Mike Portnoy interview

Chasta Michaelis: I have to tell you right off the bat, I feel so personally connected to you. I am a classic rock DJ, like your father was a classic rock DJ, and I am raising a drummer.

Mike Portnoy: I was just talking about my dad in another interview. That’s how I got into music. When I was born, he surrounded me with all this music and he was a rock and roll DJ. I used to go to the radio station to do the radio show with him. He was out here in California in Carmel. And I used to do the radio show with him when I was a little kid. He let me pick the music and spin the records.

CM: Do you have any of that on tape anywhere?

MP: Oh yeah! I have cassette tapes of it. Big time. I [have] a great story: I was a seven-year-old kid and they used to have a thing on KRML about signing in and you’d have to read from the script, “As the sun rises. So it was beautiful Caramel by the sea KRML.” So I would have to read the introduction thing. And then my dad said, “I’m going to put a piece of paper in front of you and just read what it says.” So I’m reading the whole introduction, blah blah blah. And then at the end, “Angie Dickinson gives great head.” [lots of laughs] And I had no idea what it meant, but my dad had me say that. You know, this little seven-year-old boy saying that live on the radio.

CM: Now, that’s the tape we need to hear.

MP: Yeah, I probably have it somewhere.

Baby Huey: So, what years were you at the radio station?

MP: This is around 73, 74. That was my first taste of fame actually. I remember calling up the operator to place a collect call and I was like, “Collect call from Mike” to whoever I was calling and the operator’s like, “Are you Mike Portnoy?” Like she recognized my voice. I was just a little tiny kid and that was like my first taste of fame.

CM: With that notion, do you feel that’s a major reason why you do what you do today is because your dad started you in that?

MP: Absolutely. I mean, from the minute I was born, he surrounded me with the Beatles and the Who and the Stones and Zeppelin and Bowie and all that stuff. I grew up on that from day one – literally day one. So yeah, I was always an obsessive rock and roll music fan.

BH: I was just thinking you might be hands down the best drummer today.

MP: Naw, there’s some amazing drummers today.

BH: I mean there’s Paul Bostaph here with the Kerry King Band, obviously Slayer, his history. I’m trying to think anyone else but I think you might be the most decorated person today.

MP: Maybe decorated perhaps. I mean, in terms of like awards and things like that, but I don’t put too much weight in that. Every drummer here today is a hero of mine, and there’s so much inspiration. Really, the lineup today is incredible. There’s so many amazing bands and musicians and drummers.

CM: I love how humble you are.

MP: I’m just a fan.

CM: So your original influences – Ringo Star, I believe Charlie Watts as well. I don’t want to speak for you.

MP: Keith Moon and John Bonham were big ones.

CM: And then of course Neil Peart.

MP: He was the biggest for me.

CM: But then you got to befriend him much later.

MP: Well, he befriended me. [laughs] I’m saying that with respect. He allowed me into his circle. For me, it was an honor to be somebody that he allowed into his inner circle because he was so private. But yeah, I mean to be able to get to know him was one of the greatest honors of my life and career for sure.

CM: I could only imagine that would be a geek out moment.

MP: Well, it worked out good because the first time I met him, Rhythm magazine in the UK gave me my own issue. They said, “Okay, you’re the guest editor for this issue. You could control it.” They wanted me to interview four of my heroes. So, I picked Neil, I picked Bill Bruford, Lars Ulrich, and Nick Mason from Pink Floyd. In any case, that was my first time meeting Neil, and it was [as] an interviewer. So, I was able to go in there and ask all these really geeky, fanboy questions cuz that was my job. I never would have been able to do that. Otherwise, he would have wrote me off immediately the minute I asked a question like that. But the fact that I was able to go in there and fanboy out, it was okay cuz that was my job. Then luckily he liked me enough to stay in touch with me for the next 15 years.

BH: That’s so cool. Speaking of Bonham, did you have a chance to check out the Led Zeppelin documentary from earlier this year?

MP: Oh, yeah, of course.

BH: It was just cool just hearing his voice.

MP: Yeah. And you know the surprising thing that many people don’t realize about John Bonham is that he sang as well. He was the second vocals in Led Zeppelin. So if you see live videos from Earl’s Court 75 or 77, he’s doing all the harmonies, which is a very unknown thing about him. But yeah, he was such a such a legendary drummer. Both him and Keith, we lost them so young and so early. It’s just a shame that we only had such limited time with them. Obviously, never met him. I was 13 when he passed away, but I know Jason and Jason’s always been great. And I met Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. I drank a bottle of Jagermeister with Jimmy Page, which was a career highlight for sure.

CM: Is he just as ethereal and wonderful?

MP: He was so cool. We did a show together back in the mid ‘90s – a festival together – and he was walking past our dressing room, and I was in there, and I was drinking a bottle of Jager, and I guess he wanted, “Oh hey, what’s that, mate?” You know, wanted to come in and have a drink. “Oh, come on in.” He ended up sitting with me for an hour, drinking the whole bottle with me, and just bulls*******. We had just put out A Change Of Seasons EP back at that point, and we did a Zeppelin medley on it. We did a little bit of ‘Achilles Last Stand’ and a few other songs. And yeah, it was an amazing experience.

CM: How does your spirit feel being back in Dream Theater where you belong? You had 13 years away and now a couple years back in. How are you feeling?

MP: Well, like you said, it’s where I belong. For me, it’s more than just rejoining a band. It’s coming home to family. We started this band when we were in college, [as] teenagers, and lived a few lifetimes together. All met our wives at the same time, all had our kids at the same time, lost our parents and loved ones and have gone through so many life experiences over the last 40 years. So yeah, to me it was more than just rejoining a band. It was it was definitely like coming home and it feels like everything is right in the world again.

BH: Did you ever see those videos on YouTube with voice over of John Petrucci like, “But these strings take the heat of the sun”? What’s his thoughts on those videos?

MP: Oh, he loves them. He laughs at them.

BH: And you’ve done the video of you playing the Slayer on the Hello Kitty drum set. Whose idea was that?

MP: That was Loudwire. Loudwire arranged that. I just showed up and they had that little Hello Kitty kit there. And then the video blew up and went so viral they had me back to play on a Pokemon kit after that. And then they started doing Hello Kitty guitars. I think Zakk Wylde did one and Bumblefoot did one.

CM: Gary Holt did one of those.

MP: Yeah. That was a Loudwire thing. But those videos are fun.

CM: How did those play? I can’t imagine that they play very well.

MP: After that first video I did blew up, I ended up taking a Hello Kitty kit with me on tour with the Winery Dogs. And during my drum solo, I’d come out front with the Hello Kitty kit and do part of my solo on that.

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BH: So, what’s next for Dream Theater? I know you have the live album in Paris.

MP: We have the live album coming out in a couple months. We’re on our 40th anniversary tour – it started a year ago, last October. So we’re rounding up a year with this, and then we’re going to take a break for the holidays. And then after the new year, we have Asia and Australia and possibly another South American run. At that point, it’ll have been a year and a half since the tour began. So, at that point, we’ll take the rest of the next summer off, and then start thinking of another album, but that’s still a year away.

CM: Well, we appreciate you coming by. One of our favorite questions that we always end our interviews with is from the movie Almost Famous if you’re familiar. In the last frame of that movie, the question is asked, “What do you love about music?”

MP: Everything. I love that movie is so great. I went and saw Almost Famous on Broadway and I went to the final show and I met Cameron Crow at the show. He was incredible. In fact, I met him twice that day. I met him outside as he was going in. “Hey!” and took a picture, blah, blah, blah. And then after the show, we were waiting in the venue to meet up with somebody and he was like one of the only other people in the venue. So I got to chitchat with him a little bit and it was amazing. I love all his films. I love Vanilla Sky. And obviously a fan of his writing and Fast Times and stuff like that. He was wonderful, so cool, so nice. And me and my daughter showed him our matching ‘You’re home’ tattoos.