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Michael Stephen Portnoy (born April 20, 1967) is an American musician best known as the drummer, backing vocalist, and co-founder of the progressive metal band Dream Theater.
In September 2010, Portnoy announced his departure from Dream Theater after 25 years, with Mike Mangini succeeding him as the band’s drummer. In October 2023, 13 years after his departure, the band announced his return. During his time away from Dream Theater, Portnoy remained active with a variety of bands and projects, including Adrenaline Mob, Avenged Sevenfold, Transatlantic, Yellow Matter Custard, Flying Colors, the Winery Dogs, Liquid Tension Experiment, Metal Allegiance, Sons of Apollo, the Neal Morse Band, and BPMD.
His grandfather bought him his first drum kit when he was 11 years old. His father's job as a DJ helped Portnoy develop an appreciation for music at an early age, as he had access to his father's collection of Vinyl recording. He grew to favor bands such as Rush, Kiss, Queen, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Iron Maiden, and the Beatles, among others.
Portnoy is mainly self-taught as a drummer, though he took music theory classes in high school. During that time, he began playing in local bands. With Rising Power and Inner Sanctum, he recorded and released independent albums.
Known for his technical skill as a drummer in Dream Theater, Portnoy has won 32 awards from Modern Drummer magazine. He is the second-youngest person (after Neil Peart) to be inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame, at 37 years of age. He was one of the main songwriters during his first tenure with Dream Theater and co-produced six of their albums with guitarist John Petrucci, from through Black Clouds and Silver Linings.
During his time in Dream Theater, Portnoy played a key role in archiving and releasing rare Dream Theater music to fans through the YtseJam Records label. Known as "Official Bootleg" releases, these were divided into four categories: Covers Series, Demo Series, Live Series, and Studio Series. Portnoy personally selected every title, compiled the music and videos for the CDs and DVDs, and oversaw the artwork and liner notes for each release. Portnoy has also stated that he possesses the complete 25-year archive of every Dream Theater studio and live recording from 1985 to 2010.
In the spring of 2010, Portnoy filled in for Avenged Sevenfold's former drummer, The Rev, who died during the production of the band's fifth album, Nightmare. On May 5, 2010, Portnoy released a statement on his status with Avenged Sevenfold on their official website, confirming his working relationship with the band.
In September 2010, Portnoy announced he was leaving Dream Theater. The band hired Mike Mangini to replace him after inviting and holding auditions with seven "world-class" drummers.
Avenged Sevenfold chose not to continue working with Portnoy after the Nightmare tour was completed, partly due to the significant controversy surrounding his departure from Dream Theater. Following this, Portnoy announced that he had asked to return to Dream Theater but was turned down by their lawyer, as the band had already brought Mangini fully on board and he had left his tenured teaching position at Berklee College of Music to join the band.
On October 25, 2023, Dream Theater announced that Portnoy was returning to the band, after gradually reconciling with the members throughout his 13-year absence and finally reconnecting with James LaBrie in 2022 at the band's show at the Beacon Theatre in New York. Shortly afterward, the band announced their first tour with Portnoy in fourteen years, titled the "40th Anniversary Tour 2024–2025", which began with a month-long European leg in October 2024. Portnoy's first album with the band in 15 years, Parasomnia, was released on February 7, 2025.
In addition to reclaiming his spot behind the drum kit, Portnoy was once again tasked with creating Dream Theater's live setlists. This resulted in Dream Theater returning to form with more dynamic setlists for the 40th anniversary tour, surprising fans with rarities and deep cuts to commemorate special shows. Examples include performing the Christmas classic "O Holy Night" on the second night of back-to-back shows in Santiago, Chile, performing "The Best of Times" live for the first time ever at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and performing a full-length cover of Pink Floyd's "Echoes" at the historic Amphitheatre of Pompeii in Pompeii, Italy.
After leaving Dream Theater, Portnoy formed several new bands, beginning with Adrenaline Mob, a traditional heavy metal/hard rock band with singer Russell Allen (of Symphony X) and guitarist Mike Orlando. On June 4, 2013, however, Portnoy announced his departure from Adrenaline Mob, citing scheduling conflicts.
Portnoy is a founding member of Flying Colors, a progressive rock band that also features Steve Morse, Neal Morse, Dave LaRue, and Casey McPherson.
He also founded The Winery Dogs, a power trio with bassist Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big) and guitarist Richie Kotzen (formerly of Mr. Big and Poison); Sons of Apollo, a progressive metal supergroup with Sheehan, Derek Sherinian, Jeff Scott Soto, and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal; Metal Allegiance, a thrash metal/groove metal band with Mark Menghi, David Ellefson (Megadeth), and Alex Skolnick (Testament); and BPMD, a supergroup/cover band with Menghi, Phil Demmel (Vio-lence), and Bobby Ellsworth (Overkill). He was also a member of PSMS with Tony MacAlpine, Billy Sheehan, and Derek Sherinian. Portnoy also drummed with Twisted Sister from 2015 to 2016, following the death of longtime drummer A. J. Pero. He also performed with the band at their one-off reunion in 2023.
In October 2015, Portnoy was featured in a Loudwire video where he played a game of "Name That Tune" on a children's Hello Kitty drumkit, performing songs such as "Love Gun" by Kiss, "Raining Blood" by Slayer, and "YYZ" by Rush. One year later, Loudwire featured Portnoy in a follow-up video in the same format using a children's Pokémon drumkit, performing songs such as "Painkiller" by Judas Priest, "Welcome Home" by King Diamond, and "Angel of Death" by Slayer.
Since 2019, Portnoy has been a recurring guest in Drumeo videos that spotlight his abilities as well as take on various drumming challenges, such as playing "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift and "Pneuma" by Tool on the spot.
Portnoy nearly played a one-off festival gig with Nickelback in 2022 after their drummer wasn't able to make the show, but the festival ended up being cancelled.
Portnoy performed with the Blue Thunder Drumline at the Seattle Seahawks football game on September 24, 2023, playing a few songs with the whole Drumline and a drum solo. Portnoy shared it was an insanely cool experience playing on the Jumbotron in a football stadium in front of 65,000 people.
Portnoy appeared as a guest for "John Petrucci's Guitar Universe 5.0", the fifth edition of John Petrucci's guitar camp, in August 2025.
Portnoy played bass when Dream Theater performed as the fictitious band Nightmare Cinema. Before live performances of "Trial of Tears," he would sometimes switch instruments with John Petrucci and play a fragment of "Eruption" by Van Halen. In Nightmare Cinema, he went by the stage name "Max Del Fuvio".
Portnoy also played bass guitar and xylophone on a song from Liquid Tension Experiment 2. He has contributed lead and harmony vocals to numerous projects.
In 2009, the tour returned with Dream Theater headlining again, joined by Zappa Plays Zappa, Pain of Salvation, and Beardfish.
In 2014, Portnoy rebooted Progressive Nation as a 4-day cruising music festival called Progressive Nation at Sea. The event took place on the Norwegian Pearl from February 18–22, 2014, sailing from Miami, FL to the Bahamas. Portnoy organized the cruise with help from Derek Sherinian and music festival company Sixthman. Portnoy performed in three different bands on the cruise: Transatlantic, PSMS (Portnoy, Sheehan, MacAlpine, Sherinian), and Bigelf. Other progressive rock artists on the cruise included Jon Anderson, Adrian Belew's Power Trio, Devin Townsend Project, King's X, Spock's Beard, the Flower Kings, Pain of Salvation, Anathema, Riverside, Periphery, Animals as Leaders, the Safety Fire, Tony Harnell & Bumblefoot, Beardfish, the Dear Hunter, Haken, Jolly, Anneke Van Giersbergen, Mark Mikel, and his son Max Portnoy's band, Next to None. Portnoy described the cruise: "Progressive Nation at Sea still remains one of my proudest career memories…at the time, music cruises were just beginning to blossom and to be given the opportunity to assemble such an amazing lineup was a dream come true for me".
Since Progressive Nation at Sea 2014, Portnoy has joined forces with another cruising progressive rock music festival, Cruise to the Edge, merging the vision and musical lineups. CTTE has sailed annually since then.
Portnoy is a recovering addict and has openly discussed it. The five-song set Twelve-step Suite addresses his experience with substance abuse. Portnoy began distancing himself from alcohol and drugs in April 2000 and has remained sober since.
Portnoy supported Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden during the 2020 United States presidential election. Taking to social media, Portnoy posted: "I know political posts usually sparks heated debates and can sometimes even result in losing some fans, but I've recently decided to no longer silence my disdain for Trump as I find him a truly despicable human being." As Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the election, Portnoy became emotional and cried listening to the post-election speeches.
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