Mike Portnoy interview (excerpts)

JJ French: So you carved out an hour of your day for me. For you, that is an extraordinary event when I can do it because you’re one of the hardest-working guys.

Mike Portnoy: In general, yeah, but I’ve been the laziest SMF on earth the last couple months because we wound off our US tour right before Halloween, and I’ve been off ever since. So honestly, as hardworking as I normally am, I’ve been a lazy MF.

JJF: So in other words, you did not jump into another project with anybody. That’s odd for you. I mean, when you made the commitment to go back with Dream Theater, was it an exclusive Dream Theater project at this point?

MP: Well, of course they mentioned the topic of the fact that I started 87 bands while I was out of Dream Theater, and all the fans are wondering what’s gonna happen with all of them, but most importantly, at the time of the first discussion with Dream Theater, they wanted to know where my priorities lied. And I made it very clear to them: if I’m coming home to Dream Theater, that’s my home, that’s my priority. Everything else will have to be pushed aside and done if and when I’m available. Once I rejoined Dream Theater and told all the guys from The Winery Dogs and the Neal Morse Band and all these other things the situation, they were all very supportive and understanding. So they know that Dream Theater is my focus and my priority, and if and when I have available time, I’ll do it.

And I have done a couple things – like, we snuck in a Neal Morse Band album session last year when I had, like two months off in between Dream Theater legs. I went out and recorded a new album with Neal Morse Band, so that’s going to come out next month. And also this month, I have my one-off annual gig with Metal Allegiance out in Anaheim at the end of this month. So there are other things happening, but of course, Dream Theater is my big focus all the time at this point.

JJF: So is Dream Theater working at all in 2026?

MP: Oh, big time. Yeah, we started our world tour in October ‘24, and we did pretty much a year solid from October ‘24 to October ‘25. We took off for the holidays. But yeah, we’re kicking back up at the end of this month. We have a full-on Asia and Australian run – end of January to the beginning of March. And then we have the final leg of this whole tour cycle with another South American run in April and May. So when all is said and done, it’ll be October 2024 through May 2026. Then once the cycle ends in May, we’re going to take the summer off and figure out what we do next when we get there.

JJF: Yeah, because when we were discussing the possibility of Twisted dates, you obviously – we kind of knew. Because once I heard you were back in Dream Theater, I kind of knew. But trust me, when it comes to respecting the allegiances of an artist and what his original band is, I fully understood it. And we couldn’t make it happen. But that doesn’t take away from the fun time that we had for the two seasons that we did. We had fun, man.

MP: Absolutely. I mean, it was always a huge honor for me to play with you guys and so many great memories of those two years together. And yeah, I’m so happy you guys are doing it again. And yeah, for the record, you did inquire about my availability, and I was sad to not be available to do it. But you guys were very, very understanding over my commitment to Dream Theater.

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JJF: I did a deep dive into the history of you and Dream Theater, and I have to tell you, I’ve spent the entire morning playing the music, which I didn’t in the past. I played a song here and there, but I never concentrated on it. My God, first of all, the band is incredible. Absolutely incredible. Melodic as hell. As commercial as you’d want to be, I guess or could be, but you have your roots in prog, and that was the important thing – to maintain it. Tell me what it was like signing to these labels and having to deal with the A&R bulls*** that goes on with these labels and with their demands of you, and what demands you put on yourself back in the day when you were signed. You know, just fill people in on what it’s like to be there.

MP: I mean, here we are talking 40 years later since we started the band. When I toured with you guys, you were celebrating 40 years, and now here we are celebrating 40 years. But yeah, that doesn’t happen overnight. That’s years and years and years of struggles and perseverance. We signed our first record deal about three or four years into the band, and that deal was horrible. The record went nowhere. It flopped. But it was our second album, Images And Words, in 1992 that was the one that really caught fire and started it all for us. But that was already seven years into our career. A lot of people think that elusive record deal is the ending of all your problems. No, it’s the beginning. [laughs] Yeah, those first seven years, as hard as they were without a label, at least we were doing everything on our own terms and we didn’t have to answer to anybody.

Now in 2025 or 2026, it’s a whole different world, but back in the early ‘90s and the ‘80s, when you guys broke, it was a different world. You had to have a record deal; you couldn’t do anything without a record deal. I mean, you guys did great – you would be selling out thousands and thousands of seaters without that record deal – but it wasn’t until MTV and all that stuff blew the world open that you went to that next level. And from there, sometimes the biggest albatross hanging around your neck is a hit single. Sometimes the hit single can break open the doors, but also create so many problems in its wake as well, because now suddenly the label is expecting that each and every time. And if you don’t have that huge hit single each and every time, you’re dropping lower and lower in their priorities. We felt that for a long time.

You know, early ‘90s, when we broke in ‘92, ‘93 – gold records, sold-out shows – it was living the dream that we had been waiting for. But then for the rest of the ‘90s, we had to follow in the wake of that gold album and that successful hit single and it was tough. Throughout the ‘90s, we were at war with the label. We spent many, many years waiting to make our fourth album, Falling Into Infinity. They kept us in a holding pattern for years, waiting to hear a hit single, not giving us a green light to move ahead until they heard something. And then they made us work with Desmond Child. They made us work with an outside producer that was pretty much ripping the songs apart. But in order to play ball, we had to play ball.

It wasn’t until the frustrations of that period where we finally put our foot down and said, “You know what? F*** this. If you want us to play ball – if you want to even have a band – you got to get out of our way. Let us produce our own albums. Let us write our own songs the way we want. We know what our fans want more than anybody does.” And at that point, myself and John Petrucci began producing all the albums, making all the decisions. And it was a lot of momentum for the next decade to come. But it wasn’t easy. And the record industry and the music industry, as you know – you’ve written a book about it, you do classes about it – it’s a tough, tough business, and it’s not for the weak. You know, here we are 40 years later, celebrating 40 years, but it took a long time to get there.

JJF: You know, you are so right about this. When you’re a struggling band, you think that signing the record deal is the greatest day of your life. It’s kind of like the Disney thing and happily ever after – you meet your Prince Charming. Marriage isn’t happily ever after; it’s the beginning of the f***ing struggle.

MP: Right. The light at the end of the tunnel is just another oncoming train.

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JJF: Was it Derek Shulman who signed you?

MP: Well, our second record deal, which was the big one, was with Warner. At the time, it was Atco, and then years later, it merged to Atco/EastWest. Then it became EastWest/Elektra. Then it became Elektra/Atlantic. We signed that first deal – it was a seven-album deal. And they kept us; surprisingly, they kept us for all seven albums. Over that time, the imprint of the label changed from this to that to this to that. And with every one of those imprint changes – from Atco to EastWest, EastWest to Elektra, blah, blah, blah – came, of course, an entire new roster of people and entire personnel. We got signed by Derek Oliver, who was the A&R guy, but you were right – Derek Shulman was the head of the label at that time. So it was the two Dereks: Derek Shulman, Derek Oliver. And to find two guys like that, that believed in us and were to give us this expensive major record deal was a miracle. But what’s the odds of finding more believers like that over the course of the next 20 years when that seven-album deal needs to roll out? So we spent all seven albums – it went from, I guess, ‘92 to about like 2007. So it was about 15 years that it took to work off that deal.

JJF: Did the advance on each album get higher as each album came up?

MP: Well, that was part of the contract. We signed a seven-album deal, but each one of them were incrementally getting bigger. And here’s the funniest part of it all: so we finally finished our last album with this deal seven albums later, and it’s like, all right, we’re finally going to get away from Warner. We want to go with a more metal-oriented label, a label that gets what we do more. So we signed with Roadrunner. Roadrunner was super hot in the late 2000s. They had Slipknot, they had Machine Head, they had all these great bands doing great stuff with all their bands – they were a hot label. We signed with Roadrunner. I swear to God, a week later, Roadrunner merges with Warner – we’re back on Warner. [laughs] But at least we had signed with the people at Roadrunner that got Dream Theater and understood us and got behind us. So even though it was still with Warner, it was at least with an imprint that believed in us and got us. We weren’t just being handed from person to person each and every time around like we were for the previous seven albums.

JJF: So who at Roadrunner became your A&R guy at that point?

MP: Monty Conner.

JJF: Oh, okay. So you had legitimate staff there.

MP: It was a great deal, because at that point we were 20 years into our career. We already had eight albums out. We had the track record that spoke for itself. And regardless of selling records, we were a great touring act. We tour hundreds of shows a year all over the whole world – it’s not just America, it’s not just Europe – it’s everywhere. So Roadrunner knew they were getting an established act with an established following. And they got it. By 2007, I think we knew what we were doing in terms of self-producing and self-writing and all that kind of stuff, so they believed in us and gave us that freedom and independence creatively, but they had the muscle to get behind us and make things happen. And they did. And those last couple albums that I was in the band for during my first tenure were those albums with Roadrunner, which did really well.

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JJF: So tell me about when it disintegrated with you. What was going through your mind when you said, “I can’t deal with Dream Theater anymore, and I need to get out of it”?

MP: It didn’t disintegrate, really. It wasn’t a fight. We actually were getting along great. We just finished an amazingly successful tour. We did a summer tour with Iron Maiden, playing sheds, playing Madison Square Garden. It was a great time for Dream Theater. So to put some perspective on this, this was around summer of 2010, and at that point, Dream Theater’s 25 years together at that point. For me, it was 25 years of quote-unquote leading the band and overseeing every aspect of the band, whether it be creative or business or merchandise or fan club. I oversaw all that stuff. And for 25 years—

JJF: You’re wearing multiple hats, is what you’re saying here, which is crazy. It’s crazy to do that.

MP: Absolutely. So at that point, I was just getting fried on the routine of it all: write, record, tour; write, record, tour; write, record, tour. It was an endless cycle that had been going for over a decade at that point, and I just needed a break. I had just done Avenged Sevenfold’s Nightmare album. Everyone was free to do sessions or side projects or things like that, but obviously playing with Avenged Sevenfold was more than just a side project – they’re an enormous band. And I did this Nightmare album, which entered the Billboard charts at number one, so it was my first number one album. It went gold the first week; it’s already past double platinum at this point.

So I was getting a taste of more mainstream success, and I committed to doing a summer tour with Avenged once the Dream Theater tour ended with Iron Maiden. It was just a commitment to play with those guys through the end of 2010 before I had to go back to Dream Theater. Started touring with them – the vibes were great. We’re out there doing a summer package with Avenged, Disturbed, Stone Sour, Hellyeah, Halestorm – just a great, great summer mainstream shed package, and the vibes were great. And the Dream Theater guys were kind of knocking on my door like, “Hey Mike, we got to schedule studio time for January. You got to be ready to start the next album in January.” That’s when I had a sit-down with those guys and said, “Look, I’m really enjoying doing something else. I’m fried on the whole Dream Theater endless cycle. Can we just take a little break, maybe push the studio time off a little bit? Let me just do this cycle with Avenged.”

JJF: What label were you on at this point?

MP: We were on Roadrunner still at that point. We had just done our second Roadrunner album. Anyway, long story short, I just needed a break, and it was like a game of chicken where I was not willing to commit to starting a new album in January. Those guys wanted a commitment, and I said, “Well, if you guys aren’t willing to wait for me, then you can’t respect the 25 years I’ve been overseeing this band. If you can’t give me that, then I’m out.” And that’s what happened. It was never a fight. I never had lost any of my love for the guys or my love for the band. I was just fried and wanted to try some other things at that stage, 25 years in.

Then it got ugly. Once you go through the divorce of leaving a band, there’s all the drama, and nowadays they have all the clickbait headlines and the metal websites that just take every line out of context in interviews like they’ll probably do with this. It’s just the nature of it. So inevitably, we had to go through legalities of splitting up the corporation and me leaving the corporation and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And those first couple years were rough, and it hurt to be disputing with your family, so to speak. We had formed Dream Theater when we were teenagers in college, spent those 25 years together building this prog metal empire and doing great for ourselves. So it was a really hard thing to walk away from, but I had to follow my heart. I had to either regret staying or regret leaving, and I felt that the more personal reward was to follow my heart and try some different things. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life regretting not leaving and not trying other things.

And here we are all these years later, and thank God this story now has a happy ending, being back with the guys after the hiatus. Business is bigger and better than ever. We’re in the middle of this 40th anniversary tour, and it’s just the biggest and best tour the band’s ever done. We’re happier than ever, and we’re in a much happier place now at this point of our lives and in our career.

JJF: Are you still the linchpin in terms of those decisions with the merch and all that stuff, or is it more democratically passed around these days? Management’s different? What’s different about it?

MP: Things inevitably changed when I left because all those hats I used to wear needed to be—

JJF: ...worn by somebody.

MP: Yeah. I can’t speak for how they did business the years I was gone, but I do know John Petrucci took on the role of producing the albums alone, whereas he and I used to do it together, and he got very comfortable with that role and that hat by himself. I know that they divvied up a lot of the roles and a lot of the responsibilities. So when I came back into the band all these years later, I needed to be very respectful of that, and I was. We had a lot of conversations right from the beginning: if you’re coming back, you have to realize we’re a different band now. You’re not gonna be able to wear all those hats like you used to. You can’t just run the show like you used to. And I had to be respectful of that, and I absolutely was. I respected the fact that they had been touring all those years without me and making all those records without me all those years.

So we talked about every area. Writing the setlist – that was something I was always very, very passionate about. That was something that none of those guys really felt very passionate about, so that came back into my lap: writing the setlist. And with that comes programming the intermission music and the show intro music and how the show is paced and things like that. So that’s one area that came back into my lap. Overseeing the merchandise was another one. So there were areas that those guys didn’t feel passionate about and were like, “Look, you’re good at that. Shine. Do your thing. We want that back in the band.” But then there were other areas, like John solely producing – he really felt very strongly about maintaining that, and of course I had to respect that. I can’t just come in there after all those years away and expect to take over again. I needed to respect what they had done and come in, and that’s the way it’s been.

So in answer to your question, it’s more democratic than it ever was. There are areas that I control now, there are areas that John Petrucci controls now, and then there are areas that are fully democratic and the whole band discuss and make decisions together. So to have three areas – that’s the way everything is done now – that’s different from when I left. When I left, I was running the show. I was definitely a control freak, and now it’s a lot different. Now it’s way more of a band unit, more of a band vibe, more collaborative than it ever has been in any of my time in the band.

JJF: When you were playing with us, it must have been a vacation for you! All you had to do was play drums!

MP: Yeah, absolutely. That’s why I enjoyed that Avenged tour so much. That was what woke me up to like, “Hey, sometimes you don’t have to make every decision and know every bit of information about everything.” When I played with Avenged or when I played with you guys, it was a joy to just play drums and not have to worry about making any decisions or having discussions about creative things – all that’s covered. I was there to just be a drummer, and yeah, playing with you guys, it was a joy because of that, to be honest. I don’t know if I would ever want that role full-time, but to have it, in balance with the other bands I was also doing – I don’t want to call it a vacation – but it was a really nice time to just be able to play drums for you guys.

JJF: And it was a pleasure to have you because I remember we said to you, “Here’s where your drum solo fits in,” thinking, “Well, of course he’s doing the drum solo. It’s Mike Portnoy – we want him to do a drum solo.” And you went, “No, man, it’s AJ. Put the video of AJ up there.” Like, you were so respectful of all of it. I know we’ve talked about it in the past, but you really have. It’s almost like a blueprint for how to do it. It was a blueprint for how to come back into a band and show what you wanted to do. It really was a spectacular thing. And I know how much you were a visionary in Dream Theater, so now, of course, it’s interesting. You had to restructure your brain and how it’s back. So tell me, now that it’s back, have you played countries that you’d never played before on this tour?

MP: A few. I mean, when I left the band 25 years in, we had played thousands of shows at that point everywhere, so we were a world band. But yeah, there are places we just did on this tour that I hadn’t played yet. I never played Malta before – we played there. There’s a few others, but for the most part we had already been playing so many places. But we got to play some incredible venues I never played before. We started the tour at the O2 Arena in London, which is massive – that’s where Led Zeppelin played their reunion show. So yeah, we came out of the gates massive, and throughout that first year of the current cycle that we’re on, we got to play a lot of places I hadn’t played, like Pompeii, Italy. We played where Pink Floyd filmed Live At Pompeii 50 years ago – we played the same place. It was amazing. And we got to play these amazing summer venues that were like ancient Roman amphitheaters. There was one in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and then one in Sicily. So yeah, we got to play a lot of cool places and a few countries that I hadn’t played, but between all the years of touring with Dream Theater and all the touring I had done with all the other bands, including Twisted Sister, there’s not many places left I haven’t played. I think the moon is probably all that’s left.

JJF: Well, I will tell you, when we came back in 2003, I didn’t know how popular we were. Did you guys know what you were walking into, or were you shocked at the way the tickets were selling? Or was there anything surprising about the welcoming back of the band, with you back in the band? I’m just kind of curious. Did you walk into expecting what you were seeing?

MP: The fact that our agent and management booked the kickoff at the O2 Arena showed that there was a lot of confidence in this reunion and that it would succeed. And we all knew that it would be exciting for the fans. There’s a lot of fans that really liked the period with Mike Mangini, and that’s great, and I love that for them. I respect that they had that time without me, but we knew that the reunion would definitely spark a lot of excitement, and it has, and it’s shown. But here we are reuniting with this lineup almost 40 years since starting the band. So no matter which way you slice it, there’s that 40 years of legwork that preceded this reunion. So we knew it would be big, and all the touring I had done all the years away, and all the touring they had done without me all the years away – we kept building our individual stocks. It was still growing. So coming together, we knew it would just be double of what it was individually.

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JJF: I love South America. I think the fans are the most passionate in the world. I mean, not to knock any countries – they’re all great – but I find South America to be spectacularly passionate. How do you feel about that?

MP: Yeah, South America is absolutely, hands down, the most passionate audiences in the world, especially in the world of metal or in the world of prog. So yeah, it’s one of my favorite places to play because they’re so energetic and vocal and passionate. I mean, you can feel the floor moving when you play. They’re singing the melodies – not even singing the lyrics – they’re singing the guitar melodies. If you see Rush’s Rock In Rio concert, that’s a good example there. They are playing ‘YYZ’, which is an instrumental, and the audience is singing every melody to an instrumental.

But yeah, in answer to your question, South America’s the best for Dream Theater. We already did a full leg down there for the 40th anniversary tour – we were down there in December of 2024. And now we have a second run down there in April and May of this year, doing the Parasomnia leg of the tour, where we’ll perform the new album in its entirety. So yeah, we’re going back down there for a second leg on this cycle just because they’re so great. And we’re gonna be doing a pretty thorough run down there this time, probably the most thorough South American tour. I mean, we always do Brazil, Argentina, Chile, maybe Mexico on the way down, but this run that we’re about to do, we’re doing a lot more markets, some of which I’ve never even played. So that’s exciting.

JJF: That is great. Give me your top 10 drummers list in your head. Who are your top 10 drummers?

MP: Well, I go through stages of my development and stages of being influenced by these different drummers. So the first stage was the classic rock guys. Of course, Ringo’s first. Ringo will always be number one. Beatles will always be number one. That’s where it all began for me. Ringo was the starting point. And then from there, I discovered Keith Moon and John Bonham. Those were the big three for me in my early development stages in the ‘70s. Then in the late ‘70s came Peter Criss. I went through a huge Kiss phase, as most people my age did in the mid-to-late ‘70s. So Peter Criss was a big, big one for me as I was still learning to get around the drums.

Then I discovered progressive music, and Neil Peart was the guy that turned my world upside down. So going chronologically, that’s the first five: Ringo, Keith Moon, John Bonham, Peter Criss, Neil Peart. Once I discovered Neil Peart, Neil and Rush’s music became the biggest thing in my world, and I became obsessed with Rush and learning all of Neil’s parts inside and out. It got me interested in playing a big drum kit, got me interested in being a more musical writer in terms of developing parts and rhythms and patterns and progressive odd time signatures and things like that. Once I got into Neil, then the next few favorites that were also big influences for me were Bill Bruford, because he was doing Yes, King Crimson – he played with Genesis, he played with UK – he was really carrying the prog flag high for prog drummers. And then I would say probably Terry Bozzio, who was playing with Frank Zappa and UK at the time. That gives us about seven people.

That’s the classic rock developing years, the prog rock developing years, and I guess the last group of drummers would be the metal years of early to mid-’80s when I was really getting into metal, and that’s when I was really into Twisted Sister and all the new thrash bands that were coming out – Metallica and Anthrax and Megadeth and Slayer. So I was really influenced by those drummers. So I would say probably the last three that I would put on this list would be drummers that came out of that era, which would be Lars Ulrich with Metallica, Dave Lombardo with Slayer, and Charlie Benante with Anthrax. Yeah, so I think that equals about 10. That covers classic rock, prog rock, and metal – all stuff predating my career, all stuff that was really big and influential in those early, influential teenage years.

JJF: It’s a great list. When Ace died last month, guitar magazines contacted me and said, “What are you thinking?” And I said I was at the Kiss loft the day they played their songs for the very first time with their producer, Ron Johnson, literally two weeks after Ace joined, maybe three. They had just put the name Kiss on a bedsheet behind them. Because I had auditioned for them, I stayed in contact with them. So they said, “Why don’t you come down to the loft?” So I went down to the loft, and I saw Ace for the first time, and I said to myself, “No wonder he’s the guitar player and I’m not.” His feel was great. He looked like a rock star. People say to me, “But technically he’s not Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen.” I don’t care if he’s technically not those guys. He is the embodiment of a rock god. He has inspired more kids to play guitar than probably anybody but Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix, because they played to so many people and he embodied that. He’s kind of like an American Keith Richards in a way. So when we talk about the simpler drummers, for example, the simpler players, it’s not just the fact that they’re good – it’s that they represented a thing, a feel.

MP: Look at three of the guys I just named who are big-time heroes for me: Ringo Starr, Peter Criss, Lars Ulrich. All three of those guys take a beating online. You read the comments from the trolls online, and there’s always negativity and mocking and, yeah, well, they can’t do this and they can’t do that. Who f***ing cares if they can or can’t play triple paradiddles at 300 BPM? That’s not the point! The point is those three guys have influenced trillions of musicians. And Peter Criss and Ringo Starr and Lars Ulrich are three of the reasons I ever picked up a pair of drumsticks. And their roles within the music of those bands was so important. You can’t have those Beatles albums without Ringo. You can’t have those early Kiss albums without the character of Peter Criss and his voice. And Lars Ulrich invented an entire genre with Metallica. So it doesn’t matter how technically perfect these guys are or imperfect they are – it doesn’t matter. Their influence is completely unprecedented, and that’s why they’re my heroes.