Portnoy's response on LounderSound.com's Facebook thread regarding Bumblefoot's thoughts on the demise of Sons of Apollo:
MP: Obviously Ron is (discreetly) pointing the finger at me (and possibly Billy as well?), but I must publicly squash this rhetoric that is implying Sons Of Apollo’s demise had anything to do with me rejoining Dream Theater. That didn’t happen until Oct 2023…the reality is when the SOA tour got cancelled because of Covid in 2020, by the time there was any talk of writing new stuff and a possible 3rd album, I already had commitments with Transatlantic, NMB and The Winery Dogs (w Billy as well).
I can understand Ron, Derek & Jeff’s frustration with this, but the reality is the ONLY way I was ever able to juggle and balance all my bands all these years was to block certain windows in my schedule for each band or project to have time for an album/tour cycle.
Sadly, SOA’s album/tour cycle window got killed by Covid and by the time the world reopened again, I already was booked with my other bands and projects.
Anyways, I’m happy for those guys that they were able to continue working together in other musical capacity’s…but make no mistake, at the time, it had nothing to with me rejoining DT!