Mike Portnoy: "It's Better To Follow Your Heart And Take The Risk Than Wonder What Could've Been"

Mike Portnoy - who split with Dream Theater in 2010 and has since worked with a variety of acts from Adrenaline Mob to The Winery Dogs - has conducted an interview with Rocksverige.se, in which he discusses wanting to collaborate with Mikael Akerfeldt and his lack of regrets over departing Dream Theater. Excerpts from the interview follow.

Rocksverige: Do you have any regrets in your life? Any musical regrets?

I actually have a tattoo on me that says 'no regrets' and I actually try to live by that. I find that there's lots of actions you take in your life and if it turns out to be something that brings a result that you didn't want or you weren't anticipating, it's not something you should regret, it's just simply something you should learn from.

There's a lot of things in my life that I've learned from and ultimately I don't regret them, because they got me to where I am right now. I'm as happy as I've ever been and as musically fulfilled as I've ever been. There's a quote that I love and I kind of used it in the song “Repentance” and it's “It's better to regret something you've done, than something you haven't done” and I absolutely love that!

I'm not gonna use the Dream Theater example because I can already see the headlines, so I won't say it! (laughs) I'll paraphrase like this, when I came to that crossroad four years ago, if I hadn't made the decisions I had, I probably would've spent the rest of my life wondering what if? “What if I left the band?” I think it's better to follow your heart and take the risk, than wonder what could´ve been.

Rocksverige: When are we gonna see you and Mikael Åkerfeldt do something together? You were supposed to be part of Storm Corrosion, but in the end you weren´t.

I am patiently waiting just as much as everybody else. I love Mikael and he is not only one of my dear friends, but he´s also one of my favorite musicians and artists. I have so much artistic respect for him and I just love what he does. Believe me, I'm waiting to do it myself. I would do it in a heartbeat. The door is always open for him and he knows that and every time we speak, I always end the conversation with “Call me when you're ready! Let's do this!” We'll see! It's probably one of the last remaining collaborations that I'd love to get off the Mike Portnoy check list.

Read the full article at Rocksverige.se.