Jim Simpson, the first manager of Black Sabbath, says the 1969 recordings with the four musicians who became Black Sabbath show a blues band slowly searching for its heavier sound, and that fans should be able to hear them.
He spoke to Brad Henshaw for Rockefellas TV’s new series “Brad’s Basement”. The interview appears to have been recorded in early 2026, when he was still negotiating with the band’s side over the tapes. The dispute has since been settled and the recordings now belong to the band.
“They were a blues band when I met them. The album has nine tracks. It starts with four blues, then two jazz tracks, because of Tony Iommi’s love of gypsy jazz. Both are called \”Song For Jim\”: one with Tony on guitar, the other with Tony on flute. The remaining four come close, but never reach what you know as Black Sabbath. It was slowly getting heavier. It is, as you said, a historical document. Every real Black Sabbath fan will want to hear it,” he said.
The recordings were made at Zella Studios in Birmingham in 1969, when Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward were performing as Earth, months before they changed their name.
Sharon Osbourne confirmed in April, on an episode of the “The Osbournes” podcast, that the dispute was settled and that the band got its demos back: all four members own them, “as it should be”. She described the material as very different from what they became later, but stressed that it matters, because it is historically important to lovers of this music. Along with the recordings, they also got the rights to the photos taken at the time.
Watch the interview below:
See also
- Black Sabbath: 56 years since “Paranoid”
- Tony Iommi: Why he rejected the idea of a new Black Sabbath album
