Originally published in Sarah Hagan Backstage YT channel · July 2022
Mike Mangini interview (excerpts)
InterviewMike Mangini4 min read
In fact, as Mangini tells Sarah Hagan in a new interview, he was friends with the other drummer before he joined Dream Theater. And while Portnoy and Mangini appear to enjoy an excellent relationship nowadays, Mangini admits how the now-famous audition would put it in a “holding pattern” for a period (transcribed by UG):
“We were friends before I got this job. I mean, literally – he’s in my place in LA, we’re hanging out, he was the one that invited me to all the Dream Theater shows. He was the person I was closest with. He said all kinds of nice things about me all the time to people in magazines. And so, the audition thing happened and he had left, and our relationship kind of just went into a holding pattern. And that was that. You know – whatever that means. It just might have been awkward for him or whatever – I don’t know. I don’t know.”
While at the subject of his audition, Mangini admits being frustrated by some people who still insist that he got the job because of connections and not due to skill alone, no matter how many times he addresses the issue:
“But what’s interesting with my audition, I wasn’t friends with them. I knew James because I had done three records with him and would consider him a friend, you know, to a point, but we didn’t yap other than that. Portnoy was the one that was my friend. So the guy that left was the person I was closest with. And even for the audition, James had his current drummer, Peter Willdoer, [at] the Dream Theater audition. So, I kind of had no... anything that suggested I was friends with them and I was just given the job, or anything like that – because it’s totally not true. Totally false, totally made up by whoever wants to make things up. But it’s funny, because I’ve explained this numerous times, and I don’t get listened to. It’s like, I was there. It’s me. I’m saying exactly what happened. And there’s plenty of, ‘Oh, no, no, no, that’s not how it went. That’s not what I heard.’ All I know is that I didn’t do anything that was a mistake to the point that it was noticed... What I mean is I didn’t make any [mistake that] caused us to stop. Nothing was out of place. I got every single test the first time, the jam was pretty good as fun. I played the songs correctly, and had zero stops. It was that kind of thing, like, nothing was out.”
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Mike Mangini reflected on his widely publicized audition for Dream Theater in late 2010 following the departure of the band’s original drummer Mike Portnoy. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We were friends before I got this job. Literally, in my place in L.A., we were hanging out. He was the one that invited me to all the Dream Theater shows. He was the person I was closest with. He said all kinds of nice things about me all the time to people and in magazines. And so the audition thing happened and our relationship kind of just went into a holding pattern, and that was that. Whatever that means – it might have been awkward for him or whatever; I don’t know. But, anyway, we just kind of did our things.
“What’s interesting is with my audition, I wasn’t friends with them. I knew James ’cause I had done three records with him and would consider him a friend, to a point, but we didn’t yap other than that. Portnoy was the one that was my friend, so the guy that left was the person I was closest with. And even for the audition, James had his current drummer, Peter Wildoer, into the Dream Theater audition. So it was nothing… anything that was suggested that I was friends with them and I was just given the job or anything like that ‘cause it’s totally not true – totally false, totally made up by whoever wants to make things up that they wanna think.”
Mangini beat out six other of the world’s top drummers – Marco Minnemann, Virgil Donati, Aquiles Priester, Thomas Lang, Peter Wildoer and Derek Roddy – for the gig, a three-day process that was filmed for a documentary-style reality show called “The Spirit Carries On”.
“I wasn’t nervous about what would happen ‘cause I had such a good day that day,” Mike recalled. “But I didn’t know. I was, like, ‘Oh my gosh. I’m nervous. I really would like to do this.’ And who knows? All the other drummers, if they weren’t already my friends became my friend after that. So I have close relationships with everybody. I was nervous because I know that each of the drummers does something amazing that the other one doesn’t do. That’s the beauty about art and music, is everyone has things that they’re own and I know how great they all are. All I know is I didn’t do anything that was a mistake to the point that it was noticed. It’s a better way for me to describe than for me to say, ‘I didn’t make any mistakes that day,’ or whatever. I have to be clear that I don’t know that I hit this drum and I should have hit that drum – that’s not what I mean. What I mean is nothing caused us to stop; nothing was out of place; I got every single test the first time; the jam was pretty good, it was fun; I played the songs correctly and had zero stops. It was that kind of thing – nothing was out.”