Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy on Pain, Perseverance, and Playing Through Injury
The 58-year-old drummer talks about the brutal reality of high-intensity drumming, emergency chiropractors, and how he stays on stage despite the pain.
- Mike Portnoy’s body is falling apart—but he refuses to stop drumming. After decades of brutal three-hour sets, the Dream Theater legend battles tendonitis, back spasms, and existential regret, but still powers through with the help of massage therapists and emergency chiropractors.
- Dream Theater’s 40th-anniversary tour is in full swing—with Portnoy back behind the kit. After 15 years away, he’s somehow still capable of prog-metal wizardry, despite his body actively trying to evict him from existence.
- New album, Parasomnia, is out now—but will it be Portnoy’s last? The drummer admits time is catching up to him, but quitting isn’t on the agenda—unless his spine files for divorce first.
Step into this scene with me… Dream Theater, mid-’90s, prog-metal gods playing Awake on tour—Portnoy’s behind the kit, hair flailing, sticks a blur, sweat dripping like he’s trying to personally refill the Dead Sea. Then—BAM—his back nopes the hell out. Guy’s just sitting there, a prisoner in his own spine, looking at his bandmates like, “uh, little help??” They had to pause the entire show to find a chiropractor in the audience to snap him back together like a sad, overplayed GameCube controller.
AND HE STILL FINISHED THE SHOW.
Meanwhile I threw out my back trying to open a Costco-sized jar of peanut butter last week.
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The Drummer Who Refused to Die (Yet)
Fast-forward a couple decades, and guess what? Mike Portnoy is still alive (somehow) and still drumming like a caffeinated octopus despite his body trying to permanently eject him from this reality. He just turned 58, which in drummer years is like… 146? And he’s still out here banging out three-hour sets like it’s 1992, except now with bonus tendonitis and a body held together by massage therapy, chiropractors, and sheer force of will.
In a new 66Samus interview, Portnoy unloaded the truth bomb:
“That’s a good question. For me, it’s been accumulating through the years. I mean, I’m gonna be 58, and it definitely takes its toll playing a three-hour show of such demanding music — DREAM THEATER plays three hours. So it’s a lot for the body to take.”
Imagine trying to do literally ANYTHING for three hours straight at 58. You can’t. You won’t. I barely have the stamina to binge-watch 90 Day Fiancé without taking a snack break, and this man is out here punishing a full drum kit like it owes him money.
Portnoy vs. The First Signs of Betrayal
Apparently his body started plotting against him early. Let’s set the Wayback Machine to the early 2000s—we’re talking MySpace, flip phones, the golden era of nu-metal—and Portnoy? He’s already falling apart.
“I started developing some physical pains kind of in my thirties. If you look at the DREAM THEATER ‘Live At Budokan’ DVD, I had a brace on my right elbow at that time. I was really starting to get tendonitis problems then, and that was 20 years ago, 20-plus years ago.”
THIRTY. Imagine being in your 30s and your body already giving up on you. He was out there, sweating through solos, arm strapped up like a football player, refusing to slow down because—NEWS FLASH—prog drummers do not believe in the concept of “chill.”
The Battle Plan Against Drummer Decay
Portnoy knew what had to be done. He assembled his team. A massage therapist, a chiropractor, probably some kind of wizard? Whatever it took to keep him from straight-up disintegrating mid-tour.
“I had to start getting massaged regularly. I would get masseuses at the venue before each show, whenever possible, or when I go home, I have a regular masseuse that I see, a therapist. So that’s really helped, and also chiropractic work as well helps.”
This man literally needs a pit crew just to function. Formula 1 racers stop to change tires—Portnoy stops for emergency spinal recalibration. The human body was not designed for Dream Theater’s tempo shifts.
Dream Theater 40 Years Later, and the Madman is STILL AT IT
Guess what? Portnoy is BACK in Dream Theater. First tour with them since 2009 and it’s not just some nostalgia cash grab—they’re out here releasing new music, playing marathon sets, defying human limitations.
New album “Parasomnia” dropped on February 7, 2025 (listen to it below)—which, if you think about it, sounds like a medical condition Mike Portnoy probably has at this point.
Also: touring across North America, shredding every night, probably losing the battle against time but refusing to surrender.
“Usually about a half hour before showtime, I have a practice pad kit in the dressing room. And I don’t have any specific routines — I’m not like a rudiment type of player — but I’ll just get singles and doubles going, just to get the blood flowing and get the muscles kind of warmed up a little bit and try to not go on stage cold, if possible.”
Imagine needing a full warm-up ritual just to SURVIVE A NIGHT OF YOUR JOB. I mean, respect, but also—maybe human beings weren’t supposed to drum this hard??
Will Portnoy Outlive Us All?
Short answer? Probably. Dude already outlasted multiple musical trends, drummer replacements, and most of his own skeletal integrity—so odds are, he’ll keep going until the Earth explodes.
Portnoy versus his own mortality is a fight I would bet money on. And even if he loses, it won’t be because he quit. It’ll be because physics finally had enough.
Until then—Dream Theater fans better buckle up, because this guy isn’t going anywhere… Except maybe to the chiropractor’s office.
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