Loudwire Podcast #8 – Mike Portnoy

We’ve got another legendary musician on the Loudwire Podcast! For Episode #8, we welcomed Mike Portnoy in studio!

Right after we filmed Mike Portnoy murdering a custom Pokemon drum kit, we invited him to cool off in our podcast studio. We got right into Portnoy’s Hello Kitty viral success, with Mike sharing that fans have been asking him to sign Hello Kitty merch all over the world. It turns out people have even been giving the drummer Hello Kitty gifts!

It’s the end of an era for Twisted Sister, who recruited Mike to fill A.J. Pero’s sadly vacant seat. As a longtime fan of Twisted, Mike spoke about how much the gig means to him and even shared he had gotten a Twisted Sister tattoo. Now that Twisted is done, Mike has plenty of plans for 2017, including a long-awaited performance of his entire 12-step suite, which lucky fans in certain parts of the world will experience soon.

For this episode’s edition of ‘Rocker vs. Writer,’ we challenged Mike to argue whether or not musicians should play solos at live shows. As a masterful soloist himself, Mike argued for it while podcast host Graham Hartmann took the anti-solo stance.

Check out Episode Eight of the Loudwire Podcast above! You can also download the podcast for free via iTunes, and while you’re there, hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode!

See Mike Portnoy in the Top 66 Hard Rock + Metal Drummers of All Time

Mike Portnoy Plays 'Name That Tune' on Pokemon Drum Kit