legally so.

(how many Headless Cross shirts get sold in any given day? I'd say right about none),

But Ozzy Osbourne should have 50% when they DO sell, right? Funny you mention that, considering I bought a Headless Cross T shirt last month. You figure I should just write two checks, one for Ozzy too.

Every time Iron Man gets played on the radio (when's the last time you heard No Stranger To Love on the radio),

Again, irrelevant, legally speaking. Ozzy quite happily sold his interest in that because Sabbath sucked without him and he just didn't care, remember?

Ozzy, Bill, and Geezer legitimize Black Sabbath and Iommi.

Oh fucking PLEASE. Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler legitimize Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne. #1, Ozzy has NO MUSICAL SKILL other than humming a fucking melody. You think he would have recorded six outstanding Black Sabbath records and two shittier ones with just anybody while he hummed some fucking melodies for them? Think again, genius. Music is made by musicians, not whistlers.

Without them the band was mediocre at best,

Opinionated bullshit.

and without the reunion they would still be known as the band that was WAAAAAAY better back then than they are now.

Opinionated bullshit. Let me know when you actually address the facts at hand.

Don't you think that the reunion was a huge part of getting the band back in the public eye?

Not really.

Thus resulting in major, major monies that Tony never would have received without it?

Perhaps, but again, so fucking what? Ozzy had RELINQUISHED HIS INTEREST in the name and guess what? Game fucking over.

C'mon now, regardless of the degree of difficulty they had working with him, Sabbath just ain't Sabbath without those 4 guys, period.

And finally, opinionated bullshit.

Face the facts, dude, Ozzy Osbourne was more interested in pizza and cocaine and talking shit about Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler in the media. He had the CHOICE to either hang on to his royalties or say "Fuck it, gimme the check". He chose "fuck it". By YOUR argument, he now has the right to throw any and all legal precedent out the window and say "I changed my mind! I want my rights back! And while you're at it, gimme half of yours, too!"

Yeah, doesn't work that way, dude.

[standin]

Dear Ozzy, please ask your wife quit making money and putting things in y'alls corner. Nobody likes grub. So, please only eat healthy, expensive food is not good for you. You should eat at Burger King.
Love,
Jennifer
P.s. Quit making amusing commercials. You are the prince of darkness, it is a sin for you to be amusing.

[standin]

I read on Sharron's Wiki page that Sharron's Father was mean and threw Ozzy out the band because he was dating Sharon or something like that.


(just kidding around guys. The one song I can name of Ozzy's is Bat Out of Hell. I do like his Prince of Darkness character. Him and his family is kinda like a modern Adam's Family.)

[Terry]

Well, it's not unreasonable to assume this is being done as a direct result of the solid commercial response to the Heaven and Hell releases and tours of late, and one could be forgiven for having a gut feeling that Sharon's greed is what has prompted this.

Hey, Sharon wanting to ensure Ozzy is getting paid whatever he is legally due under previous contracts for the sales of Black Sabbath back catalog sales (am assuming he'd be entitled to the back sales of the Black Sabbath albums he participated on, as opposed to Mob Rules, Born Again, etc.)...that would be understandable.

If Ozzy's management signed off on all future rights to the use of the name Black Sabbath in the mid 1980s, well, seems it would be tough titties for Ozzy.

An excellent post, bob. Am not sure what the Osbournes hope to gain from this, since it seems that Heaven and Hell don't need the Black Sabbath moniker to pull in the fans. Think the shame of it all is Ozzy has let himself basically become a celebrity first, while Dio, Iommi, Butler and Vinnie are musicians (and when I saw Heaven and Hell in 2007, they were so fucking good that I honestly didn't wish for a moment that Ozzy were up there instead of RJD for a moment - am not detracting from Ozzy or classic Sabbath, but Ozzy is all fucking washed up these days anyway).

[FORD]

I read on Sharron's Wiki page that Sharron's Father was mean and threw Ozzy out the band because he was dating Sharon or something like that.

Don Arden definitely did have a hand in Ozzy getting fired from Sabbath, but Sharon wasn't dating Ozzy until well after the split. She actually came to LA looking for Ozzy to collect Daddy's money and ended up falling in love with Ozzy who was a fucking train wreck at the time. To be fair, she probably saved his life.

But then she took it over, and it all went downhill from there.

[standin]

It must really suck for Ozzy to have a woman around to look after him and his, go to bat and take deflection. And he is stuck making money. I would just hate having a marriage with those issues.
I am drinking Thomaid, tonight. What's your psychedelic?

[bueno bob]

I definitely want to hear Tony's response to this.

If I know Tony Iommi, he'll be aloof and probably have no comment. During the shit slinging 80's, he was actually very quiet in comparison to Ozzy's media outbursts every other week...

[Dan]

Bob For Mod.

[Mr Badguy]

This is probably also a culmination of everything that`s happened in the recording industry lately.

Nobody is buying CDs and Ozzy can`t sing live anymore, so that`s the two main revenue earners out the window.

Not to mention the fact that he altered his two most popular albums and noone wants to buy them anymore.

With that, "The Osbournes" and now this, Ozzy is in danger of becoming a hated figure in Rock N Roll.

And that`s a shame.

[Mr Badguy]

Bob For Mod.

Yeah!

[jackassrock]

OK Bob,

Sabbath ain't Sabbath without Ozzy. That's the opinoin of 99.9% of the people who listen to rock music. Your opinion obviously differs, so you can don your Headless Cross t-shirt and go sit in the corner on that issue.

I do agree (and I believe I said this in my earlier post) that what Ozz is doing is suspect at best, but I also agree that Tony alone is making a metric fuck ton of money off of what all those guys that have ever been in Black Sabbath made. They are deserving of a cut of the sales from stuff that has their fucking pictures on it. Not just Ozzy, but every damn one of em.

Also, I'm sure that those Sabbath Albums did fairly well when they were released in the 80s-90s, but they just don't stand the test of time like the first 5 records do. This is not just my opinion. Anything ever written about Sabbath reads the same way, from tiny little blog sites to Rolling Stone magazine, Wikipedia, VH1, and the list goes on all say the same thing. That when Ozzy left he took their popularity with him. This is not to say that NOBODY ever liked or listened to them, but the ballots are in man, OG Black Sabbath far outshined the afterbirth Sabbath of the 90s.

Anyhow, that should not be the point of the post. The point is that Iommi is reeling in the cash from the sweat of Ozzy, Bill, Geezer, Ronnie, Ian, Vinnie, Tony, Bobby, Bev, Don, Bob, Cozy, and everyone else's backs. Now I'm sure that some of those fromer members were just contract players and got every penny they signed on for,. but that's not the question here. The original lineup's albums, shirts, stickers, coke mirrors, and any other damned thing you can think of are being sold at a rapid pace every day in this world and Tony is making every fucking dime. That ain't right. Those other guys deserve a cut,

And even if Ozzy was just the drooling idiot tune whistler that you make him out to be, he still was the face of that band for the fans, and did his share to make Black Sabbath the huge money making entity that it is today.

Sharon, on the other hand, can truly go fuck herself with a wad of 100 dollar bills.

[Panamark]

Nice post Bueno the Robert, Dark Master of Puppets !

What more can we say ??
Sharon (wots er name, alder ?) is now the undeniable, indesputeable
Yoko Ono of Modern Rock / Metal.

This has her vaginal snail trails all over it...

Ozzy still Rocks in my world. Just wish he still had it together enough
to bite the head off this rancid bat somebody threw in his way.

[Coyote]

OK Bob,

Sabbath ain't Sabbath without Ozzy. That's the opinoin of 99.9% of the people who listen to rock music.

Weird, that same amount of people mainly remember "Paranoid"...

[bueno bob]

OK Bob,

Sabbath ain't Sabbath without Ozzy.

Your opinion, and thousands of other Black Sabbath fans certainly don't see it that way at all.

Either way, that opinion is in no way any sort of legal precedent. I can sit here all day and say "Well, I like it better when it's sunny outside", but that doesn't mean I'm entitled to half of your paycheck. That's the point you keep missing with this "It's not Sabbath without Ozzy!" nonsense.

That's the opinoin of 99.9% of the people who listen to rock music.

And you've personally interviewed EVERYBODY who listens to "rock music" in order to verify that, right?

Don't come at me with that kind of bullshit.

Your opinion obviously differs, so you can don your Headless Cross t-shirt and go sit in the corner on that issue.

Wow, look at all the people over here...

Dude, head your ass on over to Blabbermouth...look at the responses to the two threads set up around this...I'm hardly fucking alone in my opinion...in fact, YOU seem to be the minority...

I do agree (and I believe I said this in my earlier post) that what Ozz is doing is suspect at best, but I also agree that Tony alone is making a metric fuck ton of money off of what all those guys that have ever been in Black Sabbath made.

Awww! Damn, too bad those guys WILLINGLY signed off on their rights LEGALLY. You know, I seem to recall George Lucas making a fuckload of money off of Star Wars action figures in the 80's after Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher said "Eh, fuck it, give us the money now". You think they should be able to go crying into court and make a case for their likeness being used and then not getting what it was all worth.

In a phrase, FUCK NO.

They are deserving of a cut of the sales from stuff that has their fucking pictures on it.

Nobody's arguing that. I'm certainly not.

OZZY DOESN'T DESERVE 50% OF EVERYTHING WITH THE NAME BLACK SABBATH ON IT.

That's what he wants. Not a 'fair cut' of what he was on. HE WANTS HALF OF EVERYTHING TONY'S EVER DONE, with or without him. Which is a crock of shit. And the point that you, in all of your Ozzy love inspired blindness, keep on shooting right past.

Not just Ozzy, but every damn one of em.

Again, they do, unless they signed of their own volition legal paperwork signing off on all royalties resulting from usage of the name Black Sabbath.

Also, I'm sure that those Sabbath Albums did fairly well when they were released in the 80s-90s, but they just don't stand the test of time like the first 5 records do. This is not just my opinion.

Yeah, it is. It's COMPLETELY your opinion, don't try and shade it as 'fact'. You oughta look up the definition between 'opinion' and 'fact' because you're sadly misinformed.

Anything ever written about Sabbath reads the same way, from tiny little blog sites to Rolling Stone magazine, Wikipedia, VH1, and the list goes on all say the same thing. That when Ozzy left he took their popularity with him.

LMAO. Anybody around at that point knew that Sabbath's (ha ha) 'popularity' was fading after 1975. I'll trust my own knowledge and the knowledge of people who were there, not 20-something year old rock "journalists".

This is not to say that NOBODY ever liked or listened to them,

Oh, no no no...it's all about OZZY, right? Black Sabbath was, well, just his backing band as far as you're concerned.

but the ballots are in man, OG Black Sabbath far outshined the afterbirth Sabbath of the 90s.

Opinion.

Anyhow, that should not be the point of the post.

Well, you're right about that. Unfortunately, that's all you keep deferring to.

"Ozzy's Sabbath was better!"

The point is that Iommi is reeling in the cash from the sweat of Ozzy, Bill, Geezer, Ronnie, Ian, Vinnie, Tony, Bobby, Bev, Don, Bob, Cozy, and everyone else's backs.

Well, from any perspective, Tony's certainly put in more work than anybody else over the years.

Now I'm sure that some of those former members were just contract players and got every penny they signed on for,

Uh oh. You're starting to make sense!

but that's not the question here.

....and there it goes...

The original lineup's albums, shirts, stickers, coke mirrors, and any other damned thing you can think of are being sold at a rapid pace every day in this world and Tony is making every fucking dime. That ain't right. Those other guys deserve a cut.

Unless, you know, they legally signed off on their interest in it.

And that's not the issue either. The issue is whether OZZY and his family deserve 50% of ALL OF IT.

So don't try and hide this behind "Oh, it's about being fair!" because 'fairness' hasn't got a fucking thing to do with this. It's about Ozzy's fucking greed and it's being masterminded by Sharon so that Jack and Kelli can have a bigger nest egg and she can shop more. That's all.

And even if Ozzy was just the drooling idiot tune whistler that you make him out to be,

Which is what songwriters who have to rely on their bands to write albums because they can do no better then hum a fucking melody really are, imo...

he still was the face of that band for the fans, and did his share to make Black Sabbath the huge money making entity that it is today.

He was responsible in part, yes.

Sammy Hagar can make the same argument - that he was responsible for a lot of album sales with 5150, OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and Balance because he sang on them; do you therefore feel we should give him 50% of Van Halen, Van Halen II, Women and Children First, Fair Warning, Diver Down and 1984?

REMEMBER, SAME LOGIC APPLIES. Hagar sang on those albums and they were pretty popular, too. His face was the lead face of Van Halen, he did the interviews, jumped around on stage, etc etc.

When/if Van Halen does a new album, should Eddie the record company take half of every royalty check for the album, merchandise and ensuing tour and sign it off care of Sammy Hagar?

Using your logic here, yes, they should. This is the argument you're trying to defend.

Sharon, on the other hand, can truly go fuck herself with a wad of 100 dollar bills.

Yeah, not buying it.

[ELVIS]

This is probably also a culmination of everything that`s happened in the recording industry lately.

Nobody is buying CDs and Ozzy can`t sing live anymore, so that`s the two main revenue earners out the window.

Not to mention the fact that he altered his two most popular albums and noone wants to buy them anymore.

With that, "The Osbournes" and now this, Ozzy is in danger of becoming a hated figure in Rock N Roll.

And that`s a shame.

You got it dude...

I heard they were considering going bankrupt, hence the stupid TV show...

If the first Osbournes took the mysique from Ozzy, the following is a joke...

And what other great bands have altered their original recordings? I bought one by mistake...what a joke...

I do agree that Bark At The Moon sounds better, but it's the same players, just a different mix. But that was no ground breaking album at the time...

No Rest for The Wicked was Ozzy's best release since and it's down hill from there...

Sad, because I really love Ozzy..