(New York, NY) – GRAMMY®-winning, progressive music titans Dream Theater are announcing the return of drummer Mike Portnoy to the group. Portnoy will reunite with guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung – the trio formed the band at the Berklee College Of Music in 1985 – along with longtime m...
I commented this on a separate post, but it seems to me MM was done dirty. DT was adamant that he was NOT a temporary drummer when they hired him. I get it if they weren’t seeing eye-to-eye in terms of creativity and band direction, but it seems they just booted him so they can get MP back.
I definitely take what the band says with a healthy dose of salt. They're a business first, and outside of Portnoy are usually really opaque about their inner workings. Even if they'd made it clear to Mangini that Portnoy coming back was always on the table, I think they'd still publicly say "We're sticking with this guy forever so get used to it (and don't skip buying the next few albums waiting for a reunion!)"
All that said, even if they told Mangini that Portnoy coming back was off the table, the writing was on the wall and getting bigger as Portnoy was popping back up on Petrucci's solo record, new LTE, and there was so much publicity about him attending DT shows. I just figured they'd have done a "When Dream and Day Reunite" show where both Mikes were on stage before we got to this.