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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

My love for Yes is pretty well-documented.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

Every band goes through breakups or splits.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.