Mike Portnoy
I love the Dream Theater guys dearly and have a long history, friendship, and bond that runs incredibly deep with them - it's just that I think we are in serious need of a little break.Collection: Friendship
I'd rather be entertained and go to a show and watch a drummer and have somebody that makes me actually smile. So I don't judge drummers based on their technical ability; I judge them based on the overall package and what they bring to the music they're part of.Collection: Smile
Life is too short for resentments, and I always forgive.
To me, a great drummer isn't always about somebody with chops who can shred. A great drummer is someone who is part of a great band.
Change is inevitable with the evolution of technology. In the '70s, we had records. In the '80s, we had CDs, and now we are living in the digital age. You can say it's sad or unfortunate, but the reality is you've got to roll with the times and the technology.
You don't have to be a great drummer to be the most important guy in the band.
To me, there's way more to being a good drummer than precision and technique.
If you do anything long enough, people can't ignore you anymore.
I don't want people to think that I think I'm this great drummer because, to me, I'm just a kid playing drums, and I love music.
I can't possibly overstate how much influence Rush had on me as a young teenager. I would say from about 1981 to 1987, they were my gods.
I really do care what people think, and I revolved my whole career and all the twenty five years with Dream Theater... I ran that band and made decisions based on caring what the fans thought and wanted.
When you're making this kind of music, you don't need a producer. If you're making pop albums or trying to write hit singles, then yeah, but if you're writing 20-minute prog epics, as long as you know how to make it sound good, and you have a good mixer, that's all you need.
I am not a technical drummer at all. I'm more from the Keith Moon/Lars Ulrich school of, 'Hey, look at me!' I just get up there and bash.
One of the reasons I needed to leave Dream Theater was because I didn't want to end my career as just the drummer in one band.
I'd just like to be remembered as a huge music lover.
I have so much gratitude that I get to do this for a living and that I actually have fans who come to the shows and buy the records and support me online.
When you're putting together a concept album, it's all about the flow and the story.
There's been a lot of crossing paths with the Yes camp over the years for me. The first one was when Dream Theater and Yes toured together in 2004, which was a lot of fun.
My love for Yes is pretty well-documented.
I kind of always made it a tradition, whenever Dream Theater played Toronto, to play a Rush cover.
I spent my life's work doing what I did in Dream Theater for 25 years, so I'm proud of that.
Billy Sheehan has always been my number one favorite bass player of all time.
I surround myself with incredible musicians who inspire me to always do my best.
I guess I did make my name out of my drumming, and I have the big drum sets, and I'm doing all these crazy, odd-time signatures, so, yeah, I guess drumming was very important to what made me popular.
I've been asked to write a book several times; I've had several publishers come to me and offer me book deals. Especially right after I left Dream Theater and Avenged Sevenfold, there was a lot of drama going on in my life, so the book companies came at me thirsty for blood and gossip. And I turned down all the deals.
I don't like when I see bands that are just a memory of what they used to be, and there's a few out there that I've seen recently that are still touring... I'm not gonna name them, but some of the members can barely play their parts, and then they have a lot of other members that weren't even originally in the band.
I was always very extroverted and loud.
There's the drums, the music, the melodies, the lyrics, the production, the artwork: there are so many elements to making an album, and the drumming is just a very small fraction of what I focus on.
You can put me in front of any kit, and it is a fun thing to have to adapt. It inspires me to try different things. I like that.
When I first came out with the Winery Dogs, I had a Bonham set-up. That was such a departure from the huge kits that I had become known for. It was really enjoyable.
With the Neal Morse Band, we're doing progressive music with a harder edge; it's a little more in Dream Theater territory for me. Flying Colors is a little more poppy, it's more Radiohead, Muse, and Coldplay territory, so I approach that drumming in a different way.
It's nice when somebody says that you're their 'favorite' drummer.
Some of my heroes are John Bonham, Keith Moon, Neil Peart, Ringo Starr, Terry Bozzio, Bill Bruford... The list goes on and on and on.
I don't think there's such a thing as a 'best' drummer.
When I sit down to do an interview, I try to be polite and answer the questions that I'm asked.
I love when people know me from things other than Dream Theater.
After I left Dream Theater, and I was doing Avenged Sevenfold, Twisted Sister... all these other things, I made a lot of new fans in a lot of new areas.
I see the headlines on Blabbermouth, and the fans are saying, 'Why is he always talking about Dream Theater?' I'm not talking about Dream Theater! I get asked about it.
I've known Russell Allen for over a decade now, and I've always thought he was a very underrated singer. He has one of the best voices in the business I've ever heard.
With Dream Theater, every creative aspect of the group went through me. I oversaw it all from top to bottom.
In Adrenaline Mob, I'm not the leader, but I'm on the board of directors, and that's OK. I'm not stressing out over every detail. I'm sharing the load.
I love my family more than life itself, but I can only sit at home by my pool eating barbecue food so many days before I go cuckoo.
I need to be creative all the time.
My lesson would be to not sell yourself to anybody else and stay true to yourself.
I'm not a politician; I'm a very open, honest guy, and that's the way it is - that's the way I am; take it or leave it.
The reality is, when I'm sitting in a hotel room at 3 in the morning, and I see something on the Internet that interests me in the form of a band I want to hear, I like the ability to just go online to iTunes and download it immediately.
I could be just as happy playing a Beatles song as I am when I'm thrashing out the double bass stuff with Adrenaline Mob.
When Dream Theater first started, we were touring in a van and playing clubs.
I usually have three to four bands a year going at any given point.
I tend to like the heavier things, especially live on stage. I need that energy and interaction and feeling the audience.