Miscellaneous

Mike and his wife Marlene (former member of the all-female metal band Meanstreak) live in Pennsylvania with their daughter Melody Ruthandrea, son Max John, dog Bongo and cat Cypress.

An avid collector of many things, Portnoy has a vast array of Dream Theater memorabilia including bootlegs, posters, clippings and everything else under the sun with the band's name on it. He is also responsible for capturing everything the band does on video tape and DAT (see YtseJam Records). His huge video collection includes favorite films such as 2001 - A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Jacob's Ladder and The Wall along with episodes of The Simpsons and memorable boxing matches. His love of A Clockwork Orange is so great that a section of the soundtrack was used as Dream Theater's intro tape on both the first several legs of 1997/98's "Touring Into Infinity" World Tour as well as the Octavarium/20th Anniversary World Tour of 2005/06. He is also seen with Dethklok T-shirt on one of the Systematic Chaos promo photos.

Mike is also a recovering alcoholic. This prompted him to write a musical suite which will eventually comprise the 12 Steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program. So far, Dream Theater has written four songs, which describe nine of the twelve steps. These are: "The Glass Prison" (Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence), "This Dying Soul" (Train of Thought), "The Root of All Evil" (Octavarium), and "Repentance" (Systematic Chaos). The song "The Mirror" (Awake), which was also written by Mike and discusses the same topic, is not officially a part of Mike's AA Saga. Though some fans wonder about how deep his alcoholism ran within him, fans highly respect his right to privacy and as a respected musician and stray from bringing the subject up around him (whether it be in person or via the internet). He explained in an XM radio interview on June 4, 2005 about his alcoholism, which the whole interview is put on his site to listen to. He stated regarding his drinking:

"Well I've had Dream Theater since basically my first week of college, so I was pretty much right out of high school when Dream Theater formed twenty years ago. But, uh, yeah, like I said before, Alcoholism is a progressive disease, so I-I always drank right out of high school, and you know it got worse and worse as time went on. It started out fun, but uh, like anyone else who is in the program knows, anyone else who is in recovery, it starts off fun, it starts off great, you have it in control, but then it starts to get out of control, then you know you lose control. You know, through all my years, for the bulk of my years, it was never a serious problem for Dream Theater, but you know, after playing, I would go home, and basically drink myself to bed. And, as time went on, and as the band got more successful, it definitely helps feed that progression. When I could look at my rider and basically have on Monday nights Jack Daniels, Wednesdays it's Johnny Walker, it would alternate every night on what was in the dressing room, or a few cases of beer. The other guys didn't really drink - they were pretty straight, so I was always hanging with the road crew or the opening band. And the more I had access to what I want, I took advantage and it fed that problem. It got to the point where I was playing sloppy, and I was drinking before the show and also I would be drinking by the tour bus and the fans seeing me, it's just--not nice."

Shortly after playing the set for the Metropolis 2000: Scenes From New York DVD and CD, Mike fainted backstage. His statement on this incident from the FAQ on his personal website is as follows: "I collapsed and passed out due to over-exhaustion, dehydration, stress, too little food and nutrition, too many Red Bulls, etc. It took me several hours of throwing up, being wrapped in blankets and laying down before I was carried out of the venue hours after the show." The audio commentary on the DVD has more information on this.

According to a post made by Jordan Rudess on his forum, Mike is Jewish but does not practice the Religion.