“In between songs, we had to ask if there was a chiropractor in the house and literally stopped the show": How Mike Portnoy has played through pain for over two decades

Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy has opened up about the toll his body has taken playing (on and off) with the prog institution over the course of four decades.

In a new interview with Samus Paulicelli (bewlo), Portnoy spoke about how those long punishing sets – Dream Theater often play for three hours plus – have all added up over the years. “It's a lot for the body to take," he admitted.

"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.

"So I was in my thirties when I started to develop that. And 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."

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"So that's really helped, and chiropractic work also helps. 'Cause I've had times where it fucked with me on stage. I had one show back in '94 or '95 on the 'Awake' tour. We were playing Toronto, and all of a sudden my back just cramped up, and that was it. I couldn't move. So in between songs, we had to ask if there was a chiropractor in the house and literally stopped the show for 15 minutes for a chiropractor to come snap me back into place."

At the age he is now - 58 - warming up is crucial, he says. “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."

Portnoy isn’t the only drummer who has found it tough as they get older. Earlier this month Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden explained why he had recently retired from touring. After suffering a stroke in 2023, McBrain had to cut down on fills during some songs and omitting them in others. “It’s funny, because sometimes when I sit at my practice kit I can do the big drum fill in the intro to The Trooper,” he said. “But even then it's a bit flaky, it’s not clean.”

He told Chaoszine that quitting was a hard decision to make: "I wish I could still play with the guys. I wish I had my full fitness. It wasn't an easy decision by any means, but it was the best decision at the end of the day.”