Mike Portnoy
On 30th May 2021
Mike Portnoy is one of the founding members of Dream Theater with whom he was with for 25 years. He is currently the drummer in Sons of Apollo, The Winery Dogs, Transatlantic, Flying Colors, The Neal Morse Band, Metal Allegiance & Liquid Tension Experiment. He has also recorded &/or toured/performed live with Avenged Sevenfold, Twisted Sister, Adrenaline Mob, PSMS, OSI, Bigelf, Hail!, Stone Sour, Fates Warning, Overkill, G3 and his 4 tribute bands with Paul Gilbert: Yellow Matter Custard, Hammer Of The Gods, Amazing Journey and Cygnus & The Sea Monsters.
Mike was born on April 20th 1967 in Long Beach, Long Island, New York. He grew up learning to play the drums primarily self-taught by listening to his early biggest influences: Ringo Starr, Keith Moon and John Bonham. As he developed a taste for more challenging progressive music, his biggest influences were Neil Peart and Frank Zappa.
He attended the Berklee College Of Music on a scholarship in 1985 which is where he formed the band Dream Theater with whom he sustained a successful career for 25 years, developing a tremendously devoted fan base and record sales of over 10 million copies worldwide. Advertisement
Mike’s long list of Awards include 30 Modern Drummer Magazine Reader’s Poll Awards including Hall of Fame Inductee in 2004, MVP of the Year in 2010 & 2013, Best Progressive Rock Drummer (for the magazine’s record of 13 times), Best Clinician (twice), Best Educational Video/DVD for Liquid Drum Theater, and Best Recorded Performance of the Year (8 times) for Dream Theater’s Awake, A Change of Seasons, Falling Into Infinity, Scenes From A Memory, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Score, Avenged Sevenfold’s Nightmare and The Winery Dogs debut. He also holds the distinction of currently being the youngest drummer in Modern Drummer’s Hall of Fame.
He also is the recipient of 16 Drum! Magazine Drummie Awards including “Drummer Of The Year” three times (2011, 2012 & 2014) and was awarded Revolver’s Golden God Award in 2011 for Drummer Of The Year.
