Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy was asked about Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain retiring from touring in a new interview with Metal Pilgrim.
Portnoy wrote he was “shocked” about McBain’s retirement in a social media post and the Dream Theater drummer was asked to explain his reaction, “Well, it was more about Nicko stepping down, and it was just sad for me to see him have to make that decision. I mean, Nicko’s been a good friend of mine for over 30 years, so as a friend, it’s sad for me to see him having to struggle to make such a heavy decision.”
Drumeo has shared another For The First Time challenge, once again featuring DRean Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. Check it out below.
“Take a sneak peek into the mind of Mike Portnoy – drummer for Dream Theater! Watch as he listens to ‘Shake It Off’ by Taylor Swift for the very first time and attempts to play along. How does he immediately craft a drum part for the song? Tune in and find out!”
“I got a call from Nickelback in spring of ’22. Their drummer [Daniel Adair] I guess was having surgery and they asked me to play a show with them. And I said ‘Yeah, that’d be a fun gig!’,” admits drummer extraordinaire Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, The Winery Dogs, Adrenaline Mob, Sons Of Apollo).
“I was all set to play this gig with Nickelback – it was for a festival [in Vancouver, Canada] – and the festival ended up getting canceled. But I was this close to playing a gig with Nickelback.”
In the Drumeo video below, Portnoy is asked to play Nickelback’s song “Burn It To The Ground”, which he’d never heard before. He played it with lots of double kick and later admitted, “I would’ve been fired immediately!”
“Chad [Kroeger] sent me the set list,” recalls Portnoy. “My daughter and my wife were like, ‘You’re gonna know every one of these songs,’ and I was like, ‘I’ve never heard any of these songs! I don’t listen to the radio so I don’t know any Nickelback songs.'”