Rock Candy Magazine Issue 48 Out Now Featuring DREAM THEATER

JANUARY 30, 2025 – The returning drumming legend with prog metal titans Dream Theater tells Rock Candy Magazine about his time away from the band and why it feels right to be back in the fold.

“It was a longing to come home, to be with family. The two Johns [Petrucci and Myung] and I started together when we were teenagers, and now here we are creeping up on 60. It goes way deeper than coming back to a band.”

The release of the band’s sixteenth studio album, ‘Parasomnia’, finds the friends out on the road and taking their peerless brand of razor-sharp melodic metal to their expectant fans. The band had much success with previous drummer Mike Mangini behind the kit, but Mike Portnoy’s reappearance has scratched an itch for many die-hard followers. Mike is very aware of the fans and feels the weight of trying to live up to expectations.

“We just have to write for ourselves and make ourselves happy. Dream Theater fans are so rabid, and so opinionated, and so passionate that there’s no way we can please everybody… I really care about our fans. I’ve spent my whole career trying to model everything I do for them because I relate to them as much as anybody. The hardest thing for me is to keep an eye on that, but also look away from it and please ourselves first and foremost. There’s a balance somewhere, though, and hopefully we’re striking it.”

You can read our exclusive Mike Portnoy interview, as well as the interviews with all the members of Dream Theater in issue 48 of Rock Candy Magazine, together with in-depth stories and interviews with Ian Gillan, Steve Vai, Pantera and Anthrax’s Charlie Benante,Teaze, TKO and more. For more details visit: www.rockcandymag.com

ABOUT ROCK CANDY MAG
Rock Candy Mag is a 100-page, full-colour bi-monthly rock mag, created in the UK. It covers the sights, sounds and smells from the greatest era in hard rock music, the ’70s and ’80s. The brainchild of: respected UK rock journalists Derek Oliver, Howard Johnson and Malcolm Dome – all frontline writers for the legendary Kerrang! magazine in the golden era.

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Gene Simmons of KISS first tapped Michael’s skills as a pioneering online marketing strategist to launch and manage all aspects of Kissonline.com’s multi-million dollar enterprise, including their ground-breaking VIP ticket program.

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