A Nightmare to Remember

This summer the unthinkable happened. Mike Portnoy left Dream Theater, the group he’d helmed for 25 years. As rumours still abound as to what went down and why, Prog gets the inside story from LaBrie, Petrucci, Myung and Rudess, plus Transatlantic’s Roine Stolt, the Avenged Sevenfold angle – and word from Portnoy himself. Rich Wilson reports.

It was on the afternoon of Monday August 30, a particularly searing and humid day even by New York standards, that the members of Dream Theater had arranged to meet and cement their future plans. The venue was the Affinia Manhattan, an imposing brownstone hotel on Seventh Avenue, and their manager had reserved a plush suite for the band to leisurely discuss the fine details of recording a follow-up to their most successful album to date, 2009’s Black Clouds & Silver Linings. With Mike Portnoy’s tenure in Avenged Sevenfold also scheduled to come to an end (he’d stepped in to help the band record and tour after the death of their drummer, The Rev) their agenda seemed clear. Yet the drummer was to reveal that he wanted to mothball the band – a decision that would ultimately lead to him leaving Dream Theater just over a week later. Speaking to John Petrucci now, it’s noticeable that he responds to questions with an understandable hesitancy in his voice, desperate not to say anything that might be misconstrued or spark an unwanted war of words that both sides are striving to avoid. He’s also still dazed by the events that unfolded and what’s perhaps more shocking about Portnoy’s revelation is that nobody else within the band had any inkling about what the drummer was set to announce.

“It’s definitely a bit surreal and I’m okay but it’s just so weird how things change,” he says. “Basically, we went into a meeting expecting to talk about details of the studio and when and where, and it took a whole different turn. We were supposed to go into the studio in January and we’d actually extended our break a bit so that Mike could finish out the rest of the year with Avenged Sevenfold. Then he brought it up that he wanted to take a hiatus. There wasn’t anything that led up to it in our minds and it kind of shocked us you know? We weren’t expecting that at all.”

That feeling of disbelief is something echoed by Jordan Rudess who recalls the way the meeting then unfolded.

“As the meeting started, Mike said ‘Wait a minute guys, I’ve got to tell you some stuff.’ He said to us that he felt that he really wanted us to take a hiatus or a long break and was looking for ways to do it. When he brought it up, I think our jaws hit the floor and you could feel the energy in the room just sink, because we were all a little bit in shock. I mean, I guess he has this amazing job with Avenged Sevenfold and in the back of my mind before the meeting I was thinking ‘Oh, maybe he’ll come in and he’ll tell us that he’s leaving and joining Avenged Sevenfold or whatever’ but I didn’t think that was possible for a second because Dream Theater is so much about Mike. But then he came in and was basically saying ‘I feel happier when I’m away from you guys now.’ So he was really, really wanting to have a break. And honestly, the rest of us just felt like ‘You know what? We’ve had a really cool break here and we’re just looking forward to making music. We want to get together and do this.”

The only hint of the turmoil that was revealed by Mike in that meeting was something noticed by James LaBrie during the band’s recent US tour supporting Iron Maiden, when he detected that Portnoy was displaying signs of detachment.

“I really didn’t see anything until probably during the latter part of the Iron Maiden tour when I just kind of noticed that he was a little more withdrawn and slightly moody here and there,” recalls LaBrie. “I had a conversation with Mike then and I just said ‘I know that you’re going to do this Avenged Sevenfold thing and it’s going to be exciting. I don’t know if I’m getting paranoid here but I would hope that this doesn’t jeopardise who and what we are as Dream Theater.’ At the time, I could even see him being a little uncomfortable with that conversation, as if he were saying, ‘Look I can’t be completely honest with you here, I can’t really give you an answer because I don’t know what I’m thinking.’ Of course, the hammer fell when we met in New York and he basically said ‘Guys, can I take the floor because I think what I have to say is really going to alter where we go with this.’ Well, absolutely. It altered everything.”

Although the other four members of Dream Theater were under the misguided notion that all was set to continue as planned, Portnoy believed that the band were in danger of being consumed by what he perceived as an endlessly predictable write-record-tour cycle. In his deliberations, the drummer also believed that Dream Theater had become a band of detached individuals rather than the band of brothers he felt it had once been. Portnoy’s work with Transatlantic and his current tenure with Avenged Sevenfold exacerbated the situation and led to him declaring in his resignation statement that he had “more fun and better personal relations with these other projects than I have for a while now in Dream Theater.” Portnoy’s only proposed solution was for the band to go on an indefinite hiatus, believing that a break would help to rekindle his enthusiasm for both the Dream Theater machine as well as his relationship with the other members. What seems to have especially unnerved the band was that the drummer had been vague as to how long this projected break would last.

“Yeah, he was saying a few years, three years, five years or whatever,” explains Jordan Rudess. “I really believe that’s what might’ve been best for him and I’m sure he doesn’t want to let go of Dream Theater. Why should he necessarily have to? Of course there’s the reality that there are four other guys who also happen to have Dream Theater as their lives. I think a lot of the problem was with us personally but to me the vibe within Dream Theater was fine. I mean, okay, so you’ve got John Myung who wasn’t really socialising with us at all anymore, but as I said to Mike ‘Tell me how it’s any different to when I first joined this band?’ I don’t see it. And I’ve really got no problem with him doing what he’s doing with Avenged Sevenfold. I think it’s pretty cool going out and playing with a really successful rock group. I just have a little bit of a problem with him thinking that he could control Dream Theater. It’s like a captain who is trying to command his ship when he’s not even standing on the ship. And all the other guys are just sitting there, cruising along with a guy saying, ‘The captain has left the ship. Okay boys, here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to take a break.’ And they’re like ‘But wait a minute, we’re standing on the ship.’ But Mike remains our very good friend and I think there is a lot of love there between everyone really when it comes down to it. He may have been a little tired of us but the bigger picture is that we’re all brothers.”

Following Portnoy’s declaration of intent, he departed the meeting, leaving behind four truly stunned musicians to contemplate the various options that were open to them. That sense of disbelief and the realisation of how this could affect their career was enhanced by a very visual reminder lurking outside the hotel window.

“Here’s the crazy thing,” laughs LaBrie. “Our manager was staying overnight, so he had rented a large suite with a big living room and all that. It had a balcony that went off and we were about 27 floors up. You could walk out on to this balcony and you’re looking right up Seventh Avenue, and right across from there was Madison Square Gardens. We were like ‘We just played there with Maiden and everyone in the industry and our camp is saying that with the next world tour, we could play there and do really well.’ We were all just looking at it going, this is bizarre. Here’s where we should have been standing saying ‘Hey guys. After the next album, that’s where we’re going.’ And instead it was ‘What the hell just happened?’”

Although the remaining members of the band hadn’t discussed it in any detail, as they left the hotel that night there was an unspoken and underlying determination that there would be no sabbatical for Dream Theater. Their preferred option was of course to try and persuade Portnoy that his home was still in the band, that they understood his feelings but still wanted him to join them in the studio in January. But there was also a tangible resilience and defiance that as far as they were concerned, Dream Theater contained five musicians who had worked tirelessly to nurture and enhance the band’s stature for years. The departure of one of them was regrettable but not something that they hadn’t overcome in the past. Dream Theater clearly wasn’t something they were going to give up lightly.

“You know, we’ve known each other for a long time, 25 years-plus, and I love Mike,” says Petrucci honestly. “One of the first things I said was that I was trying to understand where he was coming from and that I don’t judge him. Everyone is their own man and I get it. But from my perspective and from that of the other guys, you could take those same elements mentioned by Mike, the fact that we have been a band for 25 years, that this is something that we have built up and that we love as a reason not to stop it or even take a break.”

“We love what we do and didn’t want to wait around as things became unstable,” concurs John Myung. “What was initially a four-month break suddenly turned into a hiatus, then changed to year and four months, which then could have turned into anyone’s guess.”

Once the initial trauma had subsided, the four band members weighed up their options. Within a matter of hours, they had decided that their preferred solution was to persuade Portnoy that there were ways around the problem. A phone conference had been arranged between the entire band and their management for the following week, which gave everyone the chance to examine the possibilities. Critically though, Dream Theater had also decided that if Portnoy couldn’t be persuaded back in that meeting, then they needed to concoct a plan for finding a replacement.

“The four of us were in contact throughout most of the next day,” says LaBrie. “We were just saying what we needed to do, this is what we need to consider and let’s start to orchestrate things. It wasn’t something any one of us wanted to sit around on, feeling sorry for ourselves or thinking that this was something that was insurmountable. I think we all knew deep down inside, and we had touched very briefly on it even with Mike present, that more than likely this was something that we weren’t comfortable with and that ultimately we’re all going to come to the conclusion that we needed to move on.”

By the time of that phone conference, the band had reiterated to Portnoy their desire for him to join them in the studio but also explained their desire to continue, with or without him. Although not put quite so aggressively or in those terms, effectively they were issuing him with an ultimatum.

“We just told him again ‘We love you, we love this band and everything we do and stand for and we really want to move forward with our plan as intended with you in the band, in Dream Theater, as it should be, you know?” says Petrucci. “You can’t twist someone’s arm or change their mind but while being understanding of what he’s going through we said ‘Listen, our door is open. You’re our drummer, we’re here and we want to move forward.’ So that message once again was very clear, but he said that he wasn’t ready to go back in.”

One suggestion put forward by Portnoy was for him to continue with the band for sporadic live shows during 2011, although this would have meant the band delaying the recording of a new album until 2012 at the earliest. There was also a proposal that they could enlist a session man to record the album and tour with the band, with Portnoy returning in a couple of years. Although appreciating the gesture, Jordan Rudess reveals that these offers wouldn’t have solved the problems.

“Yeah he did, he said he’d work double time and we’ll do some gigs and that was so nice of him,” he says. “But you know what? I don’t think anybody else in our band wanted to play second fiddle to anybody, ever. He would be out there doing a great exciting rock’n’roll thing, and what? We’re going to sit there playing gigs if we can squeeze them in at the moments where he might have a spare 24 hours or something? No. That didn’t really interest us. Mike also said, ‘Well, maybe just go and get a substitute or something for the year that can play the album and do the tour’. That was something that I thought of myself that maybe might work. But after I’d thought about it, it didn’t fly very far before we thought that it wasn’t cool. We would have a half-assed Dream Theater that is going to go out and nobody is going to take seriously because it’s like some temporary thing with everybody waiting for Mike to come back into his role.”

And with those options being dismissed, and realising that the band resolutely intended to continue, Portnoy believed there was no other option but for him to depart, thus allowing both parties to move forward. It was simply an impasse that could never be resolved, although that didn’t make it any less upsetting when the moment of resignation came.

“It was an extremely emotional moment and the whole thing to me is very heartbreaking and very sad,” says Petrucci with a sigh. “You know, you walk around afterwards going ‘Is this really happening?’ It’s almost like that feeling when somebody dies. You feel like you’re in some kind of weird, limbo dream state and it’s hard for me to imagine this band without him. But I think the whole beauty of Dream Theater is the collective nature and everybody has their talents. I think we’ve always been about more than just one individual and that’s part of our strength. Of course we are going to miss Mike a lot, but we move forward, as is our right.”

There is a colossal void left by Portnoy’s departure. He was the band’s mascot, chief interviewee, driver of concepts, selector of set lists and was always at the forefront when the band were deliberating over a musical direction. Portnoy was the man with the Dream Theater masterplan. Clearly then, apart from his immense technical ability behind the kit, the band are obviously replacing more than just a drummer.

“Yes, Mike was all about those things and not to simplify it or belittle it, but that will just have to be something that we allocate to each and every one of us to take over,” says LaBrie. “So that will be a major difference in the band. Instead of one person handling all of those responsibilities, it’s going to be spread out between four others.”

“I guess we’re excited about being able to look at all the cool stuff Mike did and spread them around a bit,” affirms Rudess. “We’ve got an amazing team of managers and tour managers, we’re all very capable guys and we’re not scared. This is not rocket science. This is not curing cancer, this is a rock band and I think we can handle it.”

That still leaves the outstanding issue of the fact that, as unreal as it still sounds, Dream Theater needs a new drummer.

“Well, it feels real to me now because all I’ve been doing is watching drummer videos,” laughs Rudess. “We’re working on it now, as we want to get the thing moving and find somebody. I was thinking we should make this like a reality TV show but nobody wants to turn this into a circus you know? So yes, we’ve learnt a lot about drumming. It’s inspiring for me as there are some monster players out there and it’s an opportunity to really keep things fresh. Mike was Mike. He was a fantastic musical partner for us and nobody is going to replace him, but now that we have this opportunity, we want somebody who can totally inspire us.”

“We’ll find a drummer through auditions as the Dream Theater process creatively has always been collaborative,” says Myung. “So it will be very much about finding someone who gels with us and adds to the chemistry and right now, the band is focused on finding someone. It’s not just going to be about the person’s technique but about how they interact with us as a band.”

One question that Dream Theater will have to get used to answering is an obvious one. If in a few years’ time, when all this turbulence has subsided and Portnoy feels sufficiently recharged, would he be welcomed back?

“You know, I’ve played with Mike for so long and we have done so many things together that at some point we will play together again, and we told each other that,” says Petrucci optimistically. “It would be ridiculous to think that we won’t play together again. That’s kind of silly. Whether it’s in Dream Theater or something else or we reunite down the line, who knows? If that’s the way the planets align and things work out in both of our lives, then I’m certainly open to that. But in the meantime, I think we owe it to ourselves to carry on with focus and intention. Right now, we have to find an ass-kicking drummer...”

Inset

“When I heard about it I was a bit surprised, but not really shocked. I predict that they will get an interim drummer, and eventually Mike will go back to the band when he is ready. I hope it all works out for everyone.”

Derek Sherinian (ex-Dream Theater keyboards)

Inset

“Comments on this situation are like comments on someone else’s marriage. Only the parties involved know the real story. As for my reaction, I’m always wishing the best for the guys as they are all like family to me.”

Charlie Dominici (ex-Dream Theater vocalist)

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“Fans Are Divided!”

Metal Hammer Editor Alexander Milas gives the mag and readers’ reactions.

Let’s get it in perspective: if God was a drummer then Mike Portnoy is Jesus, and this split is no moon – it’s a huge fucking space station. It should be no surprise then that it’s divided DT fans right down the middle. It had its portents: First: the tragic and premature passing of Avenged Sevenfold’s Jimmy The Rev’ Sullivan in December of last year, and the Orange County world-beaters’ spectacularly broad fan base was awash with grief and also speculation: would the band survive such a blow? The answer came in February. “We asked Jimmy’s all-time favourite drummer Mike Portnoy to record on behalf of him. Mike said it would be an honour and that’s what Jimmy would have wanted.”

The internet betrayed all manner of sentiment, as did letters to Metal Hammer. ‘Fair enough,’ was the reaction of Avenged Sevenfold fans, who unanimously voiced a sense of admiration for their courage in persevering during a time of inestimable loss. ‘Are you joking?’ seemed to be the view of many Dream Theater fans, primarily those who perhaps view Avenged – who in July would go on to produce a Billboard-smashing Number One album and sell 8,000 tickets in the UK in under an hour – beneath Dream Theater’s musical stature. Of course, this was all before Portnoy had even announced his intention to leave Dream Theater, which no-one would have suspected, and a different view soon emerged. A poll conducted on metalhammer.co.uk said it all: Should Dream Theater continue without Portnoy? Of over 3,000 respondents, 53% said ‘no.’ A divided community? You bet. So then, are Dream Theater justified? Well, they’ve a career to pursue. Whether it’s really DT without Portnoy is a different question, and only time and ticket sales will tell.

As Avenged Sevenfold have said themselves, they’ve no intention to replace The Rev, but they’re touring with Mike, and showing no sign of slowing down. As the old joke goes, where does the 500-pound Gorilla sit in the cinema? Anywhere he wants to. We’ll be watching Portnoy’s movements with interest in the coming months and years.

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“He’s Our Saviour...”

Was there any sign Portnoy was preparing to jump ship because of his involvement with Avenged Sevenfold? Philip Wilding reports from the frontline with Avenged in the US.

As Avenged Sevenfold’s explosive stage show blew up around him, Mike Portnoy reached over from behind his expansive drum-kit, placed a marshmallow on his drumstick and toasted it over one of the flames still licking around his riser. Portnoy was clearly enjoying his new project, but it was born from tragic circumstance.

After the accidental death of their drummer James ‘The Rev’ Sullivan in late December, Avenged Sevenfold fielded lots of calls about replacing him in the band.

“Many drummers did offer from many massive bands, who shall remain nameless,” says guitarist Zacky Vengeance. “It was nice, but it was almost insulting to us, because it was too soon, but Mike [Portnoy] offered his condolences and sent the family a cymbal knowing that Jimmy was a big fan of his. The idea of reaching out to Mike was so easy to make happen, he said I’d love to do it, play whatever you want, whatever Jimmy left...”

Portnoy fitted right in, playing The Rev’s ride cymbal as part of his kit every night and wandering around backstage with his familiar blue beard intact. Mike also happily discussed his other work with them, detailing the length of Transatlantic’s set at this year’s High Voltage Festival before asking the bemused band if they could use even more flames in their set as he’d like to start cooking sausages onstage too. His unflappable adaptability had calmed the band’s live nerves, he seemed far from a man who was thinking about leaving Dream Theater, the group he helped form and nurture.

His quiet optimism caused Avenged guitarist Synyster Gates to comment, “Portnoy does feel a bit like our saviour. He’s an unbelievable guy, he’s so happy all the time, you can’t get him down, he just loves life. So when you see him up there having the time of his life it’s inspiring – and it’s good to know he’s kind of protecting us and we don’t have to think about the next step, we’re just here doing the best we can.”

Box

‘‘Holy Crap... Didn’t See That One Coming!’’

Editor-At-Large Geoff Barton reveals the reaction of Classic Rock staff and readers.

“What’s all the fuss about? He’s only the fucking drummer.”

It’s fair to say not everyone on Classic Rock mag is a Dream Theater fan. Sure, when we first heard of Mike Portnoy’s departure we realised it was a vitally important story. We posted it on our website mere seconds after the news broke and the comments from disgruntled fans flew in thick and fast from cyberspace.

But. in the office, it was a different story. I’d be lying if I said there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, because we can be a hard-bitten and cynical bunch. Plus, within the staff, we’ve got a wide range of musical tastes: we’ve got the prog faction, the metal faction, the punk faction, the grunge faction, the jazz-rock faction... we’re even trying to keep a lid on the dubstep faction! No wonder we don’t often see eye-to-eye.

But nevertheless, despite our feigned shrugs of indifference, there was an underlying recognition among the CR scribes that the equation ‘DT minus MP’ does represent the end of an era.

It’s safe to say no drummer in rock has ever carried the flame in such consummate style. To many, Mike Portnoy was Dream Theater. More than Neil Peart in Rush. More than John Bonham in Led Zeppelin. More than Keith Moon in The Who. More than Les ‘Feathertouch’ Binks in Judas Priest, even. Plus the news of Portnoy’s exit was so sudden, so unexpected, it caught us on the hop. In progressive metal terms, it was a precipitous percussive paradiddle too far. I guess we didn’t quite believe it.

Whatever the future holds for Portnoy and DT, fans are still getting to grips with the fact that their favourite group has been torn asunder.

As one of those comments on the Classic Rock website succinctly put it: “Holy crap! Didn’t see this one coming... feel a mixture of anger and extreme sadness.”

Don’t we all, brother. Don’t we all.

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=17890.msg649327#msg649327

Additional unused JP quote regarding tour plans for 2010:

“No it wasn’t. In fact the whole year ended up different to what we had planned. We did plan on going out in the spring again but then we had a meeting about mixing things up and maybe not doing that. You know. We kind of usually do a very similar cycle of events so we thought maybe we could change it up. We were actually going to be finished, our whole year was going to shift. We were going to finish after the last bit, which I forget what it was now, maybe South America and then we were going to be off for a few months and get back into the studio. So the whole year sort of shifted and then the Iron Maiden thing came up which put us on tour for another five or six weeks, which we weren’t expecting, which shifted it again. I guess it was during the South American tour was when Mike had told us that he was asked to do the tour with them [A7X] so at that point we were rearranging the year as well. So the whole year had gone completely different to what we had planned in the beginning.”