Quotes from Mike Portnoy

Richie Kotzen is such an unbelievable talent as a vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter.

I've known Russell Allen for over a decade now, and I've always thought he was a very underrated singer. He has one of the best voices in the business I've ever heard.

I guess I did make my name out of my drumming, and I have the big drum sets, and I'm doing all these crazy, odd-time signatures, so, yeah, I guess drumming was very important to what made me popular.

If you're not gonna be happy, then it's not worth doing anything.

In Adrenaline Mob there are five guys that are all absolutely insanely energetic performers each of their own right. It's like a five-ring circus on stage!

I remember waking up Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, to my wife telling me to put on the TV because I wasn't going to be going into N.Y.C. as planned. Dream Theater was working in N.Y.C. at the time mixing our album 'Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence,' and I would've been driving in that afternoon for our session.

I don't think there's such a thing as a 'best' drummer.

After I wrote 'The Best Of Times' for my dad and after I completed the '12 Steps Suite' with Dream Theater, I very much felt like I had said everything I wanted to say lyrically.

It's all about the music, and I work as hard as I do strictly because of the music. It's not a money thing; it's not a career thing. It's simply to do with me being a music fan with a broad taste, wanting to do different styles and wanting to work with lots of different people.

To me, a great drummer isn't always about somebody with chops who can shred. A great drummer is someone who is part of a great band.

I wanted to completely honor The REV and pay tribute to him and carry on the legacy that he intended with this record.

I'd rather be entertained and go to a show and watch a drummer and have somebody that makes me actually smile. So I don't judge drummers based on their technical ability; I judge them based on the overall package and what they bring to the music they're part of.

I don't want people to think that I think I'm this great drummer because, to me, I'm just a kid playing drums, and I love music.

I live a very open life. I value my relationship with the fans, and I utilize Twitter and Facebook and my web site, so my day-to-day activities are an open book for me to share with the fans, for better or for worse.

When I sit down to do an interview, I try to be polite and answer the questions that I'm asked.

I love my family more than life itself, but I can only sit at home by my pool eating barbecue food so many days before I go cuckoo.

When I first came out with the Winery Dogs, I had a Bonham set-up. That was such a departure from the huge kits that I had become known for. It was really enjoyable.

As far as I know, you only live once. So, I want to make the most of it while I can and work with as many different people as I can.

I understand that Adrenaline Mob is not going to be every Dream Theater fan's cup of tea. I totally get that; I understand that. It's different world.

First and foremost, play what you love to play. Don't try to jump on a bandwagon or a trend or a popular musical craze.

I am not a technical drummer at all. I'm more from the Keith Moon/Lars Ulrich school of, 'Hey, look at me!' I just get up there and bash.

To me, there's way more to being a good drummer than precision and technique.

I don't care about technique. I have kind of been pigeonholed as a technical drummer since I was in Dream Theater for all those years, but it's actually very far from the truth.

I can't possibly overstate how much influence Rush had on me as a young teenager. I would say from about 1981 to 1987, they were my gods.