Mike Portnoy interview (excerpt)

Barbara Caserta: It was September three years ago that you made that shocking announcement that nobody expected. Do you still feel that Dream Theater is a main part of your career? Do you still feel that as your band? How do you leave that? I mean you’ve done a lot of things. Everybody still say “Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater.” [laughs]

Mike Portnoy: I know I’ll forever be linked to Dream Theater and associated with Dream Theater – it was 25 years of my life. That’s more than half of my life. I know Roger Waters will always be associated to Pink Floyd even though he was only in Pink Floyd for under 20 years. I mean I was in Dream Theater longer than Roger Waters was in Pink Floyd, but sure enough, Roger Waters will always be associated with Pink Floyd. So I have no issue with that. That’s a huge, huge part of me that I devoted my life to, but I’m not there anymore. It’s 2013, I’ve moved on and so have they. It’s the way it is.

BC: Did you have the chance to see them live or to listen to the record? What do you think of Mangini’s job... and you don’t want to tell about it! [laughs]

MP: [smiling and crossing his fingers] Not even going there. There’s no winning, no matter what I answer.

BC: OK. In 2006, you finally met one of your heroes, Neil Peart from Rush. What do you remember of that day, and was it exactly as you expected to be?

MP: He was always my hero when I was a teenager, one of my biggest drum heroes. And all those years of Dream Theater coming up, and always being compared to Rush and I was always compared to Neil in the drum magazines and things like that, but I had never met him and I never made contact with him. So it was always frustrating, like, “I want to meet him! I want to meet him so bad!” and then when I finally met him in 2006, he was just such a gracious person. He was so nice, so outgoing to me. I expected him to be so private, but he actually was so nice to me. At first I was very nervous, he was always one of my heroes. But since then, he and I have become very good friends now we email each other all the time. He’ll send me pictures of him on his motorcycle or pictures of him and his daughter, and he’ll send me his new book or new things like that when they come out. If we cross paths, he always invites me out to the Rush shows. He and I have really developed a great relationship. It’s kind of amazing – when I was a teenager, I would dream of even just meeting Neil Peart for one time, but now he and I are friends. I’ve played his drum set at soundcheck, eaten dinner with him.

BC: Did you ever play together?

MP: We did play together – not at the same time – but we did a thing for Sabian. We did a promotional thing where me, him, Terry Bozzio and Dave Weckl – all of us were doing a thing where we would each play one at a time and watch each other and talk about each other’s playing. And then I’ve played his drum set at Rush’s sound checks.

BC: Is he proud of you?

MP: I don’t know. When Neil and I get together, I don’t talk about him with Rush, and he doesn’t talk about me... We talk about other things; we talk about family, we talk about drums, but nice not necessarily each other...

BC: ...like friends.

MP: Yeah.

BC: Your father worked as a DJ and you discover rock music through his record collection. If you have to choose three records that really changed your life back in those days, which one would you pick?

MP: It’s very very easy. Well, two of them are easy – coming up with a third might be tough. But the two very, very easy ones for me are the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper and The Who’s Tommy. Those were the two albums, when I was a kid that changed my life, and still to this day are two of my favorite albums of all time. Another album from back then the Rolling Stones’ Satanic Majesties Request, which is a very obscure album of theirs, and it’s my personal favorite album of theirs, but I know it’s not a very well-liked of album of theirs, but for me it’s one of my favorites. Back in ‘67, ‘68, ‘69, those three albums is what I was listening to: Tommy, Satanic Majesties Request and Sgt. Pepper. So those would be the three.

BC: And they were very important records in the evolution of rock in those days. You’re wearing a Van Halen T-shirt, but you didn’t mention Van Halen as one of your main influences or records to pick.

MP: I could name 100. Van Halen’s not even in my top 10. I mean, I love them. I love the first five Van Halen albums so much, and Eddie’s one of my heroes and Alex... I mean there’s so much music in my life, it’s hard to hard to fit them all into a top 10.