During a Q&A session at Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp 2023, Mike Portnoy spoke up about his reunion with Dream Theater.
Photo source: tama.com
“Well, it’s been 13 years now. And it’s crazy how time flies. But the last couple of years, I guess during the pandemic, yeah, I reconnected with John Petrucci. All of my eighty seven bands couldn’t tour, Dream Theater couldn’t tour. John Petrucci was doing a solo album, and he asked me to play on it. And then from there, we decided we wanted to do another LTE [Liquid Tension Experiment] album, which is with Jordan Rudess. And then shortly after that, John asked me to go on tour with him. So it just seems like we’ve been kind of reconnecting through the last few years. We have such a long history, almost 40 years now together, and our families grew up together, our wives played in a band together, and our kids grew up together. So, honestly, it just felt like it was the right thing and the right time.”
When asked whether he was going to play the material composed with Mike Mangini on board, Mike Portnoy said:
“It’s too soon to tell. When I left the band 13 years ago, I was the one writing the setlist and things like that. So, we haven’t even discussed what the new dynamic is gonna be. I’m open to it, of course, so I surely would do it, if that’s what they wanna do. But it’s definitely gonna be a different dynamic. I think when I left all those years ago, I was running a lot of stuff, and I think now they’ve gotten so used to working more as a collective band that I think it’s a very different dynamic now that I’m gonna have to find my place in and without stepping on anybody’s toes. I have to respect that they’ve been doing it all this time without me. So, whatever they wanna do, I’m up for it. But that being said, there is so much music of ours to come back and play that. Personally, I look forward to revisiting all that stuff, but if they wanna do the newer stuff as well, whatever they want is fine with me.”
