Mike Portnoy Almost Drummed With Nickelback

While the record of bands that Mike Portnoy has performed with has been intensive, unbeknownst to many followers, he nearly gigged with Nickelback as effectively. The story got here up as a part of Portnoy’s Drumeo problem video, by which drummers are tasked with taking up drums on tracks that they do not know.

So if Portnoy was set to probably play with Nickelback, how was it that he wasn’t acquainted with the music, you would possibly ask. As the returning Dream Theater drummer defined, “I got a call from Nickelback in spring of ’22, their drummer [Daniel Adair] was I guess having surgery and they asked me to play a show with them, and I said yeah, Nickelback, that’d be a fun gig.”

According to Portnoy, it was a competition date that he was set to play however the competition ended up getting canceled. “So I never played the gig, but I was this close to playing a gig with Nickelback.” He then revealed that whereas Chad Kroeger had despatched him a setlist and his spouse and daughter have been certain he would know the fabric, however he swears he was unfamiliar with the band’s catalog on the time of the request.

“Everybody in the world knows these songs, but I don’t. I don’t listen to the radio so I don’t know any Nickelback songs. So I don’t know what this song is,” admitted Portnoy after Drumeo started sharing the band’s hit, “Burn It to the Ground.”

“I thought it might have been Mammoth, then I thought it might have been Extreme, there’s a song on the new Extreme album that has a bit of that vibe. And then, I was like, ‘Is this Godsmack,'” admitted Portnoy at first of the section, earlier than Chad Kroeger’s vocals kicked in and he acknowledged that it was Nickelback regardless of not understanding the music.

Sharing what he knew of the band he nearly carried out with, Portnoy said, “I know nothing about Nickelback but I know that as much as they are hated, they are just as loved even more and they were down with the Pantera guys too, which is good enough for me.” Admittedly, Nickelback are conscious of their divisive place in popular culture, going as far as to call their 2023 documentary movie, Hate to Love: Nickelback.

READ MORE: Why Chad Kroeger Will End Interviews if Nickelback Hate Is Brought Up

After fastidiously listening to the music and taking notes, he then carried out the music as he felt it could be carried out, making be aware of the music’s “premature evacuation” abrupt ending.

“That was a good song, man,” beamed Portnoy after his preliminary efficiency. “I could fine tune that and make a really cool drum part, but I think it’s better just the first impression.” He added, “I’m sure if I ever did end up touring with them it would be the most fun shows ever in my life. So yeah, I kind of regret that that gig didn’t happen, but there’s a little taste of what that could have been right here on Drumeo.”

But then got here the playback of how the music was really carried out with Daniel Adair on drums. Portnoy famous that he would possibly’ve added an “extra odd bar” at first, and shortly caught on that there was no double bass as he was performing, with Adair submitting with a pump and kick drum. “I would’ve been fired immediately,” laughed the drummer. “So if those guys see this video, they’re gonna be like, ‘Thank god that gig didn’t happen. This guy would’ve fucked up all of our songs.'”

While Portnoy now will get a style of what might need been, he is returning to acquainted floor in his each day life, lately reuniting with Dream Theater in late 2023. The band, with Portnoy again behind the package, are anticipated to start out engaged on a brand new album in early 2024.

Mike Portnoy Plays Nickelback’s “Burn It To the Ground” for First Time With Drumeo