With all the news going around with Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater, and Avenged Sevenfold, I have decided to pull together a biography for him.
Mike Portnoy
Biography:
Michael Stephen Portnoy (born April 20, 1967) is an American drummer primarily known for his work with the influential progressive metal band Dream Theater. Portnoy is known for his virtuosity on drums, and for winning 21 awards from the Modern Drummer magazine. He (along with his bandmate John Petrucci) has produced the last four Dream Theater albums, starting from Scenes From a Memory. He is also the youngest person (at 37 years of age) to be inducted into Rock Drummer Hall of Fame. Though he is occasionally criticized for being 'overly technical', Portnoy remains one of the iconic members of the modern progressive rock and progressive metal scene.
Bands:
Dream Theater
Liquid Tension Experiment
Transatlantic
Neal Morse
OSI
John Arch
Avenged Sevenfold
Home life: Mike Portnoy was born and raised in Long Beach, New York, on Long Island. His father worked as a DJ at a local radio station, helping Portnoy gain an appreciation for music at an early age through bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who and The Beatles. Although Portnoy taught himself how to play the drums he did take music theory classes in high school, and during that period he began playing in local bands Intruder, Rising Power and Inner Sanctum, the latter of which released an album. He left Inner Sanctum after being awarded a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he and childhood friends John Petrucci and John Myung formed a band called Majesty, that would become Dream Theater.
Influences: Portnoy names his biggest influences as Rush drummer Neil Peart, and composer/guitarist Frank Zappa. Other favorites include drummers Terry Bozzio, Vinnie Colaiuta, Peter Criss, Simon Phillips, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Ringo Starr and Bill Bruford and bands such as The Beatles, Queen, Yes, Rush, Pink Floyd, Muse, Metallica, Jellyfish, Iron Maiden, KISS, Phish, Deep Purple, Radiohead, Umphrey's McGee, U2 and Jane's Addiction.
Awards:
Portnoy has won 20 awards from Modern Drummer magazine, including "Best Up & Coming Talent" (one time), "Best Clinician" (two times), "Best Educational Video/DVD" (two times), "Best recorded performance" (5 times) and "Best Progressive Rock Drummer" (for 12 consecutive years), and is also the youngest person (at 37 years of age) to be inducted into their Rock Drummer Hall of Fame.
I guess if your are going to leave a band it might as well be after you play on and produce a successful album like "Black Clouds & Silver Linings" . I`m sure success will follow him where ever he goes.....I wish him the best!
I figured it was still possible to try and save us, because they hadn't made any announcements yet or begun any public activity with another drummer… but sadly, they declined my offer
Last edited by Oz Modestep; 12-23-2010 at 07:06 AM.
It wasn't actually Dream Theater who declined, they had their lawyer do it. Personally, I think he's better off without them if they don't have the balls to tell him face to face.
Well, it was Dream Theater who declined him. It doesn't matter if the lawyer did it because it WAS their decision. We don't know the full story and we don't know what is said behind closed doors, so I don't think it's fair to judge them on not rejecting him face to face. Mike Portnoy has the maturity level of a 12 year old. At the end of the day, he couldn't handle the band going on without him, so he tried to guilt them into taking him back before directly asking them. I think Dream Theater is better off without him. He always seemed to be overbearing. He takes so much pride in coming up with set lists when they're on tour. He is an amazing drummer, but damn...
Yeah I can agree on that. All I can hope for is that Dream Theater find a great drummer if they start releasing new stuff. Because it will be pretty noticeable if they are a bit flawed with Portnoy gone.
Mike Portnoy
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Originally Posted by Mike Portnoy
