(hennemusic) The Mike Portnoy situation is a topic Dream Theater will likely have to address for some time to come, and guitarist John Petrucci does just that in a new interview with Guitar World. One of the first signs of an issue with Portnoy was the drummer's plan to tour with Avenged Sevenfold at a time when Dream Theater were planning to record."Mike had played on Avenged's album ['Nightmare'] and that was fine," explains Petrucci. "We all do side projects when time permits. But touring with the band, that was a different story. That was taking significant time away from Dream Theater at a point when we were all planning to start recording. Initially, we put off recording to go on tour with Iron Maiden — that was too good an opportunity for us to turn down. And then when Mike said he was going on the road with Avenged Sevenfold right after the Maiden tour, that didn't feel right."
Portnoy then asked DT to take an extended hiatus, with no timeline to regroup. "In the end, it was something we couldn't do," says John. "Mike wanted to hold all the cards. He wanted to get back together when it suited him. We couldn't abide by that. So he decided to quit. It was quite a blow. As much as we wanted to continue as a band, we didn't want Mike to leave."
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