Mike Portnoy interview (excerpt)

And as you were saying earlier, you admit to being guilty of having too many projects. Do you feel overwhelmed sometimes, when you think about how many bands and projects you are currently in?

I can handle it. I’m wired that way. I’m playing in six bands/projects at the moment, but I’m able to comfortably juggle them and keep an eye on my schedule. It’s not for everyone, though. Very few people in the business keep as busy as I do. I choose to do it and I enjoy doing it. It’s just the way I’m wired, and I’m a workaholic. A lot of people don’t understand that, and I feel that there’s a lot of skepticism around any band I’m associated with, as if it’s a negative thing. To me, it’s a positive thing. It’s all about the music, and I work as hard as I do strictly because of the music. It’s not a money thing, it’s not a career thing. It’s simply to do with me being a music fan with a broad taste, wanting to do different styles and wanting to work with lots of different people. After spending 25 years strictly dedicated to one band, I feel free now! As far as I know, you only live once. So, I want to make the most of it while I can and work with as many different people as I can. And as long as I am willing to juggle it in my schedule, I don’t see why anybody else should have an issue with it.

Exactly, and I was just about to say, it’s been five years now since you parted ways with Dream Theater. It’s been long enough to where you can look back now and analyze it. So, you do feel that it has freed you to do all this other stuff?

Oh, it’s been amazing. I would say in the last five years of my career, I’ve done more than what most people do in their entire careers, probably times ten, actually. I’ve played in a dozen different bands, I’ve done a dozen different albums, and I wouldn’t have been able to do any of those things had I stayed. I would have been wondering ‘what if’, if I hadn’t left. I needed to explore these things, to do the album I did with Metal Allegiance, to play with musicians like Billy Sheehan, Richie Kotzen and Steve Morse, and all these different people that have helped me go into different areas, musically. It’s been an incredible experience, playing with Twisted Sister, Stone Sour, Avenged Sevenfold, jamming with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, and the list goes on and on and on. Everything I’ve done in the last five years is the stuff dreams are made of!