I'm a workaholic.

I surround myself with incredible musicians who inspire me to always do my best.

You don't have to be a great drummer to be the most important guy in the band.

I guess I did make my name out of my drumming, and I have the big drum sets, and I'm doing all these crazy, odd-time signatures, so, yeah, I guess drumming was very important to what made me popular.

There's the drums, the music, the melodies, the lyrics, the production, the artwork: there are so many elements to making an album, and the drumming is just a very small fraction of what I focus on.

When I first came out with the Winery Dogs, I had a Bonham set-up. That was such a departure from the huge kits that I had become known for. It was really enjoyable.

With the Neal Morse Band, we're doing progressive music with a harder edge; it's a little more in Dream Theater territory for me. Flying Colors is a little more poppy, it's more Radiohead, Muse, and Coldplay territory, so I approach that drumming in a different way.

I don't think there's such a thing as a 'best' drummer.

When I sit down to do an interview, I try to be polite and answer the questions that I'm asked.

I love when people know me from things other than Dream Theater.

After I left Dream Theater, and I was doing Avenged Sevenfold, Twisted Sister... all these other things, I made a lot of new fans in a lot of new areas.

With Dream Theater, every creative aspect of the group went through me. I oversaw it all from top to bottom.

I need to be creative all the time.

My lesson would be to not sell yourself to anybody else and stay true to yourself.

I'm not a politician; I'm a very open, honest guy, and that's the way it is - that's the way I am; take it or leave it.

The reality is, when I'm sitting in a hotel room at 3 in the morning, and I see something on the Internet that interests me in the form of a band I want to hear, I like the ability to just go online to iTunes and download it immediately.

I usually have three to four bands a year going at any given point.

I tend to like the heavier things, especially live on stage. I need that energy and interaction and feeling the audience.

When sequencing an album, you kind of have to look at it like you're making a movie with different acts, and you have ebb and flow, peaks and valleys. You want it to feel like a journey or a good movie or book where you can actually feel very satisfied at the ride at the end of it.

Normally, when I write the setlist for a Dream Theater show, I'll change it up every night, and we can basically play whatever we want.

The most bizarre occurrence has to be when I dislocated my wrist during a show in Germany in 1997.

First and foremost, play what you love to play. Don't try to jump on a bandwagon or a trend or a popular musical craze.

I always follow my heart.

If you're not gonna be happy, then it's not worth doing anything.

With Dream Theater live, I may have been a bit of a focal point because I absolutely live for the energy on stage, and having interaction with the audience is absolutely crucial to me - regardless of how some others have described it!

In Adrenaline Mob there are five guys that are all absolutely insanely energetic performers each of their own right. It's like a five-ring circus on stage!

I have no desire to write lyrics with Adrenaline Mob.

If you do anything long enough, people can't ignore you anymore.

A lot of bands, they'll try to jump on the bandwagon or the fad or the fashion, and they'll skyrocket, have this quick overnight fame. But as soon as that fad or fashion changes, they'll go out with it.

I remember waking up Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, to my wife telling me to put on the TV because I wasn't going to be going into N.Y.C. as planned. Dream Theater was working in N.Y.C. at the time mixing our album 'Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence,' and I would've been driving in that afternoon for our session.

I'm very outgoing, an extrovert, a control freak.

I don't care about technique. I have kind of been pigeonholed as a technical drummer since I was in Dream Theater for all those years, but it's actually very far from the truth.

I am not a technical drummer at all. I'm more from the Keith Moon/Lars Ulrich school of, 'Hey, look at me!' I just get up there and bash.

I have no interest in playing 'perfect.' To me, it's more about being an entertainer. Having a connection with the audience.

In all of my years in this business, I've always been part of either a progressive band or a metal band.

It's all about the music, and I work as hard as I do strictly because of the music. It's not a money thing; it's not a career thing. It's simply to do with me being a music fan with a broad taste, wanting to do different styles and wanting to work with lots of different people.

As far as I know, you only live once. So, I want to make the most of it while I can and work with as many different people as I can.

Any time I say anything about Dream Theater... Honestly, I'd rather not talk about it. Because no matter what I say, it will be twisted and... So I kind of have made myself promise that I won't talk about Dream Theater anymore.

I don't think I was ever meant to be tied down to one band for the rest of my life, playing one style of music.

I live a very open life. I value my relationship with the fans, and I utilize Twitter and Facebook and my web site, so my day-to-day activities are an open book for me to share with the fans, for better or for worse.

My time and my legacy with Dream Theater will always be a part of me. It's something I'll always be proud of.

I don't even like doing drum solos live; to me, it's like, 'Ehhh.' It doesn't really interest me.

A Dream Theater without me was never in the plan; I never expected that.

I am looking forward to working with the great staff of Loud & Proud Records, some of whom I worked very closely with during their time at Roadrunner and my time with Dream Theater. I look forward to continuing that relationship with The Winery Dogs!

I'm a very sentimental guy; I'm a very nostalgic guy.

One of the biggest misconceptions was, after I left Dream Theater, I went off and did, like, five different bands and side projects. Everyone was like, 'We thought you wanted a break.' And it was like, well, I didn't want a break from making music; I just needed a break from the Dream Theater camp.

I really do care what people think, and I revolved my whole career and all the twenty five years with Dream Theater... I ran that band and made decisions based on caring what the fans thought and wanted.

I find myself a much happier person when I turn off my computer and live my life.

There are no prog elements to Adrenaline Mob; it's very song-oriented, with shredding and grooves.

I love playing drums and helping out.