On Thursday, I opened up Google Reader and saw "DREAM THEATER PRESS RELEASE". That very moment, I knew something grim was on. After reading the text, I felt like so many of you, sick, heartbroken, and I needed alcohol. I got to this forum immediately to read news and it took me these five days to finally read through it. Many of you expressed exactly what I was thinking or feeling, so there was no need for me to post. I thank you for being those with whom I could share digesting these news.
Right now, I see everything very optimistically. The best outcome in my eyes is how Jordan Rudess and John Petrucci showed what badass great personalities they are. As much as I notice the lack of diplomacy in Mike's expressions, I don't hold his actions for selfish or condemnable. I think one can find good reason in his explanation and he really sounded sincere in the Eddie Trunk interview. That he speaks of self-sacrifice and links a blogpost that calls him the heart of DT... well, he's like that, this is the way he's always acted and without this side of him, we'd not be getting all the output from him all those years.
If John Petrucci keeps the current trend of communicating with the fans more, and if present DT in general reaches out to us to compensate for Mike's role, I'm a happy happy fan.
I'm just listening to Avenged Sevenfold and well... I'd not guess a Dream Theater member would ever be interested in playing with this band. But it's not as bad as I thought after reading the posts here. :-)
Best of luck to you, Dream Theater, my favorite band, in finding a good drummer!