Mike Portnoy interview (excerpt)

Graham Hartmann: Another part of your career that's gonna be a first is the 12 Step Suite. We're finally going to be able to hear it live – at least the people on a cruise for your 50th birthday no less. You have put out sort of an open invitation for any of the guys from Dream Theater to come and be a part of it. Has that been more of like a passive invitation or have you actually reached out to any of the guys personally?

Mike Portnoy: I did specifically email two of the members – I don't want to name them – but two of the guys in the band that I’m still friends with and on good speaking terms with. Before any of this went public – the idea of this 50th birthday concert and the 12 Step Suite being performed – I emailed a couple of guys and extended an invitation to join me on the cruise, first and foremost to join me for my 50th birthday. I spent 25 years of my life with these guys and they're dear, dear friends and brothers of mine. Even though we're not in a band together anymore, I still hold all those years in an incredible sentimental regard. Anyway, I emailed a couple of guys and said, “I would love for you guys to be a part of this celebration.” Forget about the concert – just to be there – and I extended the invite to them and their families, and would take care of their accommodations. [I] said, “Look, as part of this concert, I'm doing a career retrospective concert.” Of course I have to have Dream Theater material represented, and I wanted to give them the heads up and say, “I would love to be performing it with you guys, first and foremost, and I want to give you first crack at joining me for this material and being there for my birthday celebration.” In any case, they politely declined and I think they're just still a little uncomfortable with the idea of any kind of quote-unquote “reunion.” And I get that – I could see where for them, it could be misinterpreted. They've spent the last six years trying to really establish themselves without me and I could see how any kind of performance with me – especially of this material – could be misinterpreted. So I get it, and I honestly don't hold a grudge towards them for declining the invitation. That being said, I want to play these songs. It's an important thing for me on an emotional level and a personal level. When I wrote these songs about my recovery from alcoholism, and never got to perform them live... I wish it was with Dream Theater, I wish it was with those guys, but here in 2016, 2017, it's just not in the cards for where they're at. So onward and upward, and I'll be playing these songs with an amazing group of musicians and other all-star people in the prog world; other name guys from the prog world that are put together to play this stuff with me. It'll be awesome. Once word got out that I was going to do this at my 50th birthday concert, suddenly now I started getting invitations from all these other festivals and things like that.

GH: To do the 12 steps as well?

MP: Yeah! I mean once word got out, the fans were like they wanted to see this. Not every kid on the block can afford a thousand, two thousand dollar cruise, so there's been a lot of requests from different festivals around the world for me to do it. So we just actually announced I'm going to do it at Prog Power next year, and there's going to be a handful of other select performances of this. The main thing for me was to do it at my 50th birthday show; it made sense, the time was right. But I figured if I'm going to be up and running and rehearsed with a group of guys and musicians, and there's people that want to hear this that can't necessarily make the cruise, then why not do a handful of them throughout the world in some select markets? I don't want people to think this is any kind of new band or new project or a career move – I don't want to be misinterpreted by all the Blabbermouth idiots that are gonna be like, “Oh yeah! I knew he couldn't let go of Dream Theater! He's gotta cash in on Dream Theater!” No!

GH: This is something you've never been able to do before.

MP: Exactly! Look, I've proven that the last six years [laughs] I have a million other bands – I'm in 48 bands at the moment!

GH: Just Avenged and Twisted and Winery Dogs...

MP: Yeah! Metal Allegiance, Transatlantic and Flying Colors... Adrenaline Mob. I've proven that I have no desire or need to be playing Dream Theater material for a career move, but if I want to do this and I want to do some select performances of music that I was a part of the writing of and it was a huge part of my personal outlet, I think I'm entitled to it. Not to compare myself to Roger Waters, but Roger Waters is out there the last 30 years playing Pink Floyd songs that he wrote. It's not like it's a Pink Floyd cover band – it's Roger Waters playing his music with his band under his own on solo billing. So it's really no different if I want to play these songs. I'm doing it for fun and it's a one-off thing and it's not like I'm making a career move out of playing this material. It's just a one-time thing.

GH: That's the thing: the 12 Step Suite is really your thing. I mean that's most identified with you and as you're saying of the story behind it and what it means to you, so it's not like you're just like, “Here's the hits everybody!” It's something extremely personal, and it's something that is absolutely yours.

MP: I think most people get that, I'm glad you get it, but of course there's going to inevitably be a******... But you're right – it was a very, very personal thing for me, not only the lyrics, but the whole idea and the concept behind it and the interconnecting songs and themes and all that. It was my idea, plain and simple! So I'm happy to finally get to do it.

GH: I'm excited for people who've been wanting to see that forever now finally get to check that out. Is that what “Shattered Fortress” is going to be?

MP: Yeah, exactly. It needed a name, so that's what we're calling it. It's gonna be “Mike Portnoy’s Shattered Fortress” in the places that we perform this.

GH: So Shattered Fortress is like the event’s title?

MP: Exactly. That's the thing. It’s not my new band, it's not a project, it's just an event.

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GH: I would love to get your personal favorite Dream Theater memory. Maybe something when you find yourself looking back at your career and you think of like one or two moments like, “Damn man, that was just the greatest!”

MP: Phew. There’s a lot of memories in 25 years! Put it in perspective, the 25 years I spent there is 2 or 3 times the length of the Beatles’ career or Zeppelin’s career! I'm not comparing us on their level, I'm just saying in terms of a timeline.

GH: I know, that just hurts my head though!

MP: But it's crazy when you think about 25 years. There's not many bands that have done 25 years straight without breaking up or splitting off. There’s so many memories. If I had to pick a few... Always the one that immediately comes to mind is when we played Radio City Music Hall. Sold out. Last night of the 20th anniversary tour. We had an orchestra with us. We filmed a DVD. Hometown gig. Radio City Music Hall, which is such a prestigious, beautiful venue that we always wanted to play. So that was one of those nights where all the stars were aligned. It always is one of the first things I think of as one of the greatest memories of all those years with the band. Finally playing Madison Square Garden when we played with Maiden. And that was actually, coincidentally enough, one of my last shows with the band. Actually that was my last American tour with Dream Theater before I bailed. So finally playing Madison Square Garden was something we always dreamed of and always wanted to do. Finally doing it was pretty amazing, and to do it with Maiden was awesome. I guess maybe our first tour, when Images And Words first came out in ‘92. At that point, we were together for 7 years already, and we were just struggling for years and years and years – switching singers and having false starts with our record company. There were so many struggles to get to that point. When we finally were getting our first taste of success and Images And Words was doing well and selling well; ‘Pull Me Under’ was on the radio and on MTV everywhere we went. We were finally touring and in a van, and getting to play beyond just New York – playing everywhere from Dallas to Chicago to Denver and Seattle and everywhere in-between, and then going over to Japan and Europe for the first time. That was exciting, too; that was some of the greatest memories. That’s when it was all so innocent. We were in a van and loving it! You put me in a van now, I’m miserable! I could never do that! [laughs] I’ve done these shows with Metal Allegiance or Adrenaline Mob where you’re playing to 100 people in a club and it’s hard! But back then, it was all for the first time. It wasn’t about money or anything else beyond just being in a band and playing together and the camaraderie and the music. You only get to have that innocence once before you become a jaded old rock star! [laughs] So those memories of those early days are still really fond for me.