UPDATED: I’M SO SICK OF WRITING ABOUT WHAT A PRICK OZZY HAS BECOME…

UPDATE: Our friend Dan Rodriguez over at Metal Insider has a much more detailed explanation. Check it out!

…but with every move the old fucker makes, it’s as though he’s begging me to.

So.

According to local newspaper tabloid the New York Post, Ozzy is now suing Tony Iommi over the Black Sabbath band name:

The “Godfather of Heavy Metal” claims guitarist Tony Iommi illegally claimed sole ownership of the band’s name, in a filing with the US 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.

Blabbermouth points out that both Iommi and Geezer Butler compare Osbourne unfavorably to his Sabbath successor, Ronnie James Dio, in a recent issue of Decibel, implying that the lawsuit may be Ozzy’s way of lashing back at his former bandmates.

Now, I don’t really have enough information about the case to speak about it intelligently. In a certain sense, Iommi was the original Axl Rose, touring for years under the Black Sabbath moniker even when he was the sole remaining original member of the band. And if Osbourne is getting fucked out profits made from his contributions to Sabbath, then even though the old fart clearly doesn’t need any more money, he is entitled to his cut.

But this does feel like sour grapes. With Heaven & Hell – really just Dio-Sabbath under a different name – currently kicking ass and taking names while Ozzy struggles just to keep Ozzfest alive or put out a record anyone actually gives two shits about, the time just isn’t incidental. So while Ozzy may (and I emphasize the word “may” – again, I’d love to know more about the specifics of the case) be in the right from a legal perspective, it’s hard to for me to think he’s in the right from a philosophical one.

-AR