Mike Portnoy Almost Played With Nickelback

01-09-2024

Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy recently made big news when he reunited with the band, but he made additional news this week when he shared that he almost played drums for Nickelback.

Portnoy broke the news in a new video for Drumeo where he was challenged to play Nickelback's "Burn It To The Ground", a song that he had never heard before. He said of his rendition, that featured an abundance of double kick drums, "I would've been fired immediately! So if those guys see this video, they're gonna be like, 'Thank god that gig didn't happen. This guy would've f***ed up all of our songs."

Mike shared that he was asked to play with the band for a music festival. "I was all set to play this gig with Nickelback - it was for a festival [in Vancouver, Canada] - and the festival ended up getting canceled. But I was this close to playing a gig with Nickelback."

He elaborated, "I got a call from Nickelback in spring of '22. Their drummer [Daniel Adair] I guess was having surgery and they asked me to play a show with them. And I said 'Yeah, that'd be a fun gig!'

"Chad [Kroeger] sent me the set list. My daughter and my wife were like, 'You're gonna know every one of these songs,' and I was like, 'I've never heard any of these songs! I don't listen to the radio so I don't know any Nickelback songs.'"