Artists

Joey
 
Mike Portnoy

Mike Portnoy

Adrenaline Mob

Larry Bird
 

In addition to being one of the founding members of Dream Theater (with whom he was with for 25 years) Mike Portnoy is the drummer in Adrenaline Mob, Transatlantic and Liquid Tension Experiment. He has recorded and/or toured/performed live with Avenged Sevenfold, Neal Morse, OSI, Hail!, Stone Sour, Fates Warning, Overkill, G3 and four tribute bands with Paul Gilbert including Yellow Matter Custard, Hammer of the Gods, Amazing Journey and Cygnus & the Sea Monsters. He is working with John Sykes to form a new band as well as projects with Steve Morse, Neal Morse, Dave LaRue and Casey MacPherson.

Born on April 20th, 1967, in Long Beach, Long Island, New York, Mike was primarily self-taught by listening to Ringo Starr, Keith Moon and John Bonham. As he developed a taste for more challenging progressive music, his biggest influences were Neil Peart and Frank Zappa.

He attended the Berklee College of Music on a scholarship in 1985 where he co-founded Dream Theater, which developed a tremendously devoted fan base with record sales of almost 10 million copies worldwide.

Mike's long list of awards include 26 Modern Drummer Magazine Reader's Poll Awards including Hall of Fame Inductee in 2004, MVP of the Year in 2010, Best Progressive Rock Drummer (for the magazine's record of 12 years in a row), Best Clinician (2 times), Best Educational Video/DVD for Liquid Drum Theater, and Best Recorded Performance of the Year (7 times) for Dream Theater's Awake, A Change of Seasons, Falling Into Infinity, Scenes From A Memory, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Score and Avenged Sevenfold's Nightmare. He also holds the distinction being the 2nd youngest drummer ever inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame (at age 37). Mike is currently the youngest in the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame.