...and then when he is called out on it, he furthers the victim status.
Or just back-pedals.
Like that time on Twitter when he tweeted " Man - November Rain has the same drum fill TWENTY SEVEN TIMES....."
Matt Sorum replied : " Rock and roll is not all about big drum kits and insane fills you know..."
To which Portnoy replied with " I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU "
Or when he dismisses "liking" or "retweeting" insults about DT as " THEY said that NOT ME ". Even though agreeing with something is virtually saying it yourself.
Not to use this as an excuse to pile up on Mike but I was actually thinking about that very thing today. Side note: I just bought 6 Rush CDs on Amazon for less than 5 bucks each, brand new. Never listened to or cared for Rush before but...well, speaking of compulsive, it was too good to pass up (and I'm really digging'em)! Anyway, I thought of the interview he did with Metal Sludge back in the year 2000. It is an interesting read with a lot of interesting non-controversial thing but he said some kinda shitty things about Neil Peart which he later said he was doing to spice things up because Metal Sludge is basically a gossipy metal site for assholes run by assholes. For instance, their message board has no rules except to not post peoples personal info and often threads will go way off topic and turn into a flame war (but there are a lot of interesting posts on the board other than that).
Anyway, here is what MP said:
10. Rate the following drummers on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 being somebody with no rhythm and 10 being the man. Peter Criss = Criss 1976 was a 10 and a god to me, Criss 1996 gets an 8 for effort, and Criss 2000 is a 3 and should've quit while he was ahead
Joey Kramer = 5 - OK drummer, but I never cared much about Aerosmith
Vinnie Paul = 9 - Vinnie fucking rocks! Great feet, great power and cool grooves...Gotta lose the bandana though.. Rikki Rockett = 2 - Gimme a break! Nice guy though...met him in '93
Tommy Lee = 8 - Rock solid (no pun intended!) Loved the first 2 Motley albums at the time ('82ish) and he got me started with double bass back then..
Neil Peart =
Once again, like Peter Criss - A big whopping 10 back in the day...nobody could've been a bigger influence on me back then....but now he should give it a rest and try to play something new (forget that jazz crap) Lars Ulrich = An 8 pre-Bob Rock, and a 3 post-Bob Rock and Live
Eric Singer = Was never a no-makeup Kiss fan, but I liked the first Badlands album. Plus Eric's a nice guy to me....so I'll say 7
Charlie Benante = 9 - Charlie was a big influence for me back in the mid-80's...I loved the 1st SOD album and the first 3 Anthrax albums...I also respect his writing and think he's a cool guy...We have alot of the same interests (same music, films, TV shows, etc...)
Nicko McBrain = An 8 just for the Piece of Mind and Powerslave albums alone...Nicko's also a great guy who's alot of fun to hang out with....
11. Since you were extremely involved in the project, how do feel in regards to Neil Peart's comment that all the bands on the Rush tribute album were "bar bands"?
Yeah that was fucked up...Especially because Dream Theater, Skid Row, Mr. Big and alot of the other musicians and bands involved on that tribute sell ALOT more records outside of North America than Rush does...Once you go to Europe or South America or Japan or wherever, Rush is not popular at all...and I figured by putting this tribute together, we'd introduce a whole new generation of kids to who one of our big influences was.... I guess Neil's people-skills are really lacking...I feel sorry for him with all the personal shit he's been through recently, but I lost all respect for him as a person after all the work I put into that CD.... We were just paying tribute and trying to say thanks, but he apparently took it as us trying to make money off Rush's name which certainly wasn't the case...Later Mike backtracked and said he was playing it up for the site and then went on to interview him for an issue of some music magazine where musicians interviewed their idols or something like that. Now he considers him a good friend.
I'm thinking, "but I thought you said he sucked." Also seemed like a cheap shot to talk about "all the personal shit he's been through recently". Really? Losing your daughter in a tragic car accident and a wife to cancer shortly after...and essentially saying, "but fuck him!"
Anyway, full interview here
https://www.metalsludge.tv/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=202&Itemid=52