Mike Portnoy: “I was selfish to leave Dream Theater in 2010”

The drummer of the Dream Theater Mike Portnoy In an interview granted to CBC Radio One he expressed the regret for the way he left the band in 2010 and for injured his companions. Portnoy, who co-found the group in 1985, left him eager to try other experiences. The drummer then returned to the band in 2023 and played on their latest album, “Parasomnia” (Read the review here) published last February.

Mike Portnoy defines his decision to leave the Dream Theater selfish, but he believes that if he had not taken it he would have regretted not measuring himself with anything else.

Here is what was reported by Blabbermouth: “The first step to return to the band was to mend personal relationships with all four of the group members, because I know I wounded them when I left them, I always felt very guilty for this. I took a decision essentially very selfish, leave the band a. We had just played at the Madison Square Garden with the Iron Maiden and then, like a month later, That point everything went to swollen sails, but I took a selfish decision: I had to take away an itch, otherwise I would have regretted not leaving “.

Portnoy still continues saying: “I love that expression, ‘it is better to regret something you did than of something you did’, that’s what I thought. A thing like the type, ‘cabbage, if I don’t follow my heart and I don’t feel other things, I will ask myself forever what would happen if …’ So I had to do it”.

Getting closer to the old companions was a slow process, starting from returning to attending the guitarist John Petrucci. “Our families are friends. Our wives played together in a band. Our children are friends. So we started gathering for the holidays and doing things with our families.”

In his thirteen years of distance from Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy he played in avenged sevenfoldin the Winery Dogsin the Twisted Sister and in other groups still, and has been replaced in Dream Theater from Mike Mangini. Once Portnoy has returned, Mangini left the band in all friendship to devote himself to another project.