Mike Portnoy Says He Would Love to Make Music with John Petrucci Again
The relationship between Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci and the band’s former drummer Mike Portnoy has warmed up of late, with any animosity remaining from Portnoy’s departure in 2010 having seemingly cooled off. The two Dream Theater co-founders and their families are quite close, with their daughters having launched a podcast together last year and another family get-together occurring as recently as a couple of weeks ago.
In a new chat with My Global Mind, Portnoy was asked if that rekindled friendship could lead to the duo pairing up to make music again, and here’s how he responded:
“We would both love it. Like you said, we are a great team of 25 years as we were co-captains of Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment. I would also go out with him on the G3 Tours.
“I look back at the relationship we had, and it was very special from a drummer/guitarist relationship. You can see that with Lars [Ulrich] and James [Hetfield] of Metallica, Dimebag [Darrell] and Vinnie [Paul] of Pantera, and Eddie and Alex Van Halen. I think John and I had that type of partnership. We are both at our best and strongest when we work together, and I miss that relationship.
“He and I have a great personal relationship now and get together with our families. It would be a shame not to make music in some capacity in the future. I hope we can.”
When asked how any such collaboration might sound, he said:
“If you listen to the first 10 Dream Theater albums, that’s what it would sound like. I think the Dream Theater and Liquid Tension was a nice combination of our styles as well as the other members of those bands. I think John and I both have very distinctive styles. We have written hundreds of songs, so I think it would be pretty obvious what it would sound like.”
I may be in the minority here, but I’d prefer if any potential future Petrucci/Portnoy collab sounded completely different than Dream Theater. We already have those ten albums, which can’t be topped — and Dream Theater live on in the meanwhile — so why not try something different? Both men are world class musicians and presumably could produce something very special that’s on another planet from their usual fare. Still, it’d be neat to hear the two play together again no matter what the sound. Stay tuned on that, I suppose, although it doesn’t sound like it’s anything that’ll happen soon.
[via Ultimate Guitar]
