Mike Portnoy interview (excerpts)

UG: Touring with Iron Maiden must be pretty special for you. You’ve been a longtime Maiden fan and covered “To Tame a Land” on the special edition of Black Clouds & Silver Linings.

Mike Portnoy: It’s definitely an amazing experience because they are one of our childhood heroes. When we formed this band 25 years ago, they were one of the role models for the Dream Theater sound. I would say when we formed the band it was kind of like we wanted to be a cross between Iron Maiden and Rush. They were kind of a big part of the blueprint of the original sound for this band from the beginning. At this point in our career, there are very few bands that we would still open for but they truly one of ‘em.

What was it about Maiden’s music that so attracted you? Were Dream Theater going to come out of the gates as a two-guitar metal band?

When we formed the band in 1985, our two loves were progressive rock with bands like Rush, Yes, and Genesis and the other side of the coin was heavy metal. And at that stage around 1985, it was Priest, Maiden, Sabbath, and Metallica was just starting to come out. But Maiden had a little bit of both elements and I think that’s what appealed to us. They were a metal band but out of the metal bands at that time, they were doing longer songs and instrumental arrangements. You had stuff like “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Power Slave” so that kind of progressive edge to what was popular metal in the mid-eighties is what appealed to us.

What about the precursors to those bands? This isn’t a direct line but were you moved by the English blues groups like Cream, Fleetwood Mac, and the Yardbirds? Hendrix?

Well, everyone in this band has different backgrounds and different musical tastes. My taste is very broad and I’m definitely a bit of a musical historian. By the time I was a teenager, I had a record collection of like 500 records and I grew up on a lot of that classic rock. So for me personally, the English classic rock scene like the bands you mentioned – Cream and Zeppelin and all that stuff – was huge for me but I can’t necessarily say it was for the other guys in the band.

As a drummer were you picking up on what John Bonham, Ginger Baker and Keith Moon were playing?

My early classic rock heroes, the big three, were Keith Moon, John Bonham, and Ringo Starr; those were the big three. But then there was also Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell, and John Densmore and all of that late ‘60s, early ‘70s stuff was a huge, huge part of me developing as a musician. And then later on in the mid-70s came progressive rock and then in the ‘80s came more metal but it all began for me in the classic rock world of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

You were able to learn about playing drums from Ringo Starr?

Ringo is the guy. I mean the Beatles are literally my favorite band of all time. They were from the minute I was born until here at the age of 43. The Who and Zeppelin were also up there but really at the end of the day the Beatles are it for me. Number one.

Have you had a chance to meet any of your drummer heroes? A lot of them are gone now – Keith Moon, John Bonham, Mitch Mitchell and some others – but what about the guys who are still around? Ringo?

Those are the heroes that really intimidate me. Through our career I’ve gotten to meet almost anybody I’ve ever wanted to meet and the people that are in the Maidens and the Priests and the Sabbaths and the Metallicas of the world, they’re kind of like more my generations. But once you get to that ‘60s era – the Stones, Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Who, Pink Floyd – those are the upper echelon of heroes that are on a whole other level. The only ones that I’ve met from that group, I have met Ringo. We did several shows with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant back in the ‘90s and I’ve met Jimmy Page many times since then. And then also Roger Waters and Nick Mason; I’m also a huge Pink Floyd fan. They were a big one for me as well.

When you’re playing with Dream Theater or the new music with Avenged Sevenfold, are there ever moments when you might remember a John Bonham fill or something the Who did and it will trigger something specific in your playing? Do you do that at all?

It never doesn’t do that; I mean every moment of my life [laughs.] Anytime I’m behind the kit, I’m feeling the sum of all the parts of who make me who I am. And no matter who I’m playing with, it triggers memories of music and other drummers to me. I am the biggest music fan you’ll ever meet and everything I do resonates with the music I grew up with. Yesterday I flew out on our day off to fly to Kansas City to see Rush and I spent the day hanging out with Neil Peart. It doesn’t matter how old I am or how much I’ve done with my career, I’m still that 15-year old kid that loves music. That’s never gonna change. And yesterday I was sitting in the fourth row playing air drums to Neil Peart just like everybody in the audience. I happened to be signing autographs and taking pictures during the intermission but other than that I’m a fan like anybody else. And that doesn’t change and anytime I’m playing drums, I always feel the ghost of Keith Moon and John Bonham in everything I do.

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You mentioned that you’ve played and recorded with so many musicians apart from the Dream Theater band. Are you just looking for different groups of players to satisfy the various kinds of music you’ve always listened to?

I think I said it at the very top of this conversation: my musical taste is incredibly broad. And the fact that I grew up with Zeppelin, the Who, the Beatles, Cream like we were talking about earlier, the rest of the guys in Dream Theater don’t necessarily share that side with me. With Dream Theater we share a progressive side and a metal side but that doesn’t really scratch the surface of my musical tastes. I grew up with the classic rock stuff and I also have a side of me that loves heavy, heavy thrash music and I listened to everything from Lamb of God to Exodus. That’s a side that I don’t necessarily share with the other Dream Theater members. I went out and did a thing with this band called Hail! earlier this year which kind of satisfied that side of satisfied that side of me doing like Slayer and Motorhead covers. Every project that I’m involved with is satisfying or quenching a musical thirst inside of me that is just so broad that I need to work with other people to quench it.