"I'm scared for my life and career at this point." Dream Theater's Mike Portnoy jokes he's worried about his job after spate of drummer firings

Portrait of American rock musician Mike Portnoy photographed in London, on July 2, 2012. — (Image credit: Will Ireland/Prog Magazine/Future via Getty Images/Future via Getty Images)

Dream Theater's Mike Portnoy says he's worried about his future after seeing a spate of high-profile drummers lose their job recently.

Josh Freese was let go by the Foo Fighters this month, The Who fired Zak Starkey a few weeks ago and Guns N' Roses parted with Frank Ferrer in March.

Last year, Jason Bonham was replaced in Sammy Hagar's band.

Reacting to those firings, Portnoy jokes that he is looking over his shoulder.

As well as his role in Dream Theater, which he returned to in 2023, Portnoy works with a number of other groups and artists.

He tells Office Hours Live With Tim Heidecker: "I think it's the Spinal Tap conspiracy. I think nobody is safe. Ringo's son was fired from The Who. John Bonham's son was fired from Sammy Hagar's band.

"I mean, if the spawn of Ringo and Bonzo are not safe, nobody is safe."

On Freese's shock departure from Foo Fighters, Portnoy says: "Frankly, it's shocking. I thought Josh was perfect. So, yeah, it's scary. It's scary times for drummers.

"I'm scared for my life and career at this point. And I'm in, like, 15 bands, so I have 15 times the chance of getting fired right now. The odds are very much stacked against me right now."

On Starkey's firing from The Who, which came weeks after he was fired then almost immediately rehired, Portnoy adds: "The whole thing with Zak Starkey started ... they did a show last month at the Royal Albert Hall.

"They were doing The Song Is Over and Roger came into the second verse early and stopped the band, turned around and blamed it on his mix, that the drums were powering out his mix.

"Now, mind you, Zak Starkey is on an electronic kit. They already downgraded it off of an acoustic kit. They have him playing an electronic kit, which is fully controllable in terms of volume through the sound guy.

"So, if anything, he should have fired the monitor guy, not Zak."

Dream Theater released Parasomnia, their first album with Portnoy for 15 years, in February.

Nick Kroll, RM Brown, Mike Portnoy (Episode 341) - YouTube

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.