Lots of bickering over my Floyd comments. OK, I'ill meet the Gilmour fans half-way and say "real" Pink Floyd is BOTH Gilmour/Waters TOGETHER
Very much like "real" Dream Theater is Portnoy/Petrucci.
Y'know, I read comments like this, and I have to wonder; what kind of response is he expecting to get from saying shit like this? Does he honestly think that the majority of the Dream Theater fanbase is going to say "Fuck yeah! You said it, Mike!"? The last album with Portnoy sold 40k copies in it's first week, the first album without MP sold 36k (and the most recent one sold the same), so that means that 9/10ths of Dream Theater fans were willing to buy a Portnoy-less DT album blind. So while there may be that 1 in 10 disgruntled DT fan who thinks that Mike was the band (and to be honest, I think it is way less then even 1 in 10), the simple fact is that most fans just moved on.
I think this is where Mike's whole thing about viewing the fans as his friends, as well as having been the biggest fan of his own band, really becomes a problem. Because he seems to view the fans as his friends, he expects to be able to speak his mind without consequence, and he also expects the fans to have his back out of blind loyalty. Futhermore, because he was the biggest fan of DT during his time in the band, it seems like he assumes that his opinions about DT are the predominant opinions of the fanbase as a whole. But the simple truth of the matter is that it just doesn't work that way. Bands change lineups all the time, and while there are those occasional splits that end up breaking careers, more often then not, the fans just get over the loss and move on. Dream Theater fans got over the loss of Kevin Moore, it seems they have gotten over the loss of Mike Portnoy as well.
If, in the mind of Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater became a completely different band after he left, fine, but he needs to realize that most DT fans would disagree, and he comes across as being petty, passive-aggressive, and more then a little bit self-centered whenever he makes comments like this. I don't expect him to get over not being in DT overnight, but the sooner he is able to let go of the past, the better things will be, for him and for everyone else.