I recently heard that Ozzy Osbourne is being sued by two of the members of his original solo band over the re-release of Ozzy's first two solo albums. Not only have drummer Lee Kerslake and bassist Bob Daisley never received royalties from these albums, but from what I was given to understand, Ozzy has digitally edited the two albums in the rerelease so that Kerslake and Dailsley's parts are eliminated and replaced by the playing of other musicians! What do you all think of this use of technology?

The technology is fine, if all it's used for is to clean up errors, a few bad notes, etc. But from what you've just described no thank you. I wouldn't mind it if they could use it to clean up the snap, crackle pops out of the old Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson recordings - without compromising the original sound. I have one Charlie Parker CD that has been tweaked with the addition of other musicians. Of course, there's also Jimi Hendrix. Many of the early post-humous releases of Jimi's works (Crash Landing, etc.) featured musicians than the Experience or Band of Gypsys playing with Hendrix. Worse, some of the guitar playing wasn't his!

Personally, I think it's a travesty. Although I hardly consider Ozzy's first two solo albums to be rock "classics", it is undeniable that this techincal revisionism does corrupt the originals and is an insult to fans. This is compounded by the fact that I am a fan of Kerslake and Daisley, so my opinion may be biased, but I think I would feel the same way if it were two musicians I had never heard of. I was priveleged to (briefly) meet Mr. Kerslake last summer and get my picture taken with him and I consider him one of the greatest drummers in rock history. The guy is in his sixties, suffers from arthritis, and he's still drumming!
Here is a link where you can read more about this controversy: http://www.bobdaisley.com/Ozzy-remasters.html