Mike Portnoy interview

Meltdown: Hey Mike, good to see you, man.

Mike Portnoy: Hey, how you doing?

MD: I’m doing great. I love that Beatles poster you’ve got right there. I know you’re a big Beatles fan. You’ve probably talked about this before, but what’s your Beatles album?

MP: There’s no single one – it changes every day. One day it could be Revolver, one day it’s The White Album, one day it’s Pepper. It changes every day, for 58 years now. Literally from day one, I was a Beatles fanatic. They’re still my GOATs.

MD: I remember – we’re pretty close in age – when John Lennon was killed, I discovered my dad’s Beatles albums. Ironically enough, Mark David Chapman’s holed up in my hometown, outside of Buffalo, New York. A lot of my friends work there. How did you discover the Beatles?

MP: I’m not kidding when I say “day one.” I was born April 20, 1967 – that was the day they completed Sgt. Pepper. And then it came out six weeks later, and I was listening in real time from that point on. My dad was a huge rock music fan – he was even a rock DJ on a California station a few years later. I was surrounded with it. I remember when The White Album came out, I remember when Abbey Road came out, I remember spinning all my little records with the green apples on them. The first concert I ever saw was George Harrison on his short-lived solo tour in 1974. Then I saw Paul McCartney on the Wings Over America tour in ‘76. So when John was tragically killed in 1980, I was already there with them [on] that whole ride up until then.

MD: Yeah, you were already invested. The first time I ever saw a Beatle live was in 2009. I was at the Grammys and Paul McCartney was there. I actually texted one of my friends; I said, “I am in a building with a Beatle right now.”

MP: Exactly! I’ve been fortunate enough to have met both living Beatles – both Ringo and Paul. I have great stories about meeting both, amazing experiences. But I don’t want to take up our interview talking about that.

MD: Wait a second – you brought it up! When you meet Ringo, do you tell him what a huge fan [you are] and what an influence he was?

MP: Of course. I met him in the late ‘90s. I had just – that week or whatever – won some Modern Drummer award, so the guy introducing me was like, “This is Mike Portnoy. He just won Modern Drummer’s Drummer of the Year,” and Ringo said, “I thought I was Drummer of the Year.” And I was like, “No, you’re Drummer of the Century – Drummer of the Millennium.”

MD: That’s so cool, man. You’ve had the chance to meet a lot of your heroes. I was reading before we got on about how you became friends with Neil Peart. I never had the chance to meet him, but I did read Ghost Rider; I thought that was amazing. And you talked about how he would send you these emails. I can just imagine, just the way he wrote and the meticulousness...

MP: Yeah, he was like that. If you’ve read any of his books – like Ghost Rider – or his lyrics, he was quite a writer. That translated as well to his emails. [laughs] These emails would be pages long, so eloquently written, every word so meticulously picked and placed. What a treasure. I saved them all, of course. Every once in a while, I’ll pull them up and reminisce. What an honor for me to become friends with him for the last 15 years of his life. He was such a gracious person, and if he let you into his inner circle – which he was very protective ver that was really the ultimate honor.

MD: Why do you think he was so private? I got the impression he didn’t like people fawning over him, and maybe early on that wore on him?

MP: He was a really, really humble person. Everybody on earth telling him he’s the greatest drummer of all time – which he probably was – but he never believed it. He always wanted to be better. He always strived to be better. He famously took lessons with Freddy Gruber, late in his career. He was just a very gracious, humble person and I guess protective over his private time. The longer I’m in this business, I get it. I’m 58 now. Dream Theater’s been together 40 years, but I’ve been touring pretty steadily for well over 30 years. When you’re on the road, your private time is real sacred and real important. I love his line in the song ‘Limelight’: “I can’t pretend a stranger is a long-awaited friend.” It’s a brilliant lyric, and I can totally relate. The longer I’m doing this, the older I’m getting, the more guarded and protective I am over my private time. I could totally relate to that that sentiment.

MD: Let’s get back to Dream Theater – you’re here September 21st at the Fox Theatre. Have you ever played the Fox?

MP: Yeah, I haven’t. I’m not sure if Dream Theater has without me, but I personally have never played there. I’ve seen pictures of it and I know its history. So, yeah, I’m really, really looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to that show for two reasons. First of all is to play that legendary theater, but second of all, we didn’t hit Detroit on the first leg of the 40th anniversary tour. And this is kind of a big reunion for this lineup. This lineup hasn’t played in well over 15 years. So each and every stop on that first US tour, whether it be Chicago or Dallas or LA or Phoenix, everywhere we went it was the a lot of people’s first time seeing this lineup together in 15 years. Or in some cases of younger people seeing this lineup together for the first time ever. So, we haven’t had that experience yet back in Detroit. So, this is one of the one of the main markets that we didn’t get to hit the first time around, and I’m really glad we are this time.

MD: It’s interesting that you bring it up because there’s a whole generation of kids that’ll never get to see the original Pantera, for example. So, at least the fans can come out and see you guys. I don’t know how many guys you talked to, but I played ‘Pull Me Under’ when it was brand new on the radio.

MP: Well, it made a huge difference. I mean, the way that that song caught on at radio back in ‘92 when it came out changed our lives. We were a struggling young band from Long Island just trying to find our audience. And when radio got behind ‘Pull Me Under’ all those years ago, it opened up the doors and began this ride that we’ve been on ever since.

MD: Now, you mentioned that Ringo Star was an early influence on you, but obviously you don’t play like Ringo Star.

MP: I can though – I just don’t in Dream Theater.

MD: But when do the gears shift in your head? When does that change for you?

MP: I have so many heroes in terms of drummers that range from guys like Ringo or Charlie Watts, that you wouldn’t necessarily hear in my playing, to guys like Neil Peart, Bill Bruford and Terry Bozzio that are a little more obvious, but I love them all equally. I also love thrash metal drummers and jazz fusion drummers. But, in answer to your question, it depends on the what music I’m playing where the influences come out. With Dream Theater, Dream Theater’s music is very technical and progressive, so my progressive and technical influences are gonna come out. There’s not necessarily a place for Ringo style drumming in a lot of these crazy 10-minute Dream Theater epics. But through the years, especially in my downtime when I wasn’t with the band, I did all these other bands and projects that did tap into all these other influences. I had a band like the Winery Dogs that was tapping into a power trio classic rock sound. I was able to get into my John Bonham, Mitch Mitchell and Ginger Baker influences with a band like that. Then I have a band like Metal Allegiance, which taps into all my thrash metal influences. So I could do my Dave Lombardo, Mikkey Dee and Vinnie Paul with that. And there’s a lot of things I’ve had that have had places for the Beatles and the Ringo influence, like Transatlantic or Flying Colors are two more prog bands that I’ve done that have a heavy Beatles influence. I even did a Beatles tribute band with Paul Gilbert many years ago. So I was able to full-on do Ringo-mode for something like that. So I could pick and choose my influences and where they show up depending on the musical environment that I’m with.

MD: You’ve been with Billy Sheehan in a couple different projects. Obviously, Sons of Apollo and whatnot. What’s it like to play with a guy like Billy?

MP: Billy has always been my favorite bass player on earth, or surely one of them. I was a fan of his, decades before he and I ever played together. I was going to see Talas in the Long Island clubs back in the early ‘80s, and I was a huge fan of him, in particular, just from that. And then when he joined the David Lee Roth band in ‘85... That first band with Billy and Steve Vai was a huge, huge influence for us in Dream Theater, just the musicianship. So I’ve been a fan of Billy’s before I was ever a bandmate of his. And then, once I started branching out doing different things, of course, he was the guy I wanted to work with. So, we’ve worked together on so many things. The first thing we did was a Rush tribute album in the mid-’90s. And then from there, I called on him to be in my Who tribute band that I did with Paul Gilbert and Gary Cherone. So, the four of us did a Who tribute and Billy just killed that. Once I left Dream Theater and had these opportunities to create my own things, I called him for so many of them. We did an instrumental fusion thing with Tony MacAlpine and Derek Sherinian. Then we formed the Winery Dogs with Richie Kotzen. And then we formed Sons of Apollo with Derek Sherinian, Bumblefoot and Jeff Scott Soto. So Billy and I, especially in my years out of Dream Theater, we have done so many things together and it’s just I respect him so much as a bass player and connect with him musically. He and I, as a rhythm section, are just like locked and loaded and ready to rock.

MD: That’s what I was thinking. It’s cool that you bring up Talas, because I grew up in Buffalo.

MP: The very first Dream Theater shows back in ‘86, we were still called Majesty, and [in] those first couple shows we were covering ‘The Farandole’ by Talas, so we were big fans of him back when we first put the band together.

MD: I’ve always argued that I think that that David Lee Roth band with Billy Sheehan, Steve Vai and Gregg Bissonette might have been the best band of the ‘80s.

MP: Yeah, absolutely. It was like my dream band at the time.

MD: That was a great record that they came out with. But like you said, you’re coming back here with Dream Theater. It’s been a while now; you’ve played a bunch of shows. How’s it feeling for you back behind the kit?

MP: It’s been incredible. Even though this is our first time coming through Detroit since I’ve been back in the band, it’s been coming up on two years now for us. So, the reunion’s been worked in. We spent the first year making our new album, Parasomnia, and then we spent the second year, starting this past October, we’ve been on the road since then and there’s no letting up anytime soon. So we’ve already played almost a hundred shows at this point all around the world. And everywhere we play for the first time, there’s just such an energy and excitement and emotion in the audience – people getting to see this lineup together again. So each and every place we go, it’s just been overwhelming. The numbers have been great. It’s been the biggest tour that Dream Theater’s ever done. So, I really can’t say enough of how exciting it’s been. And there’s still a lot of gas left in the tank. We have this whole US tour, which is hitting a lot of markets we didn’t get to hit the first time around. So we get to share that first experience with so many people. Then we do Australia and Asia after the New Year – next January, February and March. And then we have another European tour next spring. So when all is said and done, it’s gonna be about a year-and-a-half tour cycle, just getting around to everybody, and it’s just been bigger and better than ever.

MD: I’ve heard you talking about this in the past where you’re really a hands-on guy, and you like to keep your control. So how much control do you have now going back into the band? Is it like before or [are] there some things that other guys are doing now?

MP: I wouldn’t say it’s like before. When I left the band in 2010, I was a control freak and oversaw every aspect – every text, every email, every single aspect of the band, whether it be the merchandise, the fan clubs, the setlist, blah, blah, blah. I was a control freak, very much so. And it’s not like that now. The years that I was gone, the band kind of redesigned their internal structure and how they work. John Petrucci ended up taking on a lot of responsibilities. He solely produces the albums now, whereas we used to do ‘em together back then. And there was a lot of things, a lot of restructuring they had to do while I was gone. So now coming back to that after 13 years away, I have to be very respectful over what they had built all the years without me, and I’m not gonna come in here and just assume that it’s gonna be exactly how it was when I left, ‘cause it’s not gonna be. And John and I had a conversation even before we solidified me coming back, we just laid out the conversation. He was like, “Hey, are you gonna be okay not doing this? Are you gonna be okay sharing this?” And we had to kind of lay out all of those dynamics on how we would function internally. And it’s OK. I’m actually happier now this way. I think it’s a better band dynamic. It’s a more true balance now than it was. So, it’s kind of the best of both worlds. And there are a lot of areas that were given back to me, like writing the setlists, and with that comes programming the house music at the show and the intermission and all the kind of stuff that goes into the way the show is run, the concert presentation. So, luckily, that has always been my biggest passion. So that’s one area that was kind of thrown back to me. And then sequencing the album order; that was always another big one for me. So, yeah, we talked about the ones that were important to share and the ones that were important to delegate and find a happy balance.

MD: One of my things I’ve always said was if you want it done, you just got to do it yourself.

MP: That was my old mentality, ‘cause the first 15 years of the band, we went through everything as a quote-unquote democracy. But all that meant was we would just fight and bicker until I would beat everybody down. [laughs] So there was a point about 15 years in, about 1999, 2000, when we made the Scenes From A Memory album, we decided we’re gonna do away with this fake democracy. And myself and John, we’re gonna run the ship. We were gonna co-produce the albums, we were gonna make the business decisions together. And so once we got into that way of running the show, it went a lot smoother. And there was a lot of things that I had freedom to just make decisions on, on my own. I didn’t have to go back to the band to discuss and bicker and argue, and it did run much better that way. But then I also see how that could cause little resentments too, when one guy is making a lot of decisions without the discussion or inclusion of other bandmembers. So I think the way we do it now is, like I said, it’s the best of both worlds, and it’s a very smooth way of running. And we’re much older, we’re all in our late fifties and sixties where we’re a lot more mature. We don’t wanna fight and bicker over what is gonna be the third song on the B-side of the album. A lot of people realize you pick and choose your fights and you pick and choose your battles and not everything is worth fighting over. And it’s a much more calmer headspace, more serene way of doing things at this point in our career.

MD: You were out of the band for 13 or 14 years and you come back into the band. Do you ever think that there are some bands out there that should just get back together for the fans or just for whatever? Maybe they’ve grown up. Maybe there’s things you learned that you could pass along to them, from being away from Dream Theater for so long.

MP: Yeah. I recommend this to anybody that’s on the fence about reuniting with their band, because it’s the best thing we ever did. And a lot of people ask me if I have any regrets about leaving Dream Theater. I would say my only regret is that it took so long to come back together. I wish it had come back together sooner. So you see Roger Waters bickering with David Gilmour or Skid Row bickering with Sebastian Bach. And all I could say is, guys, you’re older and wiser. Do it for the fans, if anything else. I’m so glad that I came back to Dream Theater and we ride off into the sunset together. This is the way it was supposed to have been. I couldn’t have written it any better. And it would’ve been one of the biggest regrets of my life if we hadn’t reunited. And I look at bands like Sebastian and Skid Row, or whatever – there’s probably a big list that we can name – and you know what? Time does heal all wounds. And I would recommend this to anybody. It’s better to be riding off into the sunset together and rekindling a friendship and a love that certainly had to have been there at one point for any of these bands – Roger Waters and Pink Floyd. It’s there somewhere deep down. And it’s better to ride off into the sunset together than to be apart and having those deep-seated resentments. Life is just too short for that kind of stuff.

MD: So that 13 or 14 years, was this a chance for you to just do your own thing, do things maybe you couldn’t do when you’re in Dream Theater and kind of get that out of your system?

MP: Absolutely. I always loved the Dream Theater guys, and even when I left the band 25 years in back in 2010, it wasn’t any fight or anything that broke us up. It broke my heart having to leave the band. I just wanted to try some other things in my life. I was at that point touring with Avenge Sevenfold, and I had done a few other things that I got a taste of what else is out there other than this Dream Theater world, and I wanted to be able to spread my wings a little and do some of those things. We already mentioned the Winery Dogs and Metal Allegiance and my bands with Neal Morse, like Flying Colors and Transatlantic. All of those were things that I loved doing and that maybe those musical styles didn’t have a place in Dream Theater’s world. I wanted to expand myself a little bit, work with some other musicians and tap into some different musical styles. So once I left the band, I just went nuts. I formed like, eight or nine different bands, and I did something like 40 or 50 studio albums over those 13 years, something crazy like that. From band to band to band, tour to tour to tour. And I don’t regret a minute of it ‘cause it was really some of the greatest musical experiences I’ve ever had, and I wouldn’t have had them if I didn’t step away from Dream Theater. So really everything happens for a reason. As much as I missed Dream Theater, missed the guys and missed the fans, I have no regrets about those years away because I really achieved some incredible musical experiences.

MD: Now, you mentioned Metal Allegiance. Dave Ellefson said, “Ask him about the show on the Motörhead Cruise,” the first one.

MP: Well, that’s where we started. Originally, myself, David Ellefson, Charlie Benante, and Frank Bello from Anthrax – the four of us, along with Mark Menghi, who was a corporate guy at the time – we were doing these kind of big clinic things called Metal Masters, and it grew to the point [where] we had Kerry King from Slayer, we had Phil Anselmo from Pantera... we had all these guys joining us as it developed. And then finally, we found ourselves on the Motorboat, and that’s when Alex Skolnick from Testament joined us. At that point, we had this idea of evolving it into a thing called Metal Allegiance, and the idea was to get together and write some original music. From there, we made two albums of all-original music, the core band being myself, David Ellefson, Alex Skolnick, and Mark Menghi. And from there, we had everybody joining us – Mark Osegueda from Death Angel, Phil Demmel from Machine Head – literally this who’s who of the thrash metal world ended up getting involved with Metal Allegiance. Not only the two studio albums, but every year we’ll do one or two shows. We do an annual show that coincides with the NAMM show out on the West Coast, usually every January. And then usually we’ll squeeze in an East Coast show later in the year if we can. But yeah, it’s been this ongoing kind of community of metal musicians that have done this. And everybody from every thrash metal band I could think of – from Metallica to Slayer to Anthrax to Mastodon – they’ve all been included in some extent or another. And it’s been one of the most fun things for me, to have this thrash metal outlet. ‘Cause I’m kind of like a kid playing in their playground. Honestly, I’m like the prog guy getting to play with all my thrash friends.

MD: Yeah, I’m sure they love that. I know David Ellefson does. Hey, I see your Ozzy shirt on there. That seems like kind of an unusual shirt. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that one.

MP: The Blizzard Of Ozz tour.

MD: That’s an old one. Wow!

MP: ‘81, yeah.

MD: I’m a huge Ozzy fan. Did you watch that final show?

MP: Yeah. Well, I was on tour in Europe when it happened, so I couldn’t watch it in real time. It wasn’t like a day off, so I had to kind of grab the livestream and watch it in chunks. But over the course of about a week or so, I banged through the whole concert, and it was phenomenal. Now it’s even more significant with Ozzy’s passing. But even if Ozzy hadn’t passed, it was such an incredible tribute. You see these amazing tribute concerts like the Freddie Mercury tribute concert or the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert, and in those cases, it was always after the fact, and those artists didn’t get to feel the love. In this case, it was so beautiful because Ozzy was there and was alive to not only experience it, but to play it as well. And for him to have felt that love, and really for everybody to be able to have that final day with him – to say goodbye and to say thank you – it could not have been any more beautifully written. I mean, to have lost him two weeks later is just absolutely surreal. But for him to have – not only for him, but for all of us to have – that final goodbye, that farewell kind of celebration, was just so beautiful.

MD: You probably met him a bunch of times, right?

MP: I only met Ozzy once, to be honest. When I was touring with Avenged, we did a show together, and I met him. We were in a car on a train in Japan that was blocked off just for the two of our bands. So I have a picture with him on the bullet train in Japan – where better to have a photo with Ozzy than on the crazy train? I only met him once. But everybody else that played the concert – everybody from Anthrax to Slayer to Mastodon – I mean, I’m friends with all the guys, all the musicians that took part in it. I was so jealous to not be there, because I was the only one out of all those groups of the metal bands and stuff that wasn’t there celebrating and performing. I was on tour with Dream Theater elsewhere and couldn’t make it. But what an amazing show. What an amazing sendoff. And a perfect farewell celebration.