Mike Portnoy Quotes

When I was playing with the Truckers, a lot of really good things happened. And we had a good trajectory for a long time. For that kind of a band, for the kind of music that I've always made, we had a lot of success, I think.

I always saw being in a band a full time job.

I've been requested by hundreds of metal bands to be part of their albums or side projects.

Limp Bizkit is my main priority, but my side project, Black Light Burns, is still a labor of love. We have a record written, so we'll see when that comes out. When we tour, we go out in a van and trailer with me driving.

My music and my fan base is really built off of my lifestyle.

I was very blessed with 'N Sync. It was a big success and it was a lot of fun.

Pantera is the only band I've ever been in, and at the start we used to play covers to make a living.

I'm pretty much living my dream job, but one day I would love to dedicate more time to writing and performing my own music.

One Direction is the main thing I'm doing and I'm 100 per cent dedicated to the group.

If I could ask for any life, I'd like to be the lead singer and guitarist for Willie Nelson & Family. That is to say, Willie.

I'm in a band, and we play music. And that's sort of my way of still being a rock star.

I think we all appreciate it now just how lucky we are to be in a band like Judas Priest.

It was a fun job but I'd never claim Busted was anything other than a pop band.

If you really want to annoy me, ask me when I'm going to retire from rock n' roll.

You're in a band 24 hours a day.

My career? I never think of it as a 'career.' Art and music and all those things that I'm creating are just part of me.

This business is about working. It's really not about glamour. For me, the most glamorous thing about it is to b able to get on stage and perform my music for people. That's the privilege. And that's what all the work leads up to, and that's why it's worth it to me.

At 17, I signed a recording contract right out of high school, so I started touring and traveling the world. I sort of missed out on the college experience.

I was a fairly good amateur musician, and I was an average professional. But the one thing I saw was that the big band business was fading. So I made an economic decision, and it turned out the best judgment I ever made in my life.

Before moving to Pennsylvania in 1999, I played bass in a newsroom rock band in South Florida for several years.

Touring and putting out records is fun and cool, but I've been doing it for a long time.

I didn't want to become a personality, I wanted to be a musician, but because I didn't have an album to stand by yet it was hard for people to see that. But now, two albums in, I'm happy with things.

The only reason you even start a band is so you can hang out with your friends all the time, but somewhere along the line, it just ends up becoming a job. You were doing it because you were like, 'I never want to have to get a job,' then all of a sudden it becomes the biggest job you could ever imagine.

Way before we got a record deal, we were playing clubs seven nights a week, three one-hour sets a night. Then we got the record deal, and we took off on the road and stayed out.

For 10 years, I had a band called Steel Train. We made three albums. We toured like crazy.