Progressive metal legend Mike Portnoy was the latest to get in the hot seat for Drumeo and their ongoing video series. If you’re unfamiliar, Drumeo introduces drummers to songs they are unfamiliar with and have them come up with their own parts for it on the spot.
Portnoy, who recently returned to Dream Theater after over a decade apart, was presented with “Burn It To The Ground“, a 2008 track from diamond-certified Canadian hard rockers Nickelback. Portnoy was played a version of the track that did not feature drums and then given the freedom to create his own drum track for the song.
In the same video, Portnoy shared his own Nickelback story:
“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!’
I was all set to play this gig with Nickelback – it was for a festival [in Vancouver, Canada] – and the festival ended up getting cancelled. So I never played this gig. But I was this close to playing a gig with Nickelback.”
He continued, “of course 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.”
