I've known Russell Allen for over a decade now, and I've always thought he was a very underrated singer. He has one of the best voices in the business I've ever heard.

I can't possibly overstate how much influence Rush had on me as a young teenager. I would say from about 1981 to 1987, they were my gods.

When you're making this kind of music, you don't need a producer. If you're making pop albums or trying to write hit singles, then yeah, but if you're writing 20-minute prog epics, as long as you know how to make it sound good, and you have a good mixer, that's all you need.

Dream Theater was my baby. I formed it from the beginning, out of college, and I lived a lifetime with them.

People always say to me, 'Well, how can a marriage last when you're away as much as you are?' And I always say, 'Well, absence makes the heart grow fonder.' That time apart from each other has actually strengthened our relationship.

Billy Sheehan has always been my number one favorite bass player of all time.

I've been asked to write a book several times; I've had several publishers come to me and offer me book deals. Especially right after I left Dream Theater and Avenged Sevenfold, there was a lot of drama going on in my life, so the book companies came at me thirsty for blood and gossip. And I turned down all the deals.

I understand that Adrenaline Mob is not going to be every Dream Theater fan's cup of tea. I totally get that; I understand that. It's different world.

I am - you know, I'm getting to do everything I've ever wanted to do, anything my imagination can think up. I'm getting to play with some of my favorite musicians in the world, ranging from Russell Allen to Billy Sheehan to Paul Gilbert to Steve Morse.

Some of my heroes are John Bonham, Keith Moon, Neil Peart, Ringo Starr, Terry Bozzio, Bill Bruford... The list goes on and on and on.

After I wrote 'The Best Of Times' for my dad and after I completed the '12 Steps Suite' with Dream Theater, I very much felt like I had said everything I wanted to say lyrically.

Flying Colors is more alternative pop with a prog edge. Think the Beatles meets U2 meets Muse and Foo Fighters. It is the opposite of Adrenaline Mob, which has more classic metal influences like Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Pantera, or Disturbed. They are completely different ends of spectrum.

Every band goes through breakups or splits.

It's so refreshing to just play straight-ahead music with lots of twists.

When you're putting together a concept album, it's all about the flow and the story.

I think it's important for a young musician to stick with a band for a while and really work with a band and stay focused.

I don't like when I see bands that are just a memory of what they used to be, and there's a few out there that I've seen recently that are still touring... I'm not gonna name them, but some of the members can barely play their parts, and then they have a lot of other members that weren't even originally in the band.

One of the reasons I needed to leave Dream Theater was because I didn't want to end my career as just the drummer in one band.

I have so much gratitude that I get to do this for a living and that I actually have fans who come to the shows and buy the records and support me online.

There's been a lot of crossing paths with the Yes camp over the years for me. The first one was when Dream Theater and Yes toured together in 2004, which was a lot of fun.

My love for Yes is pretty well-documented.

I kind of always made it a tradition, whenever Dream Theater played Toronto, to play a Rush cover.

I spent my life's work doing what I did in Dream Theater for 25 years, so I'm proud of that.

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.