full band interview

Mike Portnoy: We've been on the road for a year now. We went through the states three times, went through Europe three times... This last tour that we just finished in America was a support slot with Deep Purple and Emerson Lake & Palmer. So we were doing outdoor sheds, which is about 15,000 a night, which was a fun experience for us. And then the previous legs before that we were just headlining ourselves, going through clubs and small theaters.

John Petrucci: We prefer playing headlining shows or at least having enough time where we can get a full range of music. Because you're right, a lot of the songs are really long, and now that we're further in our careers, we have more records, and it's difficult to choose a set. We ended up changing the set almost every night to try to get a good variety from all the records. So it's hard, but the atmosphere is really cool, and it's great to meet all these guys that are in these bands. Sometimes we get to play with bands that we really look up to.

MP: One show with Ozzy and Black Sabbath in Belgium, which is cool.

JP: They wouldn't let us on stage, though. [laughs]

MP: I think that's the best part of the festival is we get free tickets to see all these bands.

James LaBrie: We listen to many different bands. Rush is definitely an influence – probably for all of us a very early influence – along with bands like Yes, Pink Floyd and Genesis. Obviously, as you move on, you're listening to all sorts of music and any bands that are coming up now that you're interested in. So we're all listening to a very wide range of music genres.