Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy has been talking about his years away from the prog metal stalwarts and the reconciliation that led to their recent album Parasomnia.
Speaking to Tom Power on Canada’s CBC Radio One, Portnoy explained what had led him to leave the band in the first place after their 2009 album Black Clouds & Silver Linings. “I left because I was fried from the write-record-tour, write-record-tour.
"It was just an endless cycle that was going on for 25 years at that point for me. And I, being the control freak I was, oversaw every element with not just the music and the lyrics and the melodies and the production, but also the merch and the fan clubs and everything, the setlist. I was fried.”
“So the biggest irony is I wanted to take a break and we came to a head where I ended up leaving the band because I needed a break. But that's the biggest irony of all, is that I went off from there to form, like, 87 bands."
Indeed in his 13 years away from Dream Theater, Portnoy followed his muse wherever it went and it went, well...everywhere. He formed a metal supergroup (Adrenalin Mob), a power trio (The Winery Dogs), a more traditional prog band (Flying Colors), a thrash metal band (Metal Allegiance).
He joined Twisted Sister for a while, Avenged Sevenfold and created a number of tribute bands to Rush, The Beatles, Led Zep and others.
“I made a selfish decision that I needed to scratch an itch, or else I would've regretted not leaving,” he told Power. “I love that expression, 'it's better to regret something you have done than something you haven't done,' and that's kind of where I was at. It was, like, man, 'If I don't follow my heart and try some other things, I'm gonna forever wonder what if.' So I needed to do it.
But scratch having been itched, he began to gradually repair his relationships with his old bandmates. First guitarist John Petrucci, then keyboard player Jordan Rudess and then bassist John Myung. “The final piece of that puzzle was (singer) James LaBrie, 'cause I hadn't spoken to James in over a decade. And he held a grudge with me, and I had tried to make amends many times with him and he just wasn't ready.”
“And at one point towards the end of '22, I think it was, I went and saw Dream Theater in New York and was able to see James in person for the first time, and within a minute everything melted away. Within a minute, it was big hugs, kisses: 'I love you. I miss you.' And all of that bullshit that transpired for years, all the drama immediately melted away. And that was it."
So...a happy ending? “I see stories like Roger Waters never going back to Pink Floyd and I always dreaded, like, 'I hope that's not gonna be the case with me and Dream Theater,” he told Power. “I hope we someday reunite and ride off into the sunset together, as it's meant to be.' And that's where we're at. Here we are."
