I think the era was really tough to stomach, but the nice thing for most QR fans is that the band found a vocalist that they could move forward with and save their careers. QR was nosediving, and La Torre's voice and how he spoke publicly in such an even-keeled manner really helped people re-invest time, thought, and money into checking them out. It was certainly a battle between Tate's version and the Wilton/Jackson/Rockenfield version.
Looking at it objectively, while La Torre-fronted QR was more popular with fans who were clued in to things, they also had trouble playing gigs, because Tate's version had the better booking agent. It was only as people saw Tate's version, and realized it wasn't the same band, that they went online and found out what went down. Then over the next year, you saw more and more people sway to the La Torre version, once they realized what went down, and most importantly, who was delivering the goods live.
When the two bands' respective records came out, it was a no-brainer. Tate-QR was deadpanned by the media, while LT-Queensryche was praised. So while they started slow, LT-QR won the public relations battle.
The legal battle was a lot closer than people realize, and it is good that it settled. I mean, it's all there in the documents, but there were some very key arguments on the Tate side that could have prevented LT-QR from winning. That's not to say what Tate's actions were in the right, but some of the finer points regarding band agreements and corporation and business law were in his favor. But Tate's attorneys were also not, IMO, as vested (heh) as LT-QR's was. Tom Osinski is a hell of a nice guy, but he's also a shrewd lawyer (and that is a compliment). But had it gone to court, it would have been a toss up what happened.
I'm glad it didn't, for both fan and personal-related reasons. But I think generally what happened was Tate knew he lost the public relations battle, and both sides were running out of money. So, Tate blinked first.
I do think he should have held out for more than he got in terms of rights to albums. I remember suggesting to Osinski to offer Tate the rights to everything post-HITNF and not Tribe (so, that means Q2k, MC II, American Soldier, Dedicated to Chaos) as part of a settlement offer. I figured if LT-QR was never gonna play that stuff, why not just dangle it in front of Tate and see if he'd bite. Particularly since OM II was a bit of a cash cow (remember, it recouped the money owed to the label in just a couple months, so all money from it goes back to the writers). They valued it all, but I'm not sure they offered it. In the end, Tate took money and the performance rights to both Mindcrime records instead.
Frankly, in retrospect, knowing the standing his legal argument had regarding the corporate agreement and voting, I think he should have pushed for more, but again, he blinked and they were able to settle. Everyone moved forward, and that's a good thing.
p.s. thanks for all the nice words regarding the write-ups. One last one for Wednesday. And Mladen, no worries on the whole speed thing. I didn't take offense or anything. I did speed them up these last couple. I just wanted to be done with it.