Charlie Dominici interview (excerpt)

MSJ: Can you share a Spinal Tap moment? Is there anything that just kind of pops out in your mind?

CD: Spinal Tap moments, sure. Every time when I was in Dream Theater when we were backstage. We used to wander around looking for the exit. We used to just mimic that movie. Mike Portnoy is a big movie buff, you know, and they all had great, I don’t know if you know them, if you’ve talked to them, but they all have a really great sense of humor, which is part of why we got along so well, because I’m a natural-born comedian and people tell me I joke around to a fault. When I was younger, I had psychologists and school psychologists tell me that you need to mask your emotions. I was like, “Get bent.” Humor is a natural aphrodisiac, and it’s a healing thing, and it keeps you young. There are people that areyounger than me that look like they’re my grandfather. I think a lot of it has to do with not only diet and exercise, but also just attitude and humor and being funny and liking funny things. But, we used to goof around like that all the time in the band. You know, we’d be backstage and banging into walls with our instruments and pretending to be in Spinal Tap before we’d go out onstage and play for like thousands of people.

MSJ: What was the last CD you bought?

CD: That’s tough to answer, because there’s been a lot of guys’ sending me their CD’s. Out of extreme curiosity, I bought Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime II, because I’ve had Mindcrime, and I actually bought that CD, because Mike Portnoy told me it was good. I said, if Mike thinks it’s good, it’s probably worth buying.

MSJ: How was it? Did you like it?

CD: It was okay. It didn’t blow me away like the first one did. I mean, we were all pretty knocked out by Operation: Mindcrime. Dream Theater, I don’t know if you know, we recorded When Day and Dream Unite at KJM Victory Studios in Gladman, Pennsylvania, we were coming in, right after Queensryche had left and just finished recording Mindcrime, Operation: Mindcrime One.

MSJ: Oh, really?

CD: We actually a short time later got a hold of a tape. We heard it before it came out, and we found it pretty interesting. We loved it actually. I think that since then Dream Theater has done some touring with Queensryche. From what I hear, their opinions have changed, but again, my own personal opinion; I reserve my own personal opinions for my experiences.

MSJ: What’s the last concert that you attended as a fan?

CD: You mean, besides going to a Dream Theater show, because I’m part of the family?

MSJ: That counts.