I wish Sharon a painful death.

OZZY OSBOURNE Sues TONY IOMMI Over Ownership Of BLACK SABBATH Name - May 29, 2009

According to the New York Post, Ozzy Osbourne has filed a lawsuit against his BLACK SABBATH bandmate Tony Iommi, claiming that Iommi illegally took sole ownership of the band's name in a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Osbourne is suing Iommi for a 50 percent interest in the "Black Sabbath" trademark, along with a portion of Iommi's profits from use of the name.

The Manhattan federal court suit also charges that Osbourne's "signature lead vocals" are largely responsible for the band's "extraordinary success," noting that its popularity plummeted during his absence from 1980 through 1996.

Ozzy's suit follows one filed by Iommi in December 2008 against Live Nation. In that filing, Iommi claims the concert giant sold merchandise bearing the band's logo, despite the 2006 expiration of a merchandising deal, reportedly worth nearly $80 million. Soon after that agreement concluded, Iommi reclaimed the band's trademark.

Iommi's suit argues Live Nation continued to sell more than 100 items of merchandise featuring the band's likeness, name and logo, despite the receipt of cease-and-desist orders from the guitarist's camp. Iommi's suit seeks damages in the amount of three times the profits from the merchandise sales, plus a halt to the BLACK SABBATH product sales.

Iommi and Geezer Butler have both said some less than kind things about working with Osbourne in a new interview with Decibel magazine. The pair recently completed a new studio album as HEAVEN & HELL, the post-Ozzy version of SABBATH featuring vocalist Ronnie James Dio, and Butler said that working with Dio was much easier than Osbourne. He explained, "Ronnie's a songwriter in his own right — he's got tons of ideas. Whereas Ozzy . . . in the old days, he'd come up with a vocal line and I'd write the lyrics. Ronnie is 100 percent involved in both the musical side and the vocal side, and he writes his own lyrics as well."

Butler added that Osbourne didn't take him seriously as a songwriter, saying, "If we were with Ozzy and I came in with the killer riff of all time, Ozzy wouldn't even think of doing it because I'm not the guitarist and that's the way he thinks . . . That's why it was so bloody hard to write anything."

Butler said about HEAVEN & HELL's debut CD, "The Devil You Know", "If we'd written this album with Ozzy, we'd still be working on the first track."

Iommi added that there was a sharp difference between the singers live as well, saying, "It was great being with Ozzy on the road . . . but with Ronnie it's a lot different, because we go out and we know exactly what we're gonna be doing. With Ozzy, we didn't really know. It was touch and go sometimes on some of those early shows, whether he was gonna turn up, if he'd be able to sing, if his voice was gone, or what. We'd have to cancel shows, which Geezer and myself really hated. But with Ronnie, we've never canceled a show."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05292009/ne ... 171506.htm

Yeah, because without Ozzy, anybody would have ever heard of Tony Iommi or Geezer Butler.

Black Sabbath is about Tony's riffs and playing style a hell of a lot more than it's about the contributions Ozzy made. If you don't agree, you're clueless about this band.

Thanks Mr. Knowitall, but without Ozzy they wouldn't have been shit.

Without Ozzy, they might've been Rainbow, who is still better than shit. I would think Iommi was just as responsible for their early success as Ozzy.

how can this shit happen decades after he left the band, was replaced at Sharon's suggestion by Dio, and several high-selling albums were recorded without him?

None of those other dudes were smart enough to marry Sharon.

lol, ok

envy & greed.

Heaven & Hell (Sabbath with Dio on vocals again) are doing incredibly well with their newly released album & tour, and Sharon & Ozzy are pissed/feel left out.

they won't win. there's no chance.

I think that Ozzy has a right to obtain his interest in the trademark if Iommi is listed as the sole owner. That doesn't sound douchey to me.

unfortunately, as much as I like Sabbath, yail is right. no one ever bought their first smiths record because they were into Johnny Marr.

And hey, I'm not diminishing the role of the music or musician's here; just stating the facts as I see them.

This is that music for genius adults, right?

agree with the Marr comment, but in Black Sabbath's case, their "sound" is what set them apart and got them noticed, not really Ozzy. it was the heavy sound, the guitar tone, the overall feel of their music...all created by Iommi & Butler.

i know that Ozzy was a bizarre character that was very noticeable & had a distinct voice, but they could have easily had someone else sing on songs like Paranoid & Iron Man and have them become huge hits. i mean, when you think of those songs, you think of the riffs, not Ozzy's vocal.

nah, that's those brilliant New York Dolls you're always cumming over.

Except I'm not the guy who keep claiming certain music is for 13 year olds and other music is for smart people.

Oh, but you want it both ways, right?

so wait, Black sabbath is for 13 year olds?

I don't think you could have come up with a band that's less analogous to Black Sabbath.

Deny. Ozzy had/has that intangible something. Without him, those dudes are playing what are essentially riffs that you could teach to your kid.

deny eh? well, how about you're just dead wrong then.

Sabbath (now Heaven & Hell) still exist....guess what....without Ozzy. why? Iommi. it's been that way since they first got together.

Ozzy is forgotten about. why? because he has nothing to offer vocally, and he doesn't have the tunes or riffs. no one cares about his voice.

and i think you're attempting to say that Sabbath riffs are very easy for a kid to learn. and Stones tunes are not? please.

They exist because they can still make money touring with Dio. They are musician's and that's what they do for a living. Which is nice for them and all but I think even they would be the first to admit that they did their best work with Ozzy.

And prior to this, how were those guys even getting work? When Ozzy called them to play Ozzfest (which btw is called Ozzfest not Sabbathfest.)

Nobody has forgotten about Ozzy; he has had a 100x bigger career then all the Sabbath guys and Dio put together.

DUMB 13 year olds.

Without Ozzy, Sabbath might have been halfway listenable.

This really is music for kids. All metal is.

I'm clueless about this band. What hits did they have without Ozzy?

pretty much.

What? Baloney.