Mike Portnoy is more respectful and adaptable in Dream Theater now.
“When I left in 2010, I was a control freak. and overseeing everything and very protective of everything,” the drummer recently said in an interview with Masa Ito of TVK’s Rock City. “But now coming back, I need to respect that they’ve been touring for all these years without me and making records without me, so they have perhaps different ways of doing things.”
He continued, “So, I had to come in very respectful and kind of tippy-toe my way around each area to see how much they wanted from me. There are some areas where they put complete control back into my lap. There’s other areas that maybe they wanted to retain some control and maybe ask me to take a step back.”
“So, it’s been a learning process over the past year or so how the new chemistry was going to function. And it’s been very easy, I think. We’re all older and wiser at this stage of our lives. When I left the band in 2010, I was in my early 40s. Now I’m in my late 50s,” Portnoy further shared.
The rocker added, “And I think as you get older and you have more life experiences, you learn more, you learn how to behave in a more mutually beneficial way and try to be respectful of other people’s opinions and ideas. And that’s a lot of the stuff I learned all the years outside of Dream Theater.”
“I did so many other bands and projects and albums, each one of which had a very different chemistry that I would have to adapt to. So I think adapting to all those different situations throughout the years really helped me to be more of a team player than maybe I was the first time around.”
Portnoy also didn’t co-produce the new album of the band. He acknowledged that after being away for 13 years, he couldn’t make demands and had to adapt to the band’s changes.
Dream Theater started their 40th-anniversary tour on February 7 in Philadelphia. The tour, called ‘An Evening With Dream Theater,’ is the band’s first North American tour since Portnoy rejoined. The tour will end on March 22 in New York City.
