Ozzy Osbourne, former lead singer of Black Sabbath, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday with the federal court in New York against his former bandmate Tony Iommi. The papers claim that Iommi falsely claimed to have sole-rights to the Black Sabbath trademark.
Yesterday Ozzy issued a statement requesting that Tony “do the right thing.”
“Tony, I am so sorry it’s had to get to this point by me having to take this action against you. We’ve all worked too hard and long in our careers to allow you to sell merchandise that features all our faces, old Black Sabbath album covers and band logos, and then you tell us that you own the copyright.”
In the past, the royalties were split 50/50. Ozzy is seeking to recover lost profits and wants a legally binding declaration that he is half-owner of the trademark.
There has been no response yet from Iommi’s camp.