BLACK SABBATH's TONY IOMMI: 'This Is Quite A Historic Year'

Legendary heavy metal guitarist Tony Iommi (BLACK SABBATH, HEAVEN & HELL) has posted the following message on his official web site:

"This is quite a historic year. Saturday [February 13] marks the 40th anniversary of 'Black Sabbath' the album and this summer HEAVEN & HELL [the Ronnie James Dio-fronted version of BLACK SABBATH] will have been making music for 30 years!

"Thank you for your support, continued loyalty and we look forward to seeing you all this summer."

On February 13, 1970, BLACK SABBATH released its first album — the self-titled "Black Sabbath". This Saturday, February 13, 40 years after the LP's release, the "Rock 50" radio show, which airs between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. PST on WPMD, a college radio station at Cerritos College in California, will celebrate with an hour-long special featuring this groundbreaking album. The special, which will air at noon, will include the entire record and interviews with singer Ozzy Osbourne and drummer Bill Ward.

"Rock 50", featuring its regular host Mike Stark, is broadcast over the Internet every Saturday. You can listen to the show live online at this location.

The deluxe expanded edition of BLACK SABBATH's 1970 self-titled debut — featuring alternate studio versions, demos and instrumentals of classic songs — was made available in une 2009 via Sanctuary/Universal Music.

An essay on the SABBATH reissues and the birth of heavy metal can be found on The Quietus web site.

Ozzy Osbourne filed a lawsuit against his BLACK SABBATH bandmate Tony Iommi in May 2009, 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.