When Ozzy Osbourne put together the first backing band of his solo career, he recruited former Chicken Shack and Mungo Jerry bassist Bob Daisley. The musician was heavily involved with Osbourne’s first post-Black Sabbath LPs, “Blizzard of Ozz” (1980) and “Diary of a Madman” (1981), playing bass, helping produce, and writing 15 of the two albums’ 16 collective tracks. And then Osbourne dismissed Daisley from his band, and soon thereafter, the bassist began his long legal journey to receive the credit and compensation he felt that he was owed for his contributions.
Daisley won a 1986 lawsuit against Osbourne, receiving the songwriting credits he’d previously been denied, setting up the musician to receive royalties from future sales of the two albums on which he wrote and played. Daisley would sue Osbourne again in 2002 over a scheme that denied him royalties for his bass playing. Epic Records had released new versions of “Blizzard of Ozz” and “Diary of a Madman,” with Daisley’s bass removed and replaced with a studio musician’s efforts. Then in 2016, Daisley filed papers against Osbourne once again for allegedly and illegally failing to pay $2 million in royalties generated by just one of the originally contested songs, “Crazy Train.”
