Mike Portnoy interview (excerpt)

So, six years after a shocking announcement that you were leaving the band you started and named. Would you say that you feel justified for this decision?

Are you disguising the question as asking if I feel justified from leaving Dream Theater? (laughs)

Well, yeah... so you feel good in your heart for making that decision six years ago?

Oh yeah! I know it hurt and a lot of the fans have trouble accepting it and still do to this day and I feel bad about that. But, I did give 25 years of my life to that band and to the fans of that band and I still am here for all of those fans of the band, still working my ass off 24/7 no matter what I do, for those fans.

So, to the Dream Theater fans that have stuck with me for the last six years I think they’re being rewarded with so much music and so much creativity. You know, I’m the hardest working guy in the business, so if you stuck with me you’re reaping the rewards of that. But, I feel bad for the people that were so close-minded after that.

To answer your question... Do I feel good about it? Absolutely! What I’ve done in the last six years, I would never have been able to do half of that stuff had I not taken that decision. I’m proud of those 25 years I spent and built that entire band from the very ground up. I’m proud of that and it’s my legacy, but I have always felt that Mike Portnoy is much more than just the drummer of Dream Theater.

What I’ve done since then with Flying Colors, Transatlantic, The Neal Morse Band, The Winery Dogs, Adrenaline Mob, Metal Allegiance, Twisted Sister, Avenged Sevenfold and the list goes on and on... You know, that right there is three lifetimes worth of creativity (laughs)... touring and albums... I wouldn’t have been able to do that otherwise. So yeah, no regrets whatsoever. I could not be happier and prouder of what I’ve done in the last six years.

Even though I pretty much agree with everything you said, I would like to correct you in one thing... You were never just the drummer in Dream Theater, you were so much more...

Well, thank you! I guess I shouldn’t have put it that, way because I agree. And it bothers me when I see people compare their current drummer to me. You really can’t make that comparison, because he right now is just playing drums for that band, while I was always the songwriter, co-writing the music, writing lyrics and melodies, overseeing the fan clubs, the websites and producing the albums and directing the videos... So, yeah, I guess when I’m kind to just reduced to just the drummer for those 25 years it is a bit of an insult. So, thank you for making that correction even though I just said it... (laughs)

Is there something you miss from the role of the captain in Dream Theater? After all they are still one of the most important bands of our generation and that’s not an achievement to be underrated or your part in it. 

I’m not sure what’s the question...

Is there something you miss from this legacy, or your role in the band?

Well, the only thing I miss, to be honest, is being the captain of a ship. Because after I left Dream Theater - all of the things I’ve done after Dream Theater that I just mentioned, in all of those cases - I’ve never been the clear leader. Everything I’ve done like Flying Colors, The Winery Dogs, they’re more collaborative roles and to be honest I do miss the amount of control that I had in Dream Theater. I was able to make 90% of the decisions and direction in Dream Theater on my own and didn’t really discuss everything and those guys kind of trusted me with that. So, I do kind of miss that.

One of the things about being in a band is that sometimes the collaborative process can be great, but it’s also incredibly frustrating at times. Having to go through a hundred emails on every single decision sometimes, you pull your hair out of your head and I miss the days that I had in Dream Theater, where I ran the show. But honestly it’s okay, because that was then and this is now.

On all these years that have gone by, only in a few special occasions you’ve revisited some of Dream Theater stuff, but now you announced The Shattered Fortress, a project meant to play the whole 12-step suite. Is this a temporary project or do you plan to keep it on a steady basis and play songs from Dream Theater?

Oh no! I have no interest in doing this on a long term level. This is absolutely just a temporary one-off event that will happen in select festivals and shows next year.

Like you said, I’ve rarely revisited the Dream Theater material since I left the band and honestly I have no interest in it. If I wanted to be playing Dream Theater material I would have just stayed in Dream Theater. That’s obviously not my intention.

Doing that with The Shattered Fortress is mainly kind of just trying to finish some unfinished business, not only for the fans but for myself as well. Honestly, I had no intention of even doing this, until the idea of the 50th birthday concert came up on Cruise to the Edge, so that’s where this kind of stemmed from. Once I had the idea of doing a retrospect concert for my 50th birthday I knew that was the right time to finally do the 12-step suite once and for all. And then once word got out about that, suddenly I started getting these offers from these different prog festivals, so I thought now it’s the time, let’s just do it once and for all and get it out of my system and give it to the fans finally. It’s really just a one-off thing that will happen in 2017 and after that I have really no interest in going back there again.