In a new career-spanning interview with Everyone Loves Guitar, drum legend Mike Portnoy talks about Dream Theater, Sons of Apollo, Winery Dogs, Neal Morse, Steve Morse… his top 3 musical experiences, growing up in Long Island, lessons learned in the music business, sobriety, list making, regrets, and much more.

Portnoy on leaving Dream Theater: "People ask, 'Do you have any regrets about that?' I love the quote, 'I'd rather regret something I have done than something I haven't done.' And I think that's where I was at; I was at a point where if I had stayed, I probably would have been resentful for all the things that I was not able to do, because I was starting to feel trapped and they wanted me to commit to a certain date to start the next record, and I just wasn't ready. And it became a Mexican standoff, really. And I went with my heart and said, 'Look, I'd rather regret something I have done than something I haven't.' And I'm not saying I do regret it, 'cause I don't. Because look at what I've done since then. I mean, I look at the last decade since I left; I've made 40 albums with dozens of different bands. Those are opportunities I've been able to pursue and wouldn't have if I had not followed my heart."

Portnoy recently checked in with the following update:

"One last tribute to Neil and Rush...

Through all my years in Dream Theater, as the setlist writer in the band I would often throw in one-off Rush covers into the setlists. It was a tradition everytime we played in Toronto as I threw in 'Jacobs Ladder', 'A Passage to Bangkok' and 'The Camera Eye' throughout the years at our Toronto shows. We also covered 'Different Strings', 'Tears' and excerpts of 'Working Man', 'By Tor And The Snow Dog', 'The Analog Kid', '2112 Grand Finale' and 'La Villa Strangiato' through the years as well.

But there was one evening in the summer of 2003 when we were playing at the Jones Beach Amphitheater in New York, that I decided to throw in a real deep Rush gemstone to the completely unsuspecting audience... and later that Christmas, I posted a video from my archives to share it with everybody as a Holiday gift.

I think with Neil’s passing it seems like a timely time to re-share this DT rarity from my archives as a tribute to our biggest influences and our fallen hero...here is DT’s 2003 rendition of Rush’s 1975 classic deep cut: 'The Necromancer'."