Mike Portnoy is an American heavy metal rock drummer who spent 25 years with the
band Dream Theater. Born on Long Island in New York, he grew up listening to
British bands such as The Beatles, The Who, Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin and
learned to play the drums as a young boy. He played in high school bands Rising
Power and Inner Sanctum and studied at Boston's Berklee College of Music. In
1985, he joined fellow students John Petrucci and John Myung in a group called
Majesty which soon became Dream Theater and they performed and recorded together
until Portnoy left in 2010.
H...