News: Mike Portnoy Leaving Adrenaline Mob

Mike PortnoyDrummer Mike Portnoy made an official announcement to confirm his departure from Adrenaline Mob, a supergroup he founded two years ago with Symphony X vocalist Russell Allen and guitarist Mike Orlando.

Portnoy named “scheduling conflicts” and the inability to make a full commitment to the band as the main reasons behind such a decision.

“It saddens me to announce that the four upcoming shows in Latin America this month supporting Halestorm will be my last with Adrenaline Mob,” the drummer said via official Facebook page. “Unfortunately, I have scheduling conflicts that prevent me from being able to fully commit to the band’s future activities at the moment.

“As I cannot be in two places at the same time, I don’t want to hold them back and have to wait for my schedule to re-open up to resume activity. I’m very proud of what we started together and the music we made over the past two years and I wish the guys all the best in the future.”

Some of the fans weren’t too happy with the drummer leaving yet another band, with a certain fan even commenting that “soon they’ll be saying ‘he did a Portnoy’ to every person who leaves a band.” The stickman gave all of them the exact same reply, saying, “Uh… in almost 30 years of playing, this is only the second band (of dozens) that I’ve left… really now…”

The departure from Adrenaline Mob now leaves Portnoy drumming for Transatlantic, Flying Colors and the Winery Dogs, a power trio featuring bassist Billy Sheehan and guitarist Richie Kotzen with whom he recently premiered a video single “I’m No Angel.”

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