MIKE PORTNOY: 'I Never Set Out To Be A Drum Influence Or Drum Hero'

April 27, 2011

Planet-Drum.com conducted an interview with former DREAM THEATER/AVENGED SEVENFOLD drummer Mike Portnoy at the April 11, 2011 Rome, Italy stop on his "European Meet & Greet Tour". You can now watch the chat below.

When asked if it was weird to have his exit from DREAM THEATER play out so publicly because of the existence of the Internet, Portnoy told Metal Injection at last week's Revolver Golden Gods Awards in Los Angeles, California, "It kind of sucks, actually. It's like getting a divorce on national TV. It's kind of fucked up because anything I would say would be misinterpreted or taken the wrong way. It was never my intention to even go public with this; I wanted to have a quiet, little personal situation happen. But it is what it is, and I'm here and I'm happy."

Portnoy, who co-founded DREAM THEATER more than 20 years ago, abruptly quit the band last summer while on tour with AVENGED SEVENFOLD.

He played on AVENGED SEVENFOLD's latest album, "Nightmare", following the death of that band's drummer, Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, and toured with them for the entire second half of 2010.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD frontman M. Shadows told The Pulse Of Radio that the band was not happy about the public way in which Portnoy's split with DREAM THEATER was played out, which may have soured Portnoy's relationship with AVENGED. "We were actually a little more shocked," M. Shadows said. "We felt that maybe both parties could have handled it a little more internally without being so press release-happy about what had happened between them. Because we're a band that, really, when it comes to news all over web sites or this or that about bands, you know, we don't tweet much, we don't try to put ourselves out that much, and all the drama and controversy wasn't something that we wanted at all."

Portnoy recently began laying down tracks on the debut album from the new band featuring SYMPHONY X frontman Russell Allen and guitar virtuoso Mike Orlando (SONIC STOMP). Portnoy is also involved in a separate new project with guitarist Steve Morse (DEEP PURPLE, DIXIE DREGS),multi-instrumentalist Neal Morse (TRANSATLANTIC, SPOCK'S BEARD),bassist Dave LaRue (DIXIE DREGS) and vocalist Casey McPherson (ALPHA REV, ENDOCHINE). That group's debut album is tentatively due later in the year.

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