Top 102 Quotes & Sayings by Mike Portnoy
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Mike Portnoy.
Last updated on November 4, 2024.
When I sit down to do an interview, I try to be polite and answer the questions that I'm asked.
I've been asked to write a book several times; I've had several publishers come to me and offer me book deals. Especially right after I left Dream Theater and Avenged Sevenfold, there was a lot of drama going on in my life, so the book companies came at me thirsty for blood and gossip. And I turned down all the deals.
When you're putting together a concept album, it's all about the flow and the story.
When I first came out with the Winery Dogs, I had a Bonham set-up. That was such a departure from the huge kits that I had become known for. It was really enjoyable.
I guess I did make my name out of my drumming, and I have the big drum sets, and I'm doing all these crazy, odd-time signatures, so, yeah, I guess drumming was very important to what made me popular.
After I wrote 'The Best Of Times' for my dad and after I completed the '12 Steps Suite' with Dream Theater, I very much felt like I had said everything I wanted to say lyrically.
It's nice when somebody says that you're their 'favorite' drummer.
I have so much gratitude that I get to do this for a living and that I actually have fans who come to the shows and buy the records and support me online.
I'm not a politician; I'm a very open, honest guy, and that's the way it is - that's the way I am; take it or leave it.
My lesson would be to not sell yourself to anybody else and stay true to yourself.
After I left Dream Theater, and I was doing Avenged Sevenfold, Twisted Sister... all these other things, I made a lot of new fans in a lot of new areas.
I'd just like to be remembered as a huge music lover.
With Dream Theater, every creative aspect of the group went through me. I oversaw it all from top to bottom.
We kind of established in Sons of Apollo right from the get go that it would be a very collaborative process musically, but after that, I was going to take the reins and control everything else beyond that the way I did with Dream Theater.
Change is inevitable with the evolution of technology. In the '70s, we had records. In the '80s, we had CDs, and now we are living in the digital age. You can say it's sad or unfortunate, but the reality is you've got to roll with the times and the technology.
I surround myself with incredible musicians who inspire me to always do my best.
In Adrenaline Mob, I'm not the leader, but I'm on the board of directors, and that's OK. I'm not stressing out over every detail. I'm sharing the load.
To me, a great drummer isn't always about somebody with chops who can shred. A great drummer is someone who is part of a great band.
Trite as it sounds, follow your heart. Persevere. And if you follow your heart and persevere, it will pay off.
My love for Yes is pretty well-documented.
Some of my heroes are John Bonham, Keith Moon, Neil Peart, Ringo Starr, Terry Bozzio, Bill Bruford... The list goes on and on and on.
With Dream Theater live, I may have been a bit of a focal point because I absolutely live for the energy on stage, and having interaction with the audience is absolutely crucial to me - regardless of how some others have described it!
One of the reasons I needed to leave Dream Theater was because I didn't want to end my career as just the drummer in one band.
Richie Kotzen is such an unbelievable talent as a vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter.
I think if there's any one band that every member of Sons of Apollo has been influenced by, I think Van Halen is the common ground for all five of us.
I'd rather be entertained and go to a show and watch a drummer and have somebody that makes me actually smile. So I don't judge drummers based on their technical ability; I judge them based on the overall package and what they bring to the music they're part of.
I don't think there's such a thing as a 'best' drummer.
Billy Sheehan has always been my number one favorite bass player of all time.
I spent my life's work doing what I did in Dream Theater for 25 years, so I'm proud of that.
I always follow my heart.
You don't have to be a great drummer to be the most important guy in the band.
I don't like when I see bands that are just a memory of what they used to be, and there's a few out there that I've seen recently that are still touring... I'm not gonna name them, but some of the members can barely play their parts, and then they have a lot of other members that weren't even originally in the band.
I love my family more than life itself, but I can only sit at home by my pool eating barbecue food so many days before I go cuckoo.
There's the drums, the music, the melodies, the lyrics, the production, the artwork: there are so many elements to making an album, and the drumming is just a very small fraction of what I focus on.
I was always very extroverted and loud.
First and foremost, play what you love to play. Don't try to jump on a bandwagon or a trend or a popular musical craze.
I love when people know me from things other than Dream Theater.
I see the headlines on Blabbermouth, and the fans are saying, 'Why is he always talking about Dream Theater?' I'm not talking about Dream Theater! I get asked about it.
I could be just as happy playing a Beatles song as I am when I'm thrashing out the double bass stuff with Adrenaline Mob.
I can't possibly overstate how much influence Rush had on me as a young teenager. I would say from about 1981 to 1987, they were my gods.
Normally, when I write the setlist for a Dream Theater show, I'll change it up every night, and we can basically play whatever we want.
If you're not gonna be happy, then it's not worth doing anything.
The most bizarre occurrence has to be when I dislocated my wrist during a show in Germany in 1997.
A lot of bands, they'll try to jump on the bandwagon or the fad or the fashion, and they'll skyrocket, have this quick overnight fame. But as soon as that fad or fashion changes, they'll go out with it.
I'm a music fan first and foremost. I can find the beauty in Jellyfish and U2 just as much as Opeth and Lamb of God, just as much as I can with Rush and Yes.
I usually have three to four bands a year going at any given point.
You can put me in front of any kit, and it is a fun thing to have to adapt. It inspires me to try different things. I like that.
I need to be creative all the time.
When Dream Theater first started, we were touring in a van and playing clubs.
I kind of always made it a tradition, whenever Dream Theater played Toronto, to play a Rush cover.
Life is too short for resentments, and I always forgive.
I've known Russell Allen for over a decade now, and I've always thought he was a very underrated singer. He has one of the best voices in the business I've ever heard.
With the Neal Morse Band, we're doing progressive music with a harder edge; it's a little more in Dream Theater territory for me. Flying Colors is a little more poppy, it's more Radiohead, Muse, and Coldplay territory, so I approach that drumming in a different way.
When you're making this kind of music, you don't need a producer. If you're making pop albums or trying to write hit singles, then yeah, but if you're writing 20-minute prog epics, as long as you know how to make it sound good, and you have a good mixer, that's all you need.
I tend to like the heavier things, especially live on stage. I need that energy and interaction and feeling the audience.
I don't want people to think that I think I'm this great drummer because, to me, I'm just a kid playing drums, and I love music.
There's been a lot of crossing paths with the Yes camp over the years for me. The first one was when Dream Theater and Yes toured together in 2004, which was a lot of fun.
When sequencing an album, you kind of have to look at it like you're making a movie with different acts, and you have ebb and flow, peaks and valleys. You want it to feel like a journey or a good movie or book where you can actually feel very satisfied at the ride at the end of it.
To me, there's way more to being a good drummer than precision and technique.
The reality is, when I'm sitting in a hotel room at 3 in the morning, and I see something on the Internet that interests me in the form of a band I want to hear, I like the ability to just go online to iTunes and download it immediately.
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