MIKE PORTNOY Reacts To People Saying He’s In Too Many Bands

Mike Portnoy addressed all the folks out there saying he’s working on too many projects, telling Eddie Trunk (via Blabbermouth):

“I still feel blowback from it. Even with [this week’s] announcement; we announced the new band Sons of Apollo [featuring Mike, Derek Sherinian, Billy Sheehan, Jeff Scott Soto, and Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal].

“I’ve been up reading the comments online, and I’m still seeing constant posts like, ‘Oh my God! How many bands is Portnoy gonna be in? Oh my God! Is this the 87th band?’ Blah blah blah. So it’s still a topic that people like to harass me about. But the fact of the matter is – I can handle it.

“I’m just a workaholic and I’m very strategic in how I coordinate and work my schedule and make sure everything fits and everything works.

“And people get the misconception, thinking – oh, I start a band, then I quit, then I start a band and then I quit.

“Out of the ’87’ bands I’ve been in, I’ve only ever left two. One was Dream Theater after 25 years, and one was Adrenaline Mob, just because that was at a point where I couldn’t juggle everything. But other than that, everything I’m a part of I stick with and develop and work with. And if I can juggle all these bands and make it work, then why the f*ck not?”

Explaining that 87 number, Mike noted:

“[Laughs] I use that number jokingly, but I think there is an actual number, and I think it’s about 27 or 28 at this point.”

The drummer concluded:

“Since Dream Theater, I’ve done so many things and so many different bands. Literally, it feels like there’s another one that gets added to the list every year, not to mention helping bands out, like Twisted Sister or Avenged Sevenfold.

“So, yeah, the list keeps getting longer and longer and longer. But the fact of the matter is if you’re somebody who loves music, like I do or Dave Grohl does, or Mike Patton does, you wanna do different things, you wanna play with different people.

“If you’re an actor doing films, you don’t wanna play the same role the rest of your life. You wanna work with different directors and other actors and other screenwriters and try different roles in different genres.

“So, to me, it’s no different as a musician.”