well you got me wondering so I decided to ask Richard on his tumblr. I was floored he answered almost immediately. He says totally a prank. Here's the Q&A

Anonymous: Richard, so believe it or not your behind-the-scenes tour story about Chris and the platter has generated some debate. Some think it's a funny road story about how the band pranked you, and others say no Chris was really mad and was really threatening to leave the band and you walked in at the wrong time and got hit. (I think it's the former). Can you clarify?

It was a total joke, it was one of my first tours and I guess this was part of my breaking in process, being the newbie. Chris did not really threaten to leave that night, let me be clear about that. This was to get me back stage right away. PRANK ! Sorry I wasn’t more clear, my bad.

Thank you Richard for being so accessible and cool!

He's awesome to be answering all of these, especially so quickly!

Thanks for getting the answer. Saying that someone was threatening to leave didn't sound like a ruse to me, because Stevie said that they were all threatening to leave at different times around the time they were recording the White album, except for her. And that it was only when they started having success that none of them wanted to quit. So, I totally believed Chris was threatening to leave. On that day. And that John and Lindsey threatened to leave probably at many other times.

But I didn't know how he got the platter in his face at just the right time. It reminded me of Jack Tripper on Three's Company or I Love Lucy. Probably Mick and Stevie were the only ones who didn't say anything about leaving that first year.

Michele

Richard's take on Christine is quite different from Ken's, who found her sarcastic and blunt.

He sees Chris as a healing comforter. A more expected assessment. Reading Bob Welch and Ken Kaillat's observations/memories you'd think it was a different person.