AVENGED SEVENFOLD: We Urged MIKE PORTNOY Against Quitting DREAM THEATER

[nikatapi]

I know that Blabbermouth almost always posts stuff to create controversy, but i found this interview interesting:
https://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=161241

Guitar World: Do you believe it was Mike's [Portnoy, ex-DREAM THEATER drummer who played on AVENGED SEVENFOLD's 2010 album "Nightmare" and toured with the band for the latter part of last year] intention to stay on with [AVENGED SEVENFOLD]?

Gates: I think he definitely wanted to. And it would have been really nice. He's a great guy and a great drummer, and we consider him family. But it's just... He's "Mike Portnoy." He's established. He makes a lot of money. More than we can really dish out, especially at this point. And my whole thing after Jimmy ["The Rev" Sullivan, AVENGED SEVENFOLD's late drummer] died was if we were ever going to do this, I wanted to give a young kid a chance. That would have been a dream come true, to breathe some new life from a death. And so this feels right. And unfortunately, Mike made some decisions that I don't know if he's super happy with at this point, and that weren't very conducive to his well being.

Vengeance: When Mike first came on for "Nightmare", he was sincerely genuine in the fact that he was there to help us fulfill Jimmy's legacy, and for that we'll always be so thankful and appreciative. And, truthfully, he was really the only man for the job. But I think he was also searching for new things to do, music-wise. I know for a fact he was starting to lose the romance of DREAM THEATER a little bit. That had been going on from before he knew us. And then "Nightmare" came out and it was a Number One album, and the tours were huge, and I think it was exciting for him. I think his intentions were pretty clear that he wanted to be a member of AVENGED SEVENFOLD. But we weren't ready to have a new member. And truthfully, he's not the right fit anyway. When he went and quit DREAM THEATER, that was something we had no say in, because he's a grown man and he makes his own decisions. But we had urged against it, fully knowing we weren't ready to commit to him. But it's his life.

Guitar World: He enjoyed being a part of AVENGED SEVENFOLD.

Gates: Yeah, we had a blast. I think he liked the young energy. Mike's an outgoing, rock-star type of dude, so he was definitely enjoying the party. Because it's a different atmosphere than DREAM THEATER. When those guys play, it's a very intense thing that requires a lot of concentration. It's a different vibe with us.

[ACID_FOX]

Well, there you have it.

[BlobVanDam]

Does this mean people who blame A7X for MP quitting DT can stop now?

(Great, I still remembered tard after all this time)

[metropofreak]

This doent really surprise me.

[Progmetty]

I never really blamed them and I don't get the logic behind blaming them.
Ouch @ the young/old references. This probably is the point the played MP in the head a lot the last few years.

[JayOctavarium]

Oh Blabbermouth... keep stirring the pot. Keep beating the dead horse...

[Mosh]

How is it a dead horse? I thought it was interesting. I find the whole A7X thing more cryptic than the DT thing. With DT it was simple, Mike didn't want to do it anymore. But with Avenged, I knew that it wasn't gonna be permanent, I think most people knew, so when he was asked to leave, I was more surprised at how so many people (including Mike!) were surprised.

[JayOctavarium]

It's just as soon as things start to die down... another article gets posted to keep the Portnoy subject alive. I have moved on. A lot of people have. Blabbermouth hasn't and won't until there is nothing left to squeeze from the subject

[nikatapi]

In fact Blabbermouth keeps posting stuff about the MP situation, but this particular article seems interesting.

I think this is the first time that A7X tell that MP wanted to be in the band: " I think his intentions were pretty clear that he wanted to be a member of AVENGED SEVENFOLD" which is something new and Mike never really said something about joining A7X.

[Mbarak]

I agree this may be the first time someone stated MP wanted to join A7X but to anyone following his news and tweets it was very obvious.

[Metabog]

I don't know why everyone is so sensitive about this subject like it's some sort of taboo. This was an interesting interview and one of the first to actually shed some real light on the subject.

[Gadough]

Does this mean people who blame A7X for MP quitting DT can stop now?

(Great, I still remembered tard after all this time)

That's not something one easily forgets.

[j]

Other than A7X urging Portnoy not to quit DT, that sounds basically like what I had been assuming.  Anybody who thought they were responsible for Portnoy leaving was delusional to begin with.

-J

[tristl]

  i went last nov. to amsterdam to see mp with ax7 , a 75 minutes show with poor soun 13-15 year old kids and a mp who seemed to be very flattered when they sang "welcome to the family".
in 09 i was at 2 m&g in germany and i had the feeling mp was bored of the rest of dt.
how it comes out piece by piece is ( really) exactly like i felt it will be.
beeing at the 4th of juli(what a date) in rome and seeing the best dt ever live,
for me it falls all in the right place. all the best to mp, i will still buy all his records, but i am a dt - fan

[robwebster]

i went last nov. to amsterdam to see mp with ax7 , a 75 minutes show with poor soun 13-15 year old kids and a mp who seemed to be very flattered when they sang "welcome to the family".
in 09 i was at 2 m&g in germany and i had the feeling mp was bored of the rest of dt.
how it comes out piece by piece is ( really) exactly like i felt it will be.
beeing at the 4th of juli(what a date) in rome and seeing the best dt ever live,
for me it falls all in the right place. all the best to mp, i will still buy all his records, but i am a dt - fan

Aye, basically. You didn't even need to go to the meet and greets... just listen to any of his interviews from around the BCSL era and the apathy's out in full force. I've got no idea why he insisted on being the spokesman for a band he was definitely bored of. At best, the interviews were dull, and at worst, he would tell the interviewer that he wouldn't rehire James LaBrie if he had the choice and drive home that he had a lot more strings to his bow than just progressive rock. Loads of people noticed. Even on MP.com. They got the threads locked in the process, sure, but they noticed. It'd been in the works for ages.

Change was overdue. Hurrah for Mike Mangini and the rejuvenated Dream Theater, hurrah for Avenged Sevenfold putting everything into perspective (then and now), and hurrah for Mike Portnoy collaborating with a lot of very cool musicians and Neal Morse.

[hefdaddy42]

It's just as soon as things start to die down... another article gets posted to keep the Portnoy subject alive. I have moved on. A lot of people have. Blabbermouth hasn't and won't until there is nothing left to squeeze from the subject

In all fairness, this is kind of new.  We hadn't really heard anything from A7X on this particular point.  They aren't regurgitating things that have already been published.

[Millais]

Change was overdue. Hurrah for Mike Mangini and the rejuvenated Dream Theater, hurrah for Avenged Sevenfold putting everything into perspective (then and now), and hurrah for Mike Portnoy collaborating with a lot of very cool musicians and Neal Morse.

beautiful!

and this is actually one of the better posts to come out of blabbermouth in a long time which is err.. highly suprising. also surprising is the fact that there aren't any negative/troll comments, as of yet.

[ReaPsTA]

I thought the most interesting part was about how MP was making way more money that AX7 could realistically compete with pay-wise.  Where the F is it all coming from?

[Zukuduku]

The irony of the situation is that MP basically pulled a Kevin Moore. It is more and more looking like MP had lost the interest on the band. It is also beginning to look like that he has also lost interest on progressive metal (as none of his new projects could be classified to that category). Of course the latter point is less certain than the first.

While it is perfectly fine for a man's opinions to change, it feels a bit weird that MP spent 15 years bad-mouthing KM for leaving the band. But in the end, he did exactly the same thing with the same reasons. I wonder what MP would say about KM now?

[ReaPsTA]

The irony of the situation is that MP basically pulled a Kevin Moore. It is more and more looking like MP had lost the interest on the band. It is also beginning to look like that he has also lost interest on progressive metal (as none of his new projects could be classified to that category). Of course the latter point is less certain than the first.

While it is perfectly fine for a man's opinions to change, it feels a bit weird that MP spent 15 years bad-mouthing KM for leaving the band. But in the end, he did exactly the same thing with the same reasons. I wonder what MP would say about KM now?

You know who's the only current or ex-member of DT following KM's Twitter account?  Yep, you know where this is going.

[robwebster]

I thought the most interesting part was about how MP was making way more money that AX7 could realistically compete with pay-wise.  Where the F is it all coming from?

25 years' worth of goodwill from endorsements, I guess? Do they pay their clients to advocate them? Certainly I imagine he'd get a share of the Melody Master snares profits, but it's an entirely unfamiliar industry to me, so I don't proclaim to be doing anything more than guessing.

[John94]

Who cares about twitter followings? James doesn't follow any of the band. Only some band with a female lead singer.

With all due respect to Avenged. and their fans and members, they really should've not said anything on the subject.

[AcidLameLTE]

Why not?

If I had a bunch of people blaming me for something I didn't do, I would definitely attempt to try and clear the whole thing up.

[Super Dude]

i went last nov. to amsterdam to see mp with ax7 , a 75 minutes show with poor soun 13-15 year old kids and a mp who seemed to be very flattered when they sang "welcome to the family".
in 09 i was at 2 m&g in germany and i had the feeling mp was bored of the rest of dt.
how it comes out piece by piece is ( really) exactly like i felt it will be.
beeing at the 4th of juli(what a date) in rome and seeing the best dt ever live,
for me it falls all in the right place. all the best to mp, i will still buy all his records, but i am a dt - fan

Aye, basically. You didn't even need to go to the meet and greets... just listen to any of his interviews from around the BCSL era and the apathy's out in full force. I've got no idea why he insisted on being the spokesman for a band he was definitely bored of. At best, the interviews were dull, and at worst, he would tell the interviewer that he wouldn't rehire James LaBrie if he had the choice and drive home that he had a lot more strings to his bow than just progressive rock. Loads of people noticed. Even on MP.com. They got the threads locked in the process, sure, but they noticed. It'd been in the works for ages.

Change was overdue. Hurrah for Mike Mangini and the rejuvenated Dream Theater, hurrah for Avenged Sevenfold putting everything into perspective (then and now), and hurrah for Mike Portnoy collaborating with a lot of very cool musicians and Neal Morse.

Really, what interviews are those?  I actually didn't read or watch many interviews at all before MM joined the band, so I wouldn't really know.

The irony of the situation is that MP basically pulled a Kevin Moore. It is more and more looking like MP had lost the interest on the band. It is also beginning to look like that he has also lost interest on progressive metal (as none of his new projects could be classified to that category). Of course the latter point is less certain than the first.

While it is perfectly fine for a man's opinions to change, it feels a bit weird that MP spent 15 years bad-mouthing KM for leaving the band. But in the end, he did exactly the same thing with the same reasons. I wonder what MP would say about KM now?

You know who's the only current or ex-member of DT following KM's Twitter account?  Yep, you know where this is going.

Is that true?  I wonder if maybe they'll finally patch things up?

Another thing I'm thinking about after having read this: MP got bored of Dream Theater.  So does that mean there was no big division in the band as everyone has envisioned?  Because as I remember, that recent JLB interview made it seem like another part of why he left was because of tensions that were reaching a boiling point.

[ReaPsTA]

Another thing I'm thinking about after having read this: MP got bored of Dream Theater.  So does that mean there was no big division in the band as everyone has envisioned?  Because as I remember, that recent JLB interview made it seem like another part of why he left was because of tensions that were reaching a boiling point.

I don't think JLB said or implied things were reaching a boiling point, but like MP said, things were getting strained.  Like, if you watch the making of SC documentary, while you can tell certain kinds of interactions the band members had in that doc lead to where we are now, they legitimately had fun making that record.  Every time I saw one of Rudess's making of BCSL vids, it always felt like MP was a little unusually manic and JP was extra emotionally cool.  For whatever reason, the tenor of the SC and BCSL sessions just seemed very different.

So really, maybe they would have.  In January of 2011 MP comes into the studio not wanting to be there and brings that negative energy to anyone.  JM sits around waiting for JP to write his bass notes, JLB decides to wait in Canada until the vocals are ready to be recorded since his input won't be asked for anyway.  And on and on and on and on and on.  With things apparently getting more negative over time, why not?

[robwebster]

i went last nov. to amsterdam to see mp with ax7 , a 75 minutes show with poor soun 13-15 year old kids and a mp who seemed to be very flattered when they sang "welcome to the family".
in 09 i was at 2 m&g in germany and i had the feeling mp was bored of the rest of dt.
how it comes out piece by piece is ( really) exactly like i felt it will be.
beeing at the 4th of juli(what a date) in rome and seeing the best dt ever live,
for me it falls all in the right place. all the best to mp, i will still buy all his records, but i am a dt - fan

Aye, basically. You didn't even need to go to the meet and greets... just listen to any of his interviews from around the BCSL era and the apathy's out in full force. I've got no idea why he insisted on being the spokesman for a band he was definitely bored of. At best, the interviews were dull, and at worst, he would tell the interviewer that he wouldn't rehire James LaBrie if he had the choice and drive home that he had a lot more strings to his bow than just progressive rock. Loads of people noticed. Even on MP.com. They got the threads locked in the process, sure, but they noticed. It'd been in the works for ages.

Change was overdue. Hurrah for Mike Mangini and the rejuvenated Dream Theater, hurrah for Avenged Sevenfold putting everything into perspective (then and now), and hurrah for Mike Portnoy collaborating with a lot of very cool musicians and Neal Morse.

Really, what interviews are those?  I actually didn't read or watch many interviews at all before MM joined the band, so I wouldn't really know.

You know? I can't find them. I was trying to reference 'em last month or so and scoured MP.com-and-further pretty thoroughly, including some creative google searching, but couldn't find a trace. I'm certain we haven't collectively hallucinated them, but I also haven't saved 'em. I'll give it another go.

[tristl]

answering the question about the interviews i read one in the kerrang after the bc&sl release where mp
almost excused the picking of jlb at that times ,voices like his were cool at that time(queensryche) so we thought it would be good for us.
the worst part for me was when he was asked about the participation of 1, jlb:there were just six songs so there were no spaces for him
2, asked if he would look to jm in the concert(beeing the rythm section) mp said "i look to jp, he is the
man besides me blah blah.
it was not what he said but how he did put it.
we will see if he is making music with better bass players and better singers in the future.
i wish him luck.

[tristl]

actually there was a very similar interview in the german rock hard.

[Dream Team]

I thought the most interesting part was about how MP was making way more money that AX7 could realistically compete with pay-wise.  Where the F is it all coming from?

Well, he's co-wrote every song and they make a good amount of money touring. Then there's all his side projects, drum DVDs, etc etc.

[tristl]

what me puzzles me the most in this circumstances, how nice and balanced jp comments all this.
i love mp, we know each other so long, and so on.
first mp told them he gonna record with ax7 then he told them he tours with them, then he  tells them that all his sideprojects he likes much more just now,
and in the end he wants a five year break because he is burnt out( only with dt of corse).
what the f...

[robwebster]

actually there was a very similar interview in the german rock hard.

Incidentally, I used this info to try and search for it again... and I found similar comments in an interview from 2005!

Which would make this either...

a. A very unfair stick to bludgeon Mike with,
or
b. A symptom of long-term decay.

I think "a" is probably fairer, "b" a little sensational... or, more likely still, a mixture of the both. Either way, it makes it a little less of a "big deal" when talking about MP-2009. I still think it's pretty disrespectful, though, history of saying it or no, and I do completely stand by my claims that he was getting visibly more apathetic with each DT interview.

[chrisbDTM]

i felt bad for A7X through all of this. their bandmate died and they got one of his heroes to fill in on drums which is great, but then they got caught in a shitstorm, because MP was even there to start with, and then after his decision to leave DT

[Super Dude]

@Reap: That's interesting because maybe it's just from having become a fan as recently as post-8vm, but I guess seeing those same videos I assumed that's how the chemistry always had been. Or maybe I'm just really bad at reading people.

@The Doctor: No worries, although I appreciate the effort.

[ReaPsTA]

what me puzzles me the most in this circumstances, how nice and balanced jp comments all this.
i love mp, we know each other so long, and so on.
first mp told them he gonna record with ax7 then he told them he tours with them, then he  tells them that all his sideprojects he likes much more just now,
and in the end he wants a five year break because he is burnt out( only with dt of corse).
what the f...

Three things:

- JP and MP were really, really close friends, and JP at least still feels that way.  I can't imagine what line MP would have to cross in order for JP to take a potshot at him in public.
- JP believe it's not really in his interests to say anything negative about MP in public or even imply it.  Someone asked him in an interview about DT's lawyers telling MP he couldn't rejoin the band, and JP straight up bailed on the question.
- I think JP perceives the changes in DT as less dramatic than pretty much everyone in the world.  The perfect example of this is Myung.  MP's line on contributing to the band has always been "every member of DT contributes as much or as little as they wish."  Right after MP left the band, JP answered a question about Myung with essentially the same response.  So LaBrie would more or less tell you 'Myung wasn't made welcome to contribute in some time, but on this album he was and he responded by upping his game.'  Petrucci would probably tell you 'On this album Myung decided that he wanted to contribute to the band more.'  This perspective on the band apparently works very well since Mangini/LaBrie/Myung/Rudess have all openly praised his production on the album, but to the fan, or at least to me, it's semi-confusing.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

@Reap: That was the most interesting thing to me too. Apparently MP was rolling in the dough.